How To Respond To Right Wing Viral Emails
By Nicole Belle Saturday Sep 05, 2009 1:00pmMy friends and family of the right wing persuasion have finally figured out to take me off their distribution lists for those viral emails that circulate about the internets. It was a lesson hard taught, because I felt obliged to obsessively research the facts and then reply to those emails, systematically destroying the wingnut talking points. You humiliate those wingnuts enough times, and they take you off their email lists.
Now, not everyone has the OCD to research and debunk these talking points, nor the need to be so...well, frankly, confrontational. So for people like that (you know, the ones much nicer than me), Media Matters has created an action site just for you. In it, they take some of the common viral emails--and then write responses to them, debunking the lies and very politely suggesting that the sender might want to use that gray matter lodged in his noggin for more than regurgitating Hannity. (I paraphrase, of course)
From: XXXXX@aol.com
To: XXXXXXXX@hotmail.com
Date: Saturday, August 01, 2009 6:18 AM
Subject: Fw: Senior's death warrentSENIOR DEATH WARRANTS:
The actress Natasha Richardson died after falling skiing in Canada. It took eight hours to drive her to a hospital. If Canada had our healthcare she might be alive today. We now have helicopters that would have gotten her to the hospital in 30 minutes. Obama wants to have our healthcare like Canada's and England's.
In England anyone over 59 cannot receive heart repairs or stents or bypass because it is not covered as being too expensive and not needed.
I got this today and am sending it on. If Obama's plans in other areas don't scare you, this should.
Please do not let Obama sign senior death warrants.
Everybody that is on this mailing list is either a senior citizen, is getting close or knows somebody that is.
Most of you know by now that the Senate version (at least) of the "stimulus" Bill includes provisions for extensive rationing of health care for senior citizens.
The author of this part of the bill, former senator and tax evader, Tom Daschle was credited today by Bloomberg with the following statement.
Bloomberg: Daschle says "health-care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them."
If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that Senators and Congressmen have their own healthcare plan that is first dollar or very low co-pay which they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives and are not subject to this new law if it passes.
Please use the power of the Internet to get this message out. Talk it up at the grassroots level.... We have an election coming up in one year and nine months. We have the ability to Address and reverse the dangerous direction the Obama administration and it allies have begun and in the interim, we can make their lives miserable.
Lets do it! If you disagree, don't do anything.
Media Matters' response?
Hey, thanks for forwarding along that email.
It's nuts how many rumors are swirling around out there about the health bills. It's hard to know which ones are true and which ones are just crazy internet rumors.
If this one were true, I'd be pretty upset - so I decided to see if I could find out for myself.
It turns out Tom Daschle never even said that about "seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age." Apparently that quote actually comes from a woman who is adamantly against any health care improvements named Betsy McCaughey. When a reporter confronted her about the chain email, even she admitted it wasn't true, saying "I regret any misrepresentations made by others of my work or Mr. Daschle's views."
You can read it yourself here: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/apr/03/chain-email/daschle-didnt-say-seniors-seniors-should-accept-ra/
As for Natasha Richardson, that was heartbreaking. I remember when I heard, I couldn't believe it! But the email lies about her already tragic situation.
It did take a while for her to visit a hospital, but that's because she initially said she wasn't hurt. A Bloomberg news story said "She initially laughed off her fall and said she was fine." And Fox News says the first ambulance that showed up was even turned away.
A few hours later she was taken to a hospital when she got a headache, but by then it was too late.
If you want to know more, you can read these articles: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aXuH_CcQz_Vs&refer=muse
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509749,00.htmlAs for England, I found a cool website called FactCheck.org that examined the claim about "England anyone over 59 cannot receive heart repairs or stents or bypass because it is not covered as being too expensive and not needed." They said that just wasn't true.
But all of that should be irrelevant - because no one even wants Canada's health care system. The president and Democrats in congress know that we have been paying too much, for too long, for too little and are trying to find a "uniquely American solution" to control costs.
The same website actually shows that this entire email is pretty much made up, check it out: http://www.factcheck.org/2009/07/englands-and-canadas-health-care/
All these emails going around are pretty scary, but it's important to figure out if they're true. After doing some research, I can say for sure this one is filled with lies.
See? Much nicer than I would have been (and far fewer swear words), and yet, still getting the truth out there.
Go check out MM's Email Checker. If you've received a viral email that you don't see, you are welcome to send it to Media Matters so they can add it to their collection and give you a response.
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... and I happen to believe you are quite nice, Nicole.
Way to go MMFA.
But I have absolutely no patience for Republican talking points stupidity.
I am very blunt and profane when responding, as my fellow team members can attest.
Very nice.
me too. The site monitors even delete my comments when I jump the gun on comments.
Very, very nice.
that Nicole Belle has. ;)
That's roughly the tone I take when I got those viral emails from friends too.
Can't imagine why they stopped sending them to me. ;)
... the use of words like "caveat" and "hyperbole" in combination with "STFU" and other more colorful language all in the same comment. It's not easy to do well, and when that happens, it's art.
Rock on.
... that when SteveAudio and The Vidiot asked me to blog with them that my only request was that we try not to use profanity.
I wanted the sites to be SFW, and I knew myself well enough that my first reaction to wingnuttia would be, and still is, STFU You f&%$king @$$hole mother f^%#ers!
My self imposed restraint, (which isn't as much fun as it sounds;-), has forced me to get past my initial reaction and try to offer cogent, sourced posts.
But gawdamm! I loves it when you can combine all elements!
these chain emails are so f'n stupid and yet i find people seem to believe them without checking the veracity or even considering that maybe these are bogus.
although not politically based, my favorite was about kfc breeding chickens without feathers, feet, or beaks. yes, i had a couple of co-workers who were freaked out by this.
grounded and based on facts without calling names..Excellent..i will pass it along!
wow! the truth. Now that's integrity.
...when a cousin sent me stuff like that recycled hoax about how "Mars Will Appear As Big As The Moon!" She cc'ed a lot of cousins, and I hit Reply All and corrected it. Woooops, goodbye, cousin! I'm sure she's still spreading that stuff around, of course.
A man I used to know used to send out the right-wing political stuff, and I cured that by Replying All (including the addresses in the numerous forwards that he never deleted) and, rather than reply to whatever he had sent, I'd replace it with liberal articles on how the Bushies were cheating the military servicemembers, etc. A couple of times sufficed.
used to send shit like that about Clinton and every other Dem back in the day. They also used to send religious emails. Finally my wife emailed them and told them we were Democrats and not very religious (her nice way of saying we are atheists). She asked them to please stop sending us emalis about plotics and religion. She also went out of her way to explain to them that she didn't want them to stop emailing her and that she loved them very much and didn't want them out of her life.
She hasn't heard from them at all in over ten years.
I responded to them with point-by-point rebuttals. Then, I chewed her ass out, by way of saying that I obviously got this email from somebody who was impersonating my mother. It had to be an imposter, because my mother isn't a liar, a bigot, a racist, isn't sociopathically selfish, isn't a willing tool of malignant others, nor is she a willfully ignorant moron, and I know that she isn't a person who uses religion as an excuse to hate. Whoever this person was who sent the email had to be an imposter, because the sender was obviously a person who had no conscience, the kind of person I would be ashamed to know and would have absolutlely nothing to do with if given a choice. My mother is a good person who does not allow others to do her thinking for her. I ended it by saing, "This is Strike One. If you get three strikes, I'm going to decide that even though I love you, I will have nothing further to do with you".
Some time later, she did it again. It was like she was giving into a compulsion. I gave it the same routine, ending it with, "This is Stike Two. If you get three strikes, I'm going to decide, even though I love you, that your are too poisonous a personality for me to risk myself with any further association. Although it will deeply grieve me, it is a decision I will make. Which...means that you have a decision to make".
BTW, I also copied my her emails and my responses to one of my siblings who was getting the same chain emails from her, and didn't like what she was seeing. She started responding to those emails with her own version of my response.
It did the trick...no Strike Three. It didn't reform her, she just took us off her distribution list for her hate mail. But then, I started hearing FOX Propaganda talking points from her in telephone conversations. Whenever that happened, I immediately came down very hard on her. I demolished her arguments, then chewed her ass in the above manner, telling her to stop letting the scumbags from FOX, who didn't care whether she lived or died, do her thinking for her. She eventually learned to keep the ugliness to herself, or it would be weeks and, then months, before she would get anything other than my telephone voice mail. She keeps the ugliness to herself now, at least with me (she still routinely indulges her dark side with my neocon siblings).
Tough Love? I don't know, but I am determined that I am not going to be an enabler to her self-destructive thinking and behavior.
The statement from the Mont Tremblant resort in Canada said the actress "fell in a beginners' trail while taking a ski lesson".
"She was accompanied by an experienced ski instructor who immediately called the ski patrol," it continued.
"She did not show any visible sign of injury but the ski patrol followed strict procedures and brought her back to the bottom of the slope and insisted she should see a doctor."
The actress was later taken to the nearby Centre Hospitalier Laurentien before being transferred to the larger Hopital du Sacre-Coeur.
A spokesperson for the hospital in Montreal could not confirm whether the actress was still there on Tuesday morning, but suggested her family might make a statement on Wednesday.
The Press Association, however, reported that the actress had been treated and left Canada on a plane for the US.
I'd get those too from my family, and for one in particular, on illegal immigration, I did my research, did some quick C&P and appropriate links, and hit reply.
And politely suggested, screw Fox News and afternoon AM-radio cesspool of lies and anti-American noxious spew.
helps that none of them are wingnuts, but still, it's a relief to know that the only email fowards I recieve from friends and family are sappy stories and pics/vids of puppies and kittens! :)
I can haz helthz carez?
;)
?
... over and over.
Above: "It took eight hours to drive her to a hospital." What does that have to do with Health Insurance reform? "We now have helicopters that would have gotten her to the hospital in 30 minutes". After that she would have died of a heart attack after she gor her bill becaus her insurance does not cover air transportation.
A lot of this crap about waiting to see a doctor or get admitted to a hospital. Maybe they need more doctors and more hospitals. Reform is about paying for services, not getting immediate access.
Maybe with Reform more people will become doctors lnowing that they will get paid for services rendered.
But first we need to learn how to make concrete for the landing things.
i'm a doctor, and i can attest, being familiar with trauma surgery, that trauma is a systems issue. you need the infrastructure to facilitate care of trauma patients. and that infrastructure has been standardized by the ATLS (advanced trauma life support) system designed by american doctors with trauma experience. not only that, but it is a system used around the world. it's funny but frustrating hearing wingnuts talk about healthcare when they constantly demonstrate their total lack of knowledge on the subject.
and just my $0.02, we desperately need a public option in this country, there is no other solution other than universal healthcare.
Plenty of us would be overjoyed to have Canada's health care system. And there's even some support (or at least professions of support which is not the same thing in our Congress) for it in Congress (see HR 676).
The Canadian system certainly isn't perfect, but it and the systems of most other Western countries do a much better job than the current U.S. system, and the U.S. would be lucky to have any of them.
I find it ironic that even on the left centre/left, American arrogance is still alive and strong.
I would love to see the U.S. solve its healthcare crisis, but I'm not holding my breath; it would mean admitting that there is something rest of the world does better than you folks.
huge immoral profits at the expense of other people's lives. Let's call it what it is: criminally negligent homicide at the least, or premeditated murder if you prefer. It is a crime, no matter what they call it.
Now that phrase really scares the shit out of me.
All the uniquely American Solutions I've seen in my long life have involved bombing, shooting, death, and destruction.
... we may not want their system in its entirety, but it would be smart to look at pieces anywhere in the world to see what works. Like in France, instead of sending an ambulance with 2 or 3 medics to bring a patient in, they send a doctor, a nurse and a technician and treat a patient at whatever site they are and save a long, maybe unnecessary trip to an emergency room. They sa it works well.
I'm sure many Canadians want Canada's health care system. I think they're trying to say that no one in Congress or the White House is suggesting that we emulate the Canadian system.
I don't have that kind of problem..but I have caught my Dad in the act of watching Fox Propaganda...last time I saw him watching Glen (I'm an American & you're not) Beck..yesh.
... given that projection is the name of their game, all this nonsense about exterminating the elderly from the right... strikes me as the tell tale that the wingnuts were/are planning on literally prune out the ranks of our elders.
Their perennial attacks on social security and any and all social safety nets speaks volumes, and this latest projection exercise confirms my suspicions. God help us...
They definitely accuse others of their own misgivings.
What is the motivation for the Left to kill the elderly? Why provide Social Security and Medicare to "useless" people you want to kill off anyway?
On the other hand, why would "for profit" corporations want to eliminate costs? Hmmm...
radar.
Your making repubs heads explode...and i doubt that's covered under their HMO.
I have never received any of those viral emails, so I can't respond to them. If I did receive one, I wouldn't be so nice.
I do, however, send many emails out to right wing idiots. In many cases, I do try to use facts to discredit them.
Last night, while watching Keith, I sent two emails out to those idiot congressmen he mentioned who are protesting Obama's speech to school kids.....Paul Broun and that Russell guy in Oklahoma. Further, I sent 2 emails to that jackass Jim Greer, head of the Florida GOP who also is protesting Obama's speech. Another two emails went to Missouri's lieutenant governor, and a final email went out to Monica Crowley last night, all for the same reason that they are making ridiculous statements about why parents shouldn't let their kids listen to Obama next week.
I wasn't so nice in those emails. Ms. Crowley suggested that Obama speaking to school children is something Chairman Mao would have done. I suggested to Ms. Crowley that she might just be a racist, she hates Obama so much, because in fact she worked for that crook and racist Richard Nixon. I pointed out to her that Nixon was indeed a racist, quoting a recently released tape of him saying something to the effect that abortions would be "necessary when you have a black and white....." I pointed out to Ms. Crowley that she obviously has inherited by osmosis Nixon's paranoia.
I am just so sick to death of these lies; I just have to let these liars know how disgusted I am with them.
"... the Death Camps Obama ordered FEMA to build in Alaska are much more sinister"
I just got back from a long trek of fishing in Alaska. Drove all over, Homer to Denali, Anchorage to Wasilla, Palmer to Seward.
No death camps.
I'm sorry, alewis14251, the 'death camps' are all hidden. They are made to look like turkey farms and processing plants and Mrs. Palin bravely stood in front of one for a TV interview to trick us into thinking there are no 'death camps'.
Please pay closer attention. The guy killing the turkeys behind Sarah Palin, while she was giving that interview at the (cough) turkey processing plant, was NOT Cartman, but a Death Camp Oberlieutenant, in a very crafty disguise.
:)
Can't you just picture that....
...some guy in a black lycra suit, holding grandma upside down in one of them there 'turkey slicers' while Miss Sarah jabbers away out front doin' the play by play...
(just like in the old days when she was a big-time sportscaster),
Yew Betcha!!
guys do in Texas? Well, I wonder if they are going to turn the Grannies loose in a large pen and hunt them down like they do those vicious quails. Might as well have some sport out of it. And how come no one talks about offing grandpas?
but there are times when I can't help but start with: " Jane, you ignorant slut....what f*GGin PLANET are you on? ROCKS have more intellect than you. HOW COULD our 'Forefathers" write the Constitution to prevent Socialism, when it was written about 1776 and Karl Marx was BORN in 1818????????".....
This site will make me a much 'nicer' responder also. Thenk yew.
Maybe 'cause I have very little family left and relatively few friends...
I feel so left out.
You can pick your friends.
these, but withholding some of the rent usually did the trick.
Dunno about all you guys but I delete all emails with misspelled subjects from total strangers on the spot...
I delete all emails from all strangers
-of the 'more intelligent' right wing vomit. I became enraged one day and sent him an ALL CAPS 1!!!1 reply full of bad words. So we decided not to talk about it.
Sad- when the Abu Graib (?) thing came out my brother said "I'm ashamed to be American". But he got over it and bought into the "bad apple" theme.
Dear ________,
I regret to inform you of this, but feel I must alert you to a dire situation. A stark-raving-lunatic has hacked into your email and is sending out messages full of utter rubbish. I would suggest you change your password and upgrade your security post-haste.
Regards,
Fair Witness
If you get one, why just send the corrected version to the person who spammed you with it, when you can set everyone straight that got the email at the same time?
Just reply with "WHERE DID YOU GET THIS BULLSHIT - FOX"?
What I have done with those lying emails is go to Snopes.com to check out the email's topic. Many times there is a link at the bottom of the page.I copy the link onto the stupid email, write a short note to the sender writing that he or she should check out Snopes before then forward this stuff, and then hit the "reply to EVERYONE" and inform all of them about the lie. And they stop sending the lies.
But only until recently. Some of the right-wing sites realized Snopes made them look stupid, so they started a war on Snopes. Really.
[sarcasm]
For example:
From: XXXXX@fox.com
To: XXXXXXXX@stupidass.com
Date: Saturday, August 01, 2009 6:18 AM
Subject: Fw: Senior's death warrent
SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS:
The Hollywood queer actor Sonny Bono (R.) died after ploughing into a tree on drugs while skiing in California. It took eight days to dog sled him to a witch doctor in Kenya. If California had voted republican and had our healthcare he might be alive today.
We now have a 'star trek' transporter invented by Dr. Laura that would have gotten him to the hospital in 3 seconds, even though he was already brain dead, George Bush would have breathed on him and he would have lived. Obama wants to have our healthcare like Medieval Europes with alchemists, Merlin the Magician and voo doo.
In New York, anyone over 99 cannot receive heart transplants or new kidneys because you must be a wealthy, bailed-out Wall Street drunken greedmonging frat-boy because rich folks like Sean Hannity and clothes-horse beggers like Huckabee and Palin are more valuable than any Democrat.
Repug socialist welfare. Get it!
Signed,
Saint Pope Ronnie Reagan,
Still alive in Lazarus' Cave,
Flarduh
That. Was. Awesome.
Yes, after all, you are exceptional.
A uniquely American solution will be one that benefits the corporations more than the people. Bet on it.
"Lets do it! If you disagree, don't do anything."
That's right. If you buy into all this stuff I just said, we need to revolt against the President. But if you have different beliefs or facts, just quietly sit in your corner eating french... er... FREEDOM fries.
The repugs don't care what the truth is. When confronted with the truth they just become abusive. When some starts spewing right wing bs I beat them to the punch and just become abusive first, usually by poiting and laughing followed by, Did you hear what that idiot said?
Oh, come on now, you're smarter than that, "aren't you?" Heavy emphasis on the Aren't you.
Also a good one.
face to face. They can't say, "No I'm not."
For years, my rightwing brother-in-law has sent these emails. Daily. Sometimes several times a day. In many cases they are the same rightwing bull crap that he sent the week or month before.
I used to research the email, and send him links to the facts. He never bothered reading the responses.
The facts are unimportant to these rightwing nutjobs. If you point them to the facts in a newspaper article, then they say that the newspapers are all under the control of the liberals. If you point them to a government website, or encyclopedia, these rightwing nutjobs just say that they are lies. When they have a doubt, they make-up a bible verse. Or, else they quote a part of the US Constitution that doesn't exist.
These rightwing nutjob conservatives are not interested in reason, facts or intelligent discussion. They have made up their minds, and nothing is going to change that.
By implying that refuting their emails with truth will actually change their minds is a waste of time. It is a fool's errand.
By the same token, negotiating with the Republicans in Congress is crazy. On issue after issue, these rightwingers have kowtowed to the religious right and their corporate masters. They have voted almost to a man in favor of anything that the Republican establishment decrees.
I am past the stage at even attempting to reason or compromise with these neandethals and religious extremists. It is now time for the rest of the sane people in this country to do the same.
Facts mean nothing to these people.
don't get any rightwing emails like that, but I do get emails begging for cash for the Dem party and Obama, does that count? Oh and lots of spam on helping with my erectile problems. Is that the same as a rightwing email?
from your wife.
I have form response to all my "friends".
"I do not read unattributed articles. If you insist on sending me these scary "facts" and quotes, PLEASE CITE THE SOURCE (i.e., the speech, newspaper or magazine article or interview) so that I can read it in the original format. I prefer to do my thinking for myself, and reading the original source verifies the comments AND show the content. If you can't cite the original source, how does anyone know that that's what was said? Are we to trust anonymous sources from unverified medium?"
On those occasions when I debunk some of the more nonsensical emails, I add the addendum: "If these people are in error about the issues I pointed out, are we to assume that they are 100% factual in every other aspect? The analogy lawyers use about perjured testimony is: "If a waiter brought you a plate of spaghetti, and you discovered WORMS in it, would you be satisfied if he just removed the worms, and encouraged you to eat the rest of the worm-free pasta? OR WOULD YOU INSIST ON ANOTHER SERVING" (perhaps from a different bistro?) If you are served a plate full of lies, would you believe the other "facts" in the missive?
....turns out to be a birther & a deather. I don't get it, the man is a retired principle, world traveled Frenchophile, writer of poetry, used to correspond with Charles Bukowski,... & watches Fox News all night long & then walks around parroting their blurbs like a bad sound board. He popped down for a visit & was talking about how he wishes someone with a .22 would nail Obama, Reid, Pelosi, & Barney Frank.
I was honestly shocked. This man wrote a self published book of poetry based on the saints last year, now he talks like a Texas clock tower assassin.
This BS is having an effect. And it's not going away anytime soon.
I sent this one to a conservative relative. He has a good sense of humor though. He's more of a business guy than the batshit crazy teabagger type.
Do not look directly at the television during Obama's joint sessions speech: For he will unleash lasers from his eyes that will be transmitted both via satellite and cable; instantly turning good conservative christians into socialists, fascists, commies, and pinko-loving Marxists - who won't be able to combat sudden homo-sexual urgencies, and the overpowering desire to have abortions after pulling the plug on grandma - while taking to the streets to destroying the good ole' U.S. of A hamburger stand, and outlawing the baking of apple pie!
...Canada and the UK have better health outcomes than the US, in spite of their horrific socialist fascist communist maoist totalitarian nightmare health systems.
Maybe a lot of those helicopters crash on the way to the hospital.
They would forward to me knowing I am a DFH liberal and posssible Socialist. I would fact check myself or check with "Snopes" and return with e-mail and note saying:
"Now don't you feel a little silly for letting this sender manipulate your emotions with lies?" "Isn't that the very definition of propaganda?"
The e-mails stopped coming to me, but I have always thought that it would be interesting to trace the source on these and confront the author with the facts, in front of a camera. I'm thinking FOX headquarters or the RNC for source.
It's great to know about Media Matters. I also had forgotten about Factcheck.org. Good post!
for medical emergency medical purposes is covered in Canada. I wonder what that service would cost in the US? I hope no one has to find out.Are you sure,Nicole, that no one in the US wants a Canadian type health care system?
As a Canadian, I don't want you 'Merkins to have our great healthcare system either!
The low cost, proven efficiencies and better outcomes allows Canada to have a more competitive industrial workforce than in Lower Jesusland.
If you adopted our healthcare system, it would be the slippery slope to emulating our low-cost universal high quality education system that makes Canadians smarter and more productive than USers.
We don't want that, do we?
:)
I don't insult the sender directly, I just point out one lie after another, prove they were lies, and let it be known that anybody who would believe that stupid sh** is incompetent, delusional, a deliberate liar unworthy of respect or any benefit of the doubt regarding credibility of anything he/she says.
I point out that integrity is important to me and offer to instantly apologize and retract if anything I say can be proven wrong. I then point out that anyone unwilling to do that lacks honesty and integrity. Then I mention that only an idiot believes such a person.
Think there's a diplomatic post somewhere I could fill for the good ol' USA? Couldn't be worse than Bolton.
I really wish that anyone on the left would drop that turn of phrase.
It was Bush who said about a woman who worked 3 jobs to support herself and her kids, "Thats' uniquely American!"
What should be uniquely American is a living wage and universal health care.
As mail admin at my small company, I'm constantly on the warpath fighting spam of all kinds.
We recently changed our domain name, but have been accepting email addressed to the old domain while we make the transition.
In an attempt to help our employees cut their spam -way- down, I offered to redirect any mail addressed to their old address to the spam account, which I monitor. I forward any legit emails (there are very few of those!) to them and advise them to let the sender know the new address.
About a dozen employees took me up on the offer and they receive hardly any spam at all anymore.
The upshot of this little exercise? I've discovered a number of people in our organization have used their work email addresses to subscribe to hate mail from afa.net, foxnews.com, pro-gun, anti-obama, right-wing lie sites, you name it.
since email from these domains is obviously all spam (to my, um, discerning mind, I have been blacklisting those domains from ever slithering their way onto my network.
It's not a big thing, but at least I've managed to take control of a little bit of the hate that has been making its way to our employee inboxes. They're all so thrilled not to be receiving spam that nobody's noticed. I'd like to believe they're too ashamed to ask why their hate mail isn't arriving as ordered by them!
David
During the 2008 primaries, before the Democratic and Republican conventions, I was getting a lot of these chain e-mails from a former co-worker. This woman had once said to me "I know I'm a racist. I can't help it; it's how I was raised." Every one of these e-mails was some screed about either Barack Obama or the Clintons. It was the usual right-wing bullshit--"Obama Is A Secret Muslim!" "Hillary Refused To Meet With The Gold Star Mothers!" I received about three of them before I finally decided to do something about it. The next four e-mails I received, I meticulously researched the actual incident and included no less than three separate links for every lie and talking point, and hit "reply all". I never received another one of these screeds and thought that perhaps I'd just pissed these people off.
On November 5th I received an e-mail with the subject "Congrats!" from my former co-worker. I opened the e-mail with trepidation; I thought it was going to be rant about how the country was now going to hell in a handcart. Imagine my surprise when my former co-worker informed me that not only had my responses caused her to start doing what I had done with these e-mails, but these actions had the effect of changing the votes of her, her daughter, and her best friend to vote for Obama. Her exact words were, "I never in a million years thought I'd vote for a black man, but you taught me, T*** (the daughter), and M*** (the best friend) not to believe everything we read without checking into it."
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