-3

In this video by Babylon Bee (at 1:16), the lady claims that either Che Guevara or Karl Marx said something along the lines of "Educated individuals are good for all of society.". Is that true? I cannot find it. And, if it's a true quote, what kind of education did it refer to?

As far as I can see via a quick search, Karl Marx basically said nothing about education.

Improve this question
4
  • 1
    They might have confused them with Lenin or Stalin, who have a lot of quotes around the theme of education. Literacy was a big problem for the early USSR. However, I cannot find an exact matching quote there either. It's possible that it was paraphrased.
    – SPavel ♦
    Commented May 1 at 22:59
  • 3
    The Babylon Bee is a satirical news site. It's comedy, so it's not a serious attribution.
    – cmw
    Commented May 1 at 23:59
  • @SPavel You won't find a source. "populace" and "all of society" are terminologies Marxists would never use without a clear reference to the classless society of an (utopian) future. In reference to real, existing societies, to their thinking no action ever benefits "the whole", but only certain classes/groups.
    – ccprog
    Commented May 2 at 15:31
  • @ccprog Orthodox Marxists, no. Lenin and Stalin? Absolutely.
    – SPavel ♦
    Commented May 2 at 21:40

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

This is a comedy sketch about student debt relief. The exact quote in the video is:

"An educated populace is good for all of society." Karl Guevara or Che Marx said that!

This line is clearly meant to imply that university graduates are miseducated and indoctrinated. There is absolutely no reason to think this quote might be attributed to either of them.

Ironically, Karl Marx took a completely opposite position to the one being associated with him here. In Critique of the Gotha Program he wrote that public funding for higher education "only means in fact defraying the cost of education of the upper classes from the general tax receipts."

Che Guevara, Lenin and other famous Communist figures did write more extensively about education, but I see no reason to try and mine their works for the origin of this cliche.

Improve this answer
4
  • Moreover, the Babylon Bee is a satirical news site. It's comedy, so it's not a serious attribution.
    – cmw
    Commented May 2 at 0:00
  • @cmw Correct. hence my first sentence.
    – Brian Z
    Commented May 2 at 0:01
  • 5
    Agreed, just adding to it. It's not just comedy, all of the Babylon Bee is satirical. It would be strange to take anything they said seriously! You're right in not even bothering to look it up, since it's not actually claiming one of those figure said such a thing.
    – cmw
    Commented May 2 at 0:02
  • 1
    In fact, Babylon Bee has gotten in trouble multiple different times in various venues online due to people taking the content of their articles seriously. They've had posts removed and even got a "False" Snopes report once. Compared to other such satirical sites, it appears they have problems marking their content as satirical, problems telling the difference between satire and genuine bullying, and their audience has problems recognizing satire as such (which is perhaps understandable if they originally came for the bullying).
    – T.E.D. ♦
    Commented May 2 at 15:22

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.