Suppose I wrote the following in an article:

The most charitable reconstruction of Adolf Hitler’s argument for killing Jews goes, more or less, like this. Jews are equivalent to infected people in all of those zombie virus apocalypse movies. In such unfortunate emergency circumstances, the best thing one can do is kill the infected people, however sad and gruesome that may be. If Jews are going to destroy the world the way I Am Legend’s zombies threaten to destroy the world, it might be justifiable to kill them.

Now, suppose after writing this, the right-wing smear machine posted a series of articles quoting me as follows:

Jason Brennan said, “Jews are equivalent to infected people in all of those zombie apocalypse movies. The best thing one can do is kill the infected people, however sad and gruesome that may be. If Jews are going to destroy the world, it might be justifiable to kill them.”

Notice how quoting me out of context changes things. It makes it seem as though I endorse a view I did not actually endorse. If people quoted me out of context and then reacted with outrage, that would show a rather significant intellectual and moral failing on their part. If people demanded that I apologize, well, I can’t say here what my response would be.

Now, here’s a real life example. Obama said:

If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own…

If you are 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 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 then all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that, when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.

The right-wing smear machine quotes this out of context, as follows:

If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

Wow, notice how quoting out of context changes the apparent meaning of those two sentences. In context, the sentences mean: If you own a business, you relied upon background institutions, infrastructure, and help from others to build that business. Your success depended upon many of the rest of us and on government. You didn’t create everything from scratch. The bolded “that” refers to “this unbelievable American System” and “roads and bridges”. This is what Obama actually said.

Out of context, the sentences seem to mean: You didn’t build your business; someone else did. Quoting him out of context makes it seem like the bolded “that” refers to your business.

ADDENDUM: In case you didn’t see it, I criticize Obama’s actual argument here: http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2012/07/the-implicit-errors-in-debts-to-society-arguments/