In 2011, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, inaccurately, “The definition of insanity, Albert Einstein once famously put it, is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.”
There is no evidence that Einstein ever said that, and Senator McConnell offered no source for his misattribution. He bears the burden of proof; the onus is on him. Besides, Einstein was a physicist, not a psychiatrist.
Leaving the whole, nasty, majority/minority thing out of it, and replacing the subordinating adjective with his party name, this video of that statement is on the “official YouTube channel of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.”
When New York Magazine tried to explain the screw-up, it screwed up in the process, calling McConnell, inaccurately (in its first sentence, no less), the majority leader.
American history aside, the mere notion of the claim about insanity, is nonsense, itself. It is akin to saying, “Happiness is… ” take your pick: A no-hitter, retail therapy, grandchildren. But those are just people who–and things that–make you happy, not happiness itself.
It is heresy to attribute the silly pop definition of insanity to a great person like Albert Einstein. Unfortunately, he is not around to defend himself. He never said it, and Mitch McConnell is not Majority Leader.
Ladies and gentlemen, as you disect the news, first, do no harm.
