Those who can make you believe absurdities,

It is funny you like bashing the liberal arts and then challenge people on topics of history and politics.
I bash how liberal arts are taught and presented by academics at universities. They aren't inherently bad in and of themselves--except the recently made-up ones like Gender Studies.
 
I bash how liberal arts are taught and presented by academics at universities. They aren't inherently bad in and of themselves--except the recently made-up ones like Gender Studies.
Your realize there is more to liberal arts than gender studies.
 
Your realize there is more to liberal arts than gender studies.
I already stated that.

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can make you commit atrocities. --Voltaire.
Here's the full rebuttal of the wording of this quote.

The quote “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” is a widely circulated paraphrase of a passage by Voltaire from his 1765 work Questions sur les miracles.

Original Text and Meaning
The original French text is: "Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde, est en droit de vous rendre injuste." A more accurate translation is: "Truly, whoever is able to make you absurd is able to make you unjust." Voltaire was arguing that if one’s reason is subdued to accept religious absurdities on command, their moral compass is similarly subdued, making them susceptible to committing injustices when ordered to do so.

Origin of the Paraphrase
The specific use of the word "atrocities" instead of "unjust" does not appear in Voltaire’s original 1765 letters. The "atrocities" version likely originated from a 1914 short story by Desmond MacCarthy titled "A Hermit’s Day," in which a fictional Voltaire states: "As long as people continue to believe absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities!" This version gained popularity through subsequent citations by authors like Norman L. Torrey and Laurence J. Peter, eventually becoming the standard attribution in popular culture.

 
I already stated that.

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ok ignore
Here's the full rebuttal of the wording of this quote.

The quote “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” is a widely circulated paraphrase of a passage by Voltaire from his 1765 work Questions sur les miracles.

Original Text and Meaning
The original French text is: "Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde, est en droit de vous rendre injuste." A more accurate translation is: "Truly, whoever is able to make you absurd is able to make you unjust." Voltaire was arguing that if one’s reason is subdued to accept religious absurdities on command, their moral compass is similarly subdued, making them susceptible to committing injustices when ordered to do so.

Origin of the Paraphrase
The specific use of the word "atrocities" instead of "unjust" does not appear in Voltaire’s original 1765 letters. The "atrocities" version likely originated from a 1914 short story by Desmond MacCarthy titled "A Hermit’s Day," in which a fictional Voltaire states: "As long as people continue to believe absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities!" This version gained popularity through subsequent citations by authors like Norman L. Torrey and Laurence J. Peter, eventually becoming the standard attribution in popular culture.

I know. We did this when you were Diogenes.
 
The misquote of Voltaire, which is the most cited one, is actually more forceful than the French.
 
Seems so, they think the liberal arts are just gender studies.
It's usually people who never went to college conflating liberal arts with basket weaving degrees.

JD Vance was a philosophy major. I think his wife Uva got a history degree.

One of my cousins got an art history degree, and is now a mid-level manager in the Canadian foreign ministry.

My high school buddy got a history degree and has had a rewarding career at the National Archives.
 
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