It’s been discussed many times: Never trust a quote from a celebrity that you find on the internet.
But these quotes are all over the place. Whether it’s Clint Eastwood, Albert Einstein, or Bill Gates, at this point, our natural instinct should be to distrust the quote when we see it.
And yet people continue to find and share these dubious quotes. Here’s one we found recently:
Our culture has accepted something else: if a quote is on the Internet has a picture of a celebrity, it must carry more weight.
This quote from Dave Chappelle is no exception. A little bit of web searching tells us that this quote is actually from mega-church pastor Rick Warren, not the comedian. But would the quote carry the same weight in non-evangelical circles? Most likely not. But put it in the mouth of a cultural celebrity and it suddenly has some secular gravitas.
What is it about the celebrity that gives it more credibility? When we’ve asked people why they shared a certain meme when the celeb never said it, the response is invariably: ‘Well, it’s the sentiment that I agreed with. I don’t care if the famous person didn’t save it.’
While this might be understandable, why continue to spread the misattribution? Why not instead just share the quote itself? Or make your own meme, like a 90’s motivational poster, with the quote over a scene of nature, like this:
The fact of the matter is, even if we are the sort of person who shouts that entertainers or sports heroes shouldn’t have a say in politics (unless they are saying something that we agree with), we all seem to inherently trust a quote when a famous person is attached to it. This just seems to be something that defines us; something that is part of being human.
The only way to stop this is to be on our guard when we see a quote on the internet and do a quick google search before sharing the meme on.
In short, it’s always good to remember the famous words of Clint Eastwood:
Don't Believe Everything That You Meme 