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Did Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Spanish anti-establishment party Podemos (trans. "we can"), post this sentence on Twitter, as shown in screenshots which went viral?

Twitter screenshot

"Preguntémonos si es lógico que el esfuerzo humano de los celadores y celadoras sea menos recompensado que el de la casta médica."

(trans.) "Lets ask ourselves if it's logical that human effort of the orderlies is paid less than that of the medical cast"

In another tweet Iglesias claims that above screenshot is fake.

Brythan
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troll
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  • What is a "celador" in Spain? – Dr. belisarius Mar 09 '15 at 17:21
  • "Person assigned by the authority to exercise vigilance" like.. guard? – troll Mar 09 '15 at 17:44
  • @troll That is the "standard" meaning in Spanish, but it should be referring to an specific job function here for that tweet to make sense. – Dr. belisarius Mar 09 '15 at 17:56
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    It reads like a statement to promote the [Labor theory of value](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_theory_of_value) – ChrisW Mar 09 '15 at 18:01
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    He very well could have but if its been deleted and its just a screenshot or snippet of the tweet it could have easily have been faked. This is because its very easy to make a fake tweet that looks real by simply using your web browsers developer tools to change the text of any tweet and screenshot it. – Ian Gallant Mar 09 '15 at 18:39
  • If so that statement wouldn't be completely antithetical to his party-political values, i.e. [... includes poverty reduction and social dignity via a basic income for everyone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podemos_(Spanish_political_party)#Policies) – ChrisW Mar 09 '15 at 18:45
  • This is very likely unanswerable. It already got a bad answer which I removed. I'm protecting it for now, but it should be put on hold if it's unanswerable. – Sklivvz Mar 09 '15 at 21:37
  • @belisarius A new user who didn't have enough rep to post a comment claimed that, "Celador means orderly (hospital worker)". – ChrisW Mar 09 '15 at 21:58
  • @ChrisW Thanks. For what I've read on the newspapers the whole thing seems a fake story made up to cheaply badmouth Mr. Iglesias – Dr. belisarius Mar 09 '15 at 23:06
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    @georgechalhoub that's also indication that it's not notable. I am putting this on hold until there's some actual evidence of notability. – Sklivvz Mar 10 '15 at 01:53
  • @belisarius What newspaper articles have you read, which talk about this whole thing? – ChrisW Mar 10 '15 at 02:24
  • @ChrisW For example [this one](http://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2014-12-28/ingresan-en-el-psiquiatrico-a-un-joven-con-un-trastorno-obsesivo-relacionado-con-podemos_611285/) is a joke about Iglesias and "la casta médica". And [here](http://www.atlanticaxxii.com/3058/la-idea-de-casta-politica-en-podemos) you may find what seems the origin of the joke: the usage of the word "casta" by Iglesias. – Dr. belisarius Mar 10 '15 at 02:35
  • @belisarius none of them claim he wrote that tweet. – Sklivvz Mar 10 '15 at 11:23
  • @Sklivvz True. Mine was a comment, not an answer. – Dr. belisarius Mar 10 '15 at 12:35
  • @belisarius. I know. I thought we were discussing notability =) – Sklivvz Mar 10 '15 at 12:36
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    @Sklivvz Oh, no.Sorry about the confusion. I wasn't able to find any reference to that wannabe tweet. – Dr. belisarius Mar 10 '15 at 12:42
  • For notability http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2015/03/12/pablo-iglesias-casta-medica_n_6853222.html – vartec Mar 16 '15 at 22:07
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    I agree: the fact that it's denied shows it's notable, and the denial itself is [on-topic evidence as an answer](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/2934/2703). – ChrisW Mar 16 '15 at 22:59
  • @chrisw the fact it's denied does not show notability. It needs to be asserted. A bunch of people believe it and the only example is a denial? It doesn't sound right. – Sklivvz Mar 17 '15 at 09:33
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    @Sklivvz I assume he wouldn't bother to deny if if there were no chance anybody believed it. IMO the denial is evidence that the thing-being-denied is notorious. – ChrisW Mar 17 '15 at 09:38
  • @Sklivvz See also for example [Pablo Iglesias revoluciona a “la casta médica”](http://www.redaccionmedica.com/noticia/un-supuesto-tuit-de-pablo-iglesias-revoluciona-a-los-medicos-79244) – ChrisW Mar 17 '15 at 09:40
  • @ChrisW the last one indicates notability. A denial does not indicate notability, however, we've had many cases in the past. If you only find articles that disprove a claim, the claim is not notable, because no one actually *believes* it, they only believe that other people do. – Sklivvz Mar 17 '15 at 13:46
  • @georgechalhoub because if we can only find denials, who is believing the claim? Also, how do we know the version of the claim is accurate? There should always be a real claim. – Sklivvz Mar 18 '15 at 01:07
  • @Sklivvz I did an answer saying pretty much it is unasswerable, there is no enough info. Should I remove it? I am fairly new to skeptics. – bradbury9 Apr 02 '19 at 13:55

2 Answers2

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The exact version of the claim in question is:

Preguntémonos si es lógico que el esfuerzo humano de los celadores y celadoras sea menos recompensado que el de la casta médica

After reports by rmedica.se, and huffgingtonpost.se and redaccionmedica.com, it can be said to be notable now.

Many members have also posted the exact version of the claim on Pablo Iglesias's wall:

enter image description here

It has also hit reddit with three posts:

Which led Pablo Iglesias to deny it, as mentioned by member vartec: enter image description here

As skeptics, we can't be 100% positive which exact version of the fake tweet was circulated (though there is only one being mentioned). But most likely the tweet is false and fabricated (or any other one with the word casta médica in it), especially that we have a denial by the politician in which he labelled the tweet with his own words: the casta médica tweet.

Community
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George Chalhoub
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  • As an skeptic myself I wonder if the twitt was not indeed deleted and the false statement is Pablo Iglesias' tweet refuting it. It is obvios one of them is false, but cannot say which of the two possible things is true. Allegedly he has labelled claimed as "casta" many different professions, so I wouldnt say 100% positive A or B. – bradbury9 Apr 02 '19 at 13:17
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The first match from that sentence seems to be from a Podemos reddit channel tittled "¿Qué pregunta para el cambio en Andalucía le harías a Teresa Rodríguez?" (trans. "What question to achieve the change in Andalusia would you make to Teresa Rodríguez?") where a commenter says on 03/10/2015 the following:

pablo iglesias hace un comentario en twitter hace 6 días. en que dice lo siguiente : (preguntémonos si es lógico que el esfuerzo humano de los celadores y celadoras sea menos recompensado que el de la casta médica) Soy un médico anestesiólogo ...

Translation

Pablo Iglesias made 6 days ago a comment on twitter in which he says the following: "Lets ask ourselves if it's logical that human effort of the orderlies is paid less than that of the medical cast". I am a anesthetist medic ...

Conclussion:

As the allegedly original source did not include link or proof, there is no way to know whether the tweet did exist and was deleted or whether that comment was fake and Pablo Iglesias is right.

bradbury9
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    For all we know, this user is simply quoting the screenshot which says that it was posted 6 days ago. – Avery Apr 02 '19 at 13:38
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    The claim in the comment is that it was posted by Pablo Iglesias, there is not enough info (as stated in the answer) to know if he was quoting the screenshot or he saw the original tweet, if there was any. With no extra info the only fair assumption IMHO is answer "There is not enough evidence to give a yes/no question" – bradbury9 Apr 02 '19 at 13:50