So you believe Obama wants to redistribute your wealth because AM radio and FOX News told you so?*

Here’s why your ‘news’ sources are making you stupid: They lie to you. Here’s the actual quote:

“Chicago Housing Authority has not been a model of good policymaking. And neither necessarily have been the Chicago Public Schools. What that means, then, is, is that as we try to resuscitate this notion that we’re all in this thing together, leave nobody behind, we do have to be innovative in thinking, what are the delivery systems that are actually effective and meet people where they live? And my suggestion, I guess, would be that the trick — and this is one of the few areas where I think there are technical issues that have to be dealt with, as opposed to just political issues — I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution, because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.”

Yup. That’s right. You were duped. You were lied to. There is no quote wherein Obama talks about population wealth distribution. They edited the above speech and lied about what he was talking about… and you believed it. He’s clearly talking about moving resources from ineffective government agencies and redistributing those resources to agencies with “innovative in thinking, what are the delivery systems that are actually effective.”

Oh, in case you’ve swallowed the “you didn’t build that” anti-Obama meme, here’s the full quote:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

Unless the business you run built all the nation’s roads, bridges and the entire Internet, you didn’t build those three things. He’s clearly talking about the infrastructure that makes American business possible; but, because you listen to AM radio and watch FOX news, you think he actually said that if you built a business, government should get the credit… And you believed it because your trust is misplaced. In other words, you’ve been a fool.

The media sources you get you ‘news’ from are making you stupid.

* I’m making this post because it’s easier to point people to this post than to explain to each fool how they’ve been lied to and why their misplaced trust in right-wing media makes them stupid.