Right wingers try to steal Carlin's rant for their anti-government agenda

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

Mark Twain.

Who else could it be? Samuel Langhorne Clemens was probably the greatest humorist/philosopher in the U.S. over the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. It's particularly fitting to quote him here, because the subject of this piece is his counterpart over the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries.

George Carlin.

This is not what Carlin said.

In recent weeks, there has been a meme floating around the Internet in which Carlin supposedly attacks big government. He says that governments don't want people to be intelligent or well-educated, just obedient.

No one is quite sure who created it, but lately it has been coming from a group called the Heartland Institute, a quasi-Libertarian group that is best known for opposing those who say climate change is real.. Most of its funding comes from the usual suspects -- Kochs, Waltons and other right-wing moguls.

Anyway, they spread the meme as an example of "hip" anti-government thought. The only problem is, it wasn't what Carlin said.

I know that's a shock. I know most of us believe everything we hear from such paragons as the Koch brothers and the Walton kids, great Americans all.

But Carlin wasn't going after government. He has going after the kind of people who contribute to the Heartland Institute. Here's what the meme should have looked like.

This is what he really said.

Isn't that fascinating. These scumbags took a pretty powerful Carlin attack on themselves and turned it into an anti-government meme.

This isn't a misunderstand or a difference of opinion, either. The way they presented Carlin's quote was an out and out lie.

Carlin's daughter Kelly got involved, as did sites like Daily Kos and Crooks and Liars.

Eventually even Heartland had to apologize.

In a way, I feel sorry for these people. They're conservative, which means almost everyone in show business who is really hip or talented is on the other side.

The only real comedian of any note who is conservative is Dennis Miller, and the difference between Carlin and Miller is like the difference between Babe Ruth and a Baby Ruth candy bar. Of course they would love to believe Carlin was on their side.

Yeah, well, my friend Mick writes screenplays. Doesn't make him William Goldman.

Just in case you're curious, here's the actual bit as actually performed by Carlin. Ain't YouTube grand?