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Mark Twain on truth in newspapers and on buying life insurance for railroad travel.
Freedom, Demokrasi and Civilised Humanity ^ | 21st April 2020 | Ozguy1945

Posted on 04/21/2020 6:56:25 AM PDT by Ozguy1945

We can't know what Mark Twain, who died 110 years ago today, would have said about the Coronavirus but here is what he had to say about truth in newspapers and about buying life insurance for railroad travel: https://freedom-demokrasi-and-civilised-humanity.com/2020/04/21/remembering-mark-twain-and-media-driven-fear-of-death/

“Where we have one newspaper that does good, I think we have fifty that do harm.”

“....... the stupid people — who constitute the grand overwhelming majority of this and all other nations — do believe and are moulded and convinced by what they get out of a newspaper, and there is where the harm lies.”

Was Mark Twain better than POTUS 45 at calling out fake news?


TOPICS: Books/Literature; History; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: coronavirus; fakenews; fear; marktwain; twain

1 posted on 04/21/2020 6:56:25 AM PDT by Ozguy1945
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To: Ozguy1945

Highly recommend his Biography. But you do have to remember it is the Biography of Mark Twain not Samuel Clemens. Mark Twain was a fictional character and so, unsurprisingly a good deal of his “Biography” is fiction as well. But great reading!


2 posted on 04/21/2020 7:01:11 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Ozguy1945; marktwain

Ya know yer supposed to ping a FReeper when you’re referencing them.
;-)
I told my Son yesterday that you can tell who’s watching too much TV news when you see them driving around by themselves....wearing a mask.
Turn off the TV!


3 posted on 04/21/2020 7:05:27 AM PDT by RandallFlagg (Fact: Gun control laws kill innocents.)
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To: wastoute

As Mark Twain , through Huckleberry Finn, once said “ ...and I tell the truth, mostly”


4 posted on 04/21/2020 7:08:49 AM PDT by RonnG (')
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To: Ozguy1945

Famous Freemason. Not so many left today.


5 posted on 04/21/2020 7:10:55 AM PDT by RideForever (We were born to be tested)
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To: RonnG

“...serves about as well as the truth..”


6 posted on 04/21/2020 7:17:14 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Ozguy1945; All
The problem is, what is the alternative? We moved through a period where the mass media was controlled by one ideology, progressivism, for about 50 years.

This happened with an interlocking reinforcing elite in the "ivy league" colleges, the CIA, politicians, but, primarily in the mass media.

It was likely reinforced with active aid from the former Soviet Union, more recently, from China.

With the Internet and Talk radio, blogs, podcasts, and social media, we have broken the oligopoly on the flow of infomation in society.

Thus, we have come back to where Mark Twain was, when he complained about newspapers.

That was an era of partisan media, where everyone knew they were partisan.

That sort of competition is far superior to a uniform media, which seems to be what Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wanted.

7 posted on 04/21/2020 7:18:55 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Ozguy1945; All
The alternative is uniform media controlled either by a central committe, such as the Communist Chinese Party, or by a uniform, pervasive ideology such as Progressivism, in the United States up to about 1994.
8 posted on 04/21/2020 7:21:18 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Ozguy1945

If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. said by someone


9 posted on 04/21/2020 7:49:09 AM PDT by Archytekt
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To: RandallFlagg

I see those folks all of the time. Maybe their concerned that they will spread the virus to the computer systems in their vehicles since we’ve all been warned for years about the damages viruses can do to computers...


10 posted on 04/21/2020 7:53:31 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: Ozguy1945

Twain should know. He worked for newspapers in Nevada and San Francisco.


11 posted on 04/21/2020 7:58:53 AM PDT by Bookshelf
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To: Bookshelf

A great deal about Twain’s work is on view at the old school house in Virginia City, Nevada.


12 posted on 04/21/2020 8:00:56 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: Ozguy1945
He was born in 1835, the year that Halley's comet was visible, and died in 1910, the next time Halley's comet returned. He said something to the effect that "these two freaks of the universe came in together and will go out together."

I don't know if he saw the comet before he died.

13 posted on 04/21/2020 8:02:20 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: shotgun

LOL!
I wonder if we could start a rumor that coronavirus can transfer one’s porno browsing history from PC to vehicle’s computer to phone, and send it to whoever one calls.

Perhaps AOC would get wind of it, and frantically tweet it out.


14 posted on 04/21/2020 8:05:56 AM PDT by RandallFlagg (Fact: Gun control laws kill innocents.)
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To: RandallFlagg

Where Puddin’Head Wilson got his name: He got off a riverboat in a town, saw a dog, “if I owned a half-interest in a dog that ugly, I’d kill my half”. The townspeople remembered.


15 posted on 04/21/2020 8:43:36 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell (CharlesOConnell)
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To: Ozguy1945

It seems to me that just in the ratio that our newspapers increase, our morals decay.

He warned people but some are happier with the decay it seems.


16 posted on 04/21/2020 8:46:00 AM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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