Not Verified

August 12, 2013 10:46 PM

Some surprising subversives on Twitter: Babe Ruth, Michael Jackson, Mahatma Gandhi, Pope John Paul II, Francis of Assisi, Marlin Brando, Martin Luther, Mary Wolfstonecraft, Pablo Neruda, Ann Landers, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Camus, Voltaire, John F. Kennedy, Bill Wilson and Socrates.
posted by Apropos of Something (16 comments total)

I have no idea who writes these, or the story behind them. A series of retweets and links in links just paints this, to me, fascinating picture.
posted by Apropos of Something at 10:48 PM on August 12, 2013

It would be nice if these used actual quotes, like the account that tweets Jenny Holzer's Truisms. There are plenty of good ones to choose from... But when you have Mahatma Gandhi criticizing corporate media and America's war on Iraq it just feels kind of gross and tacky to me.
posted by narain at 11:04 PM on August 12, 2013 [8 favorites]

God
posted by unliteral at 11:20 PM on August 12, 2013

Hector Salamanca
posted by mannequito at 12:07 AM on August 13, 2013

Yeah, I think I understand the impulse, but this feels like all those feel-good meme images that get passed around with an inspirational quote attached to the wrong person -- a pet peeve of mine.
posted by dhartung at 12:10 AM on August 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

I now assume all inspirational quotes are at least mis-attributed and most likely apocryphal.
posted by telstar at 1:35 AM on August 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

I now assume all inspirational quotes are at least mis-attributed and most likely apocryphal.
posted by ersatz at 2:42 AM on August 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

I keep running into these as well. I find it a little weird, not in the sense that I think it's negative, but rather I have a spontaneous thought exercise of "well, Martin Luther King didn't say this, but would he have disagreed with it?"
posted by history is a weapon at 3:32 AM on August 13, 2013

Yeah, I think I understand the impulse, but this feels like all those feel-good meme images that get passed around with an inspirational quote, but in fact all our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.
posted by dhartung at 8:10 AM on August 13 [+] [!]

Totally agree with dhartung. Let's keep dreaming and keep pursuing our dreams, everyone!
posted by the quidnunc kid at 4:09 AM on August 13, 2013 [3 favorites]

Shouldn't Socrates only tweet questions?
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:44 AM on August 13, 2013 [5 favorites]

I now assume all inspirational quotes are at least mis-attributed and most likely apocryphal.

- ersatz
posted by Curious Artificer at 5:14 AM on August 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

I now assume all inspirational quotes are at least mis-attributed and most likely apocryphal.
-Curious Artificer

So there's.... yeah.

I do like the concept of "What would [person] say if he/she were here today." I just find that most of these are for the lulz and very few are done appropriately, historically speaking (i.e. no, that person would not really have said that, or in that way).
posted by Blue_Villain at 6:15 AM on August 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Thomas Jefferson's twitter account is spelled as ThomasJeffersin, which made me hope for the formation of a parody rock group, which I would call "The M-F'in Founding Fathers," featuring John RADams, Ben "The Fink" Franklin, Xander Hamilton, "Big Bad" John Jay, Wicked Tommy Jeffersin, James "Jimmy Mad Junior" Madison Jr., and George "Perfect Hands" Washington.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:26 AM on August 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

history is a weapon: I now assume all inspirational quotes are at least mis-attributed and most likely apocryphal.

I knew you'd say something like that. Typical.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:55 AM on August 13, 2013

Huh, there's something very... procedural about these tweets. I wonder if they are being scrapped from the internet under the format of "Love is" AND "Capitalism" AND "suffering"
posted by rebent at 7:59 PM on August 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

these guys... the list just keeps going deeper and deeper

and deeper

and deeper!

What is up with this stuff? Who is behind it? Is it one person with way too much time on their hands? Did someone make a clever data mining tool to spit these out? Are they just regurgitating the same, steriotypic tweets over and over? I have no idea but I've been following them for two weeks now and my list keeps growing.
posted by rebent at 1:53 PM on August 28, 2013