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Who really said it

Political correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by clean end

Not Harry S. Truman — a fabricated telegram No verified author — an anonymous internet joke Credited to Harry S. Truman (1884–1972), 33rd U.S. president — via telegrams that do not exist
Disputed — the telegrams are fabricated, and the sentence is an anonymous joke with no known author. Rights unconfirmed

The line reaches most people inside a chain e-mail reproducing four telegrams supposedly sent between Truman, Douglas MacArthur and Chester Nimitz on 1 September 1945. The Harry S. Truman Library & Museum states plainly that the exchange “does not exist at the Truman Library” ↗. The sentence itself is an anonymous internet joke about political correctness that was already circulating in December 2006 — it was retrofitted onto Truman in 2015.

Last verified 9 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Political correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by clean end” Not Harry S. Truman. The "telegrams" are fabricated — the Truman Library says no such exchange exists in its holdings, and the forgery gets Chester W. Nimitz's middle initial wrong. The sentence is an anonymous internet joke about political correctness, circulating by December 2006 and quoted in print as "an old Internet joke" in 2012, before being pinned on Truman in 2015. Snopes: False, 8 April 2015.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Harry S. Truman. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the themes of truth, doubt and power. Theme: "Political correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by clean end". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Political correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by clean end". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The “source” that does not exist

Claimed source
Telegram, Washington D.C., 2120 hrs, 1 September 1945 — Truman to MacArthur and Nimitz
Status
Fabricated — no such exchange in the Truman Library’s holdings
Actual earliest copy located
Anonymous internet joke, blog post of 7 December 2006
Popular framing
Unverified “2007 winning entry” in a Texas A&M University definitions contest

(3) Tokyo, Japan — 1630, September 1, 1945. To: H S Truman. From: D A MacArthur and C H Nimitz. Wilco Sir, but both Chester and I are somewhat confused, exactly what does the term politically correct mean?

(4) Washington, D C — 2120, September 1, 1945. To: D A MacArthur/C H Nimitz. From: H S Truman. Political Correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by clean end! Fabricated chain e-mail, as circulated

Reproduced from Snopes’s transcription of the chain e-mail ↗. These telegrams are not archival documents; the Truman Library says they do not exist, and the misspelled initial — Chester W. Nimitz — is one of the tells.

Truman Library: did the term “Political Correctness” originate with Harry Truman’s telegram to General Douglas MacArthur?

The paper trail

No rights status can honestly be asserted. The wording has no identified author and no documented first publication: it circulates as an anonymous e-mail forward and joke-archive entry from the mid-2000s, and the 1945 telegram it is credited to is a fabrication rather than a document. Because the origin is unknown, this line is not claimed as public domain here.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Where this one went wrong

Three separate claims travel with this quotation, and all three fail: the telegrams, the contest, and the wording itself.

Harry S. Truman, Douglas MacArthur and Chester Nimitz Fabricated

The Harry S. Truman Library & Museum states the purported exchange “does not exist at the Truman Library” ↗, notes that Nimitz’s middle initial is W rather than the H used in the e-mail, and observes that the messages suggest a familiarity between Truman and MacArthur that did not exist. TruthOrFiction was told the same thing by the library.

“Students at Texas A&M University” Unverified

The joke’s earlier life came with a different credit: rec.humor.funny’s archive calls it “the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University” ↗. Snopes notes the line was attributed at least twice to Texas A&M students but calls the joke’s origins murky — no such contest result has ever been produced.

Anonymous Later variant

The Truman version’s “recently fostered … a sick mainstream media … a piece of shit by clean end” is a reworking. The 2006 text reads “a delusional illogical liberal minority & rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous liberal press … a turd by the clean end” ↗.

The sentence is an anonymous internet joke with no identified author, in circulation by December 2006 and quoted in print as “an old Internet joke” ↗ in February 2012 — years before anyone attached Harry Truman’s name to it.

Context

Why the forgery falls apart on its own words

The chain e-mail is unusually specific — four telegrams, each with a city, a timestamp and a sender — and that specificity is what sinks it. It has President Truman warning MacArthur that his remarks are “not politically correct,” then explaining the term to two officers who supposedly had never heard it. Snopes points out that the reply uses mainstream media, a partisan coinage of a much later era, and that the modern sense of political correctness only spread through American campus debates from the late 1980s. The Truman Library adds a detail no forger thought to check: the admiral’s middle initial is W, not H ↗.

Strip the telegrams away and what remains is a joke with its own paper trail. In December 2006 it circulated as a definition credited vaguely to “students at Texas A&M University”; by 2008 the rec.humor.funny archive was presenting it as the winning entry in a Texas A&M definitions contest — a framing nobody has ever verified, and one that follows the familiar shape of an e-mail forward inventing a contest to lend itself authority. In 2012 a Townhall columnist quoted it, accurately, as “an old Internet joke” ↗. Only afterwards did somebody bolt a president onto it.

An anonymous joke acquired a president — roughly nine years after it started circulating without one.

How the wording changed on its way to Truman

December 2006 — “a doctrine fostered by a delusional illogical liberal minority & rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous liberal press … pick up a turd by the clean end,” credited to students at Texas A&M.

By 2008 — “fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media … pick up a turd by the clean end,” presented as a 2007 contest winner.

2012 — quoted in print as an old internet joke, now with “pick up a piece of shit by the clean end.”

2015 — the same sentence appears inside four invented telegrams, reworded to “recently fostered … promoted by a sick mainstream media … by clean end,” and signed H. S. Truman.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Truth Doubt Power

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Snopes: Harry S. Truman on Political Correctnesssnopes.com

Rated False, 8 April 2015 — reproduces all four fake telegrams and traces the joke to 2006–2007.
Truman Library: did the term originate with a Truman telegram?trumanlibrary.gov

The presidential library’s own answer: the exchange does not exist in its holdings, and Nimitz’s initial is wrong.
National Archives, Our Presidents: “In Case You Got the Email, It’s False”ourpresidents.tumblr.com

NARA’s myth-busting post: archivists are unaware of any such telegrams; “mainstream media” was not in use then.
TruthOrFiction: Truman defined political correctness in a telegraphtruthorfiction.com

Rated Fiction; the Truman Library told them directly that the correspondence is not in its holdings.
rec.humor.funny archive: “A winning definition”netfunny.com

The joke in its pre-Truman form, framed as a 2007 Texas A&M contest winner — “turd by the clean end.”
Grouchy Old Cripple, 7 December 2006 (Internet Archive)web.archive.org

The oldest dated copy located: the definition with “liberal minority” and “liberal press,” credited to Texas A&M students.

The man it is pinned on

About Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

1884–1972 · 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953)

Harry S. Truman took office in April 1945 and was president when Japan surrendered that September — which is exactly why the forged telegrams are set on 1 September 1945. He was famously blunt, and that reputation is the whole engine of the hoax: a crude one-liner sounds like something he might have snapped. But the phrase “mainstream media” is a much later coinage, and the modern sense of “political correctness” only entered wide circulation in the campus debates of the late 1980s — decades after the date on the telegram. Nothing in Truman’s papers contains this sentence.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented appearance

Earliest copy located: Denny, “Political Correctness,” Grouchy Old Cripple (blog), 7 December 2006, archived by the Internet Archive — consistent with Snopes, which traces versions of the joke to 2006 and 2007. The Truman telegram framing is debunked in Kim LaCapria, “Harry S. Truman on Political Correctness,” Snopes, 8 April 2015, and by the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum, “Did the term ‘Political Correctness’ originate with Harry Truman’s telegram to General Douglas MacArthur?”

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Political correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by clean end’?” Last verified 9 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/political-correctness-is-a-doctrine-recently-fostered-by-a/

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