American journalist, essayist, satirist, and now I guess we have to add "prophet" or "sooth-sayer" to his list of skills.

[juliehuz@mastodon.world]

@SecondUniverse He lived to the age of 76, so I am sure he uttered similar thoughts in multiple ways

[tokensane@mastodon.me.uk]

@juliehuz Quote verified. From "On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe", which is a selection of his political newspaper columns.

I decided to check because of the number of made-up quotes you see around the Net.

[oyu_fka@mastodon.social]

@SecondUniverse @juliehuz Astonishingly accurate! But three questions:

1. How on earth did he see this coming from 100 years ago?

2. Was it related to American politics at the time?

2. How come no one took notice? Guessing it was considered impossible at the time.

Yeh, I know...Wikipedia here I come, lol! Done...strange character to say the least!

[juliehuz@mastodon.world]

@Oyu_Fka @SecondUniverse Well...TBF Warren G Harding was running for office in 1920 - and he is up there with Trump in terms of corruption and stupidity...so...

[oyu_fka@mastodon.social]

@juliehuz @SecondUniverse Ah, that makes more sense! So, he was referencing the near future, not the distant. Still applies, though!

I wonder what he'd have to say about trump and his administration/republicans today?

[sheislaurence@mastodon.social]

@Oyu_Fka @juliehuz @SecondUniverse Aristotle predicted this is you look far enough. It wasn't a novel idea that democracy without education is doomed to demagogy. Unfortunately it was mostly the argument of the elite for obv reasons (plebs too stupid) so that we forgot the merits of the idea of education altogether (accessing civic responsibility).

[bedifferent@mastodon.social]

@juliehuz Huxley had us pegged, too. We f'ing idiots.

[oyu_fka@mastodon.social]

@juliehuz @SecondUniverse Just checked Wikipedia...jeez, amazing parallels, lol!

[oyu_fka@mastodon.social]

@sheislaurence @juliehuz @SecondUniverse Of course, you're right - trump isn't the first 'moron' in history. Let's hope he's the last .

[juliehuz@mastodon.world]

@Oyu_Fka @sheislaurence @SecondUniverse Clearly you have WAY more confidence in humanity than I

[oyu_fka@mastodon.social]

@juliehuz @sheislaurence @SecondUniverse Who? Me?!!! I'm just behaving myself today, lol!

My only confidence in humanity is that it's doomed to fail as a result of human nature - trump and his cabal are the extreme example of said flaw.

[myricagale@mastodon.scot]

@tokensane @juliehuz Indeed. The "narcissistic" part has been added. But the core message remains.

[jonchevreau@mstdn.ca]

@juliehuz still, it took more than a century to come true

[beachbum@mastodon.sdf.org]

@juliehuz @dedicto ….being punished for what some Americans thought was what they wanted until they got it and then the minority who does indeed want it.

[beachbum@mastodon.sdf.org]

@Oyu_Fka @sheislaurence @juliehuz @SecondUniverse let’s hope the next Congress is successful in writing laws to assure that this type of corrupt, amoral person never resides temporarily in our White House ever again.

[dedicto@zeroes.ca]

@Beachbum @juliehuz Oh, they wanted it. They just didn't think it would apply to THEM.

[jonhendry@iosdev.space]

@Oyu_Fka @SecondUniverse @juliehuz

Oh it was noticed. Plenty of people had heard it. It was probably mentioned during the Bush 2 era.

[jonhendry@iosdev.space]

@MyricaGale @tokensane @juliehuz

Don't understand why they bothered to make the change. It was accurate in the original.

[cbzo@mastodon.green]

@juliehuz Why poorly modify a real quote? “Complete narcissistic moron” is so 2020’ and **so not 1920** that I, a non-native English speaker, checked.

cc @harold

[myricagale@mastodon.scot]

@jonhendry @tokensane @juliehuz Exactly. But some people think adding a modern interpretation increases the impact. Rather it reduces it because it is deliberately inaccurate. It gets spread quickly because people want to believe that it was the quote. There seem to be many incorrectly attributed or inaccurate quotes floating about.