In this age of constant information...and misinformation, of e-mails sent and forwarded carrying the most astounding lies you could ever imagine...I just wanted to stop and give a short thanks to one of the most handy little weapons we've had in the fight against distortion.
That is the Snopes website.
As a Democrat and someone who is moderate to liberal on the economy and libertarian on social issues, and someone who lives in a very Republican area of the country, I see more than my fair share of the dreaded chain e-mails. You know, the e-mails sent, largely within church groups, but also within work e-mail groups, saying that Obama's going to kill everyone's first-born child, or the ACLU has declared putting a flag on your father's cemetary is unconstitutional...or "they" are going to take our tomatoes away from us...
The amount of bullshit that gets passed around via e-mail is truly astounding. I'm left agasp sometimes at the sheer stupidity of it all.
Reminds me of my favorite quote....Always bet on stupid!
Anyway, as someone who frequently gets these steaming piles of crap popping open on Gmail, I just wanted to say that, slowly, I seem to be making headway against them in my little corner of the world. I'm not getting as much of them as I used to, and the frequency of late, even with all the right-wingnuttery going around, has been decreasing.
Does that mean they're gone? Hell no! They're all over!
But, all the "usual suspects" I know who have sent them are being a lot more careful about what they're sending out.
And I have Snopes to thank for that.
The website has such a ring of authority around its analyses of myths, legends and rumors that no one, not even the nuttiest nut of the far right, bothers questioning it after I paste a link and return that e-mail right back where it came, with all e-mails on it receiving!
And yes, it feels good to silence one more complete BS untruth when I do!
So, for all of you out there who do actually care about fighting for an objective truth, and not just whatever we want to think or say at the moment regardless of accuracy, I have a request.
Go to Snopes (or a similar website..there's a few of them) and send them a "thank you" e-mail.
From north GA..TMac