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Knowledge is power, France is bacon

Summary

A meme originating from reddit, often used as an inside joke or an indicator that someone didn't understand something.

The quote is heard as "Knowledge is Power, France is Bacon" but is actually meant to be, "Knowledge is power", Francis Bacon, attributing the quote to the 16th century philosopher.

The quote spawns various image macros and, as with most reddit inside jokes, constant repeating of the phrase ad nauseum.

Origins

The social news site reddit has a subreddit called askreddit, usually filled with inane questions in attempts at gaining karma.

A common way to get karma is to ask people to post things from their child hood. This phrase came from a post entitled, "What word or phrase did you totally misunderstand as a child?"

When I was young my father said to me:

"Knowledge is Power....Francis Bacon"

I understood it as "Knowledge is power, France is Bacon".

For more than a decade I wondered over the meaning of the second part and what was the surreal linkage between the two? If I said the quote to someone, "Knowledge is power, France is Bacon" they nodded knowingly. Or someone might say, "Knowledge is power" and I'd finish the quote "France is Bacon" and they wouldn't look at me like I'd said something very odd but thoughtfully agree. I did ask a teacher what did "Knowledge is power, France is bacon" meant and got a full 10 minute explanation of the Knowledge is power bit but nothing on "France is bacon". When I prompted further explanation by saying "France is Bacon?" in a questioning tone I just got a "yes". at 12 I didn't have the confidence to press it further. I just accepted it as something I'd never understand.
It wasn't until years later I saw it written down that the penny dropped.
--via Lard Baron on reddit

Not surprisingly, many other redditors claimed to have had the same experience.

Images

translated into chinese

According to yahoo answers: France is bacon is a ridiculous and stupid way of describing France made by people who have never been there

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