Is it true that Robert Shekley belongs to a quote about the information war?

The science fiction writer is often attributed to the phrase “The most offensive is that in the information war is always losing by the one who is telling the truth: he is limited by truth, the liar can carry anything.” We checked the correctness of such an attribution.

A quote from an American author can be found, in particular, on sites with collections of aphorisms, among which Citaty.net, Socratify.net, "Great words" And "Pearls of thought". Such an attribution is popular on social networks - mentioning phrases can be found in "VKontakte", Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and on other platforms. At one time, the phrase of Shekley supposedly appeared on the personal pages of the editor -in -chief of Echo of Moscow Alexei Venediktov and blogger Ilya Varlamov.

When trying to find this quote in English, the results of the search results will be limited, and a phrase in very specific sources is found. So, in the middle of 2021 it brought One of the Woo Theople forum users, and in 2019 on the website with the World Quotes quotes collection Placed Mediabest user. On much more popular similar English -speaking resources (however, not distinguished by absolute reliability) Brainyquote or Quotefancy There is no shekels of this quote, as well as in "Wikisytatnik" And the works of a science fiction writer.

It also draws attention to how the statements in two sources are formulated in different ways. For example, the Woo The PEOPLE user gives the following option: “In the Information War, the One Who Speaks The Truth, Will Always Lose Becuse The Truth Teller is Limited to the Truth & The Liar Has No Such Boundaries. " At the same time, on World QUOTES, the wording is different: “The most instillation that information war is always the loser is of the is telling the trout. IS Bounded by the Truth, and the Liar Can Bear Anything ”-it contains grammatical errors that may have appeared due to literal translation from the Russian language. In any case, it is extremely suspicious that the supposedly belonging The deceased In 2005, Shekley has no canonical wording.

It is significant that several English -speaking sources in which the quote is given are related to Russia. In 2017, a statement He mentioned At the International Conference “Russia and Europe: Actual Problems of Modern International Journalism” in Budapest, editor of the Swiss Russian -language publication “All Switzerland in the Pentence”. This conference Organized Magazine "International Life", established The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. The conference participant then brought the following wording: “The Saddest Fact is that, in an information War, The One Who Tells The Truth Always Loses. He is limited by the truth, While the Liar Canmlaim Whatver He Wishes. "

The quote can be found in earlier editions. At the end of May 2014, the Moscow International Security Conference organized by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was held in Moscow. During his performance, a quote brought Colonel General Nikolai Bordyuzha, who then held the post of General Secretary of the Organization of the Collective Security Treaty (CSTO). The wording used by him, recorded in the English -speaking collection with the conference materials, coincides with the 2017 conference given above.

Apparently, a quote for Shekley appeared just a few weeks before the organized Ministry of Defense of the conference. Her earliest mention on the Internet that we managed to detect - publication at Livejournal of March 9, 2014 (by data The search engine on this platform, the post was published shortly after midnight, already on the 10th). The author under the nickname No_pasaran completes the alleged statement of Shekley's post “About yourself”. We cannot say that the quote was used in the original post, and not added by the author later. Another possible primary source - comment FMIDOVA blogger on the same platform left to one of the records on March 12 and does not contain a mention of Shekley. Be that as it may, from March 13, the quote became sharply popular not only in Livejournalbut also in social networks - then she appeared, in particular, on Twitter of Alexei Venediktov and the group of Ilya Varlamov in VKontakte. Why did we decide to install the words about the information war with the information war, we could not establish.

Thus, with a fairly high degree of confidence, it can be argued that the quotation of writer Robert Shekley was invented in the Russian -speaking segment of the Internet in the spring of 2014. The statement not only does not meet in the texts of a science fiction writer, but is also almost unknown in the English -speaking environment. In turn, the found options in the native to the native to the English shell are significantly different from each other, are found in single sources and are often used by Russian -speaking speakers.

Update on February 28, 2022: We contacted the user Livejournal, writing under the nickname FMIDOVA. She could not remember where she first saw this quote, but she is sure that her author is Robert Shekeli.

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Did George Orwell claim: “In the time of universal lies, telling the truth is extremism”?
2. Did Bismarck say: “If you want to fool the world, tell him the truth”?
3. Did Bismarck say: “They never lie as much as during the war, after hunting and before the elections”?