Email Forwards Prove How Gullible People Areby
Bill Barnwell On a regular and steady basis, friends and acquaintances send me politically charged email forwards. In these forwards, I’m usually told how horrible this or that liberal politician is and how great, noble, and brave President Bush is. Or vice-versa. The big problem? Almost all email forwards and chain letters are based on factual inaccuracies. The bigger problem is that so many are incredibly gullible and believe anything they read in their emails. Now, whether you think Hillary Clinton is a horrible leader or not is somewhat subjective. Hillary is loved for the same reasons that she is hated by others. The reasons President Bush receives so much criticism around here are the same reasons he receives a lot of praise from others. Such individuals support the President’s foreign policy and think he’s doing a great thing in Iraq. In fact, for the supporters who are criticizing him right now, it’s because he’s not sending enough new troops to Iraq. Basically, two people can look at the same actions and facts and draw extremely different conclusions. That is different, however, from just making up facts or distorting the facts and basing your conclusions upon them. Distorting the facts (or making up lies) is what 90% of email forwards do. For those who enjoy receiving and passing along email forwards, it’s probably not totally unfair to say that this hobby is making them less intelligent. People who thrive on email forwards are typically not very big on critical thinking. Discernment is not their gift. Any sensational sounding forward they receive they will believe – as long as the hero in the message is someone they approve of and the villain someone they disdain. If those roles are reversed they are more prone to discount the "facts" of the said forward. This morning I received another suspicious forward. Somebody passed along to me a forward claiming Hillary Clinton snubbed the Gold Star Moms. It further claimed that the Clinton’s have their monthly mortgage paid by Secret Service agents, who pay rent and live in adjoined sections of the Clinton home. Throughout the forward, Clinton is called a variety of names and lots of exclamation marks are used. It’s signed by a retired commander who may or may not even exist. The intent was to demonize Clinton and arouse emotion. It apparently works because this chain letter has been passed around for years. Upon receiving the forward, I did what I always do. I ran the story by Snopes.com, a website devoted to sifting through the truth and phoniness in email forwards and urban legends. Over at Snopes, they analyze email forwards and conclude whether they are true, false, a mix of true and false, or whether their veracity can’t be determined. Not surprisingly, almost everything in the Hillary/Gold Star Moms flap forward is false. In fact, according to Snopes, the Clintons have been one of the few First Families that have never accepted Secret Service money for their residence. If you are not familiar with the Snopes website, it’s one I highly recommend. Since discovering it several years ago I’ve used it check out the validity of every forward I’ve bothered to read and haven’t deleted (though I do delete most of them). I’m estimating that I’ve checked out the claims of 50 or so forwards. I can only remember two of them being totally true. None of this is an apology for the Clintons. There are plenty of things to criticize them about. There’s no chance I’ll be sporting a Hillary 2008 bumper sticker this election cycle. But just because you don’t care for somebody doesn’t mean you should lie about them, or pass on claims that you haven’t taken the time to investigate. In the minds of Hillary haters, however, none of that matters. Since they don’t like Hillary then the claims must be true, right? It would be just as wrong for the average LRC reader to pass along faulty information about President Bush or what’s going on in Iraq to score a few political points. This is especially true considering there are already many valid and factual points out there that can indeed be debated. Why not talk about those things instead of just making other stuff up? It’s hard for me to take people seriously who would rather focus on urban legends and made-up information rather than events that have happened in real time and space. You usually can sniff out a baloney forward just by its tone. If it is making sensational claims it is usually untrue. If there’s emotional wording with multiple exclamation marks then it’s probably a hit job. If people send you forwards containing fantastic pictures of "natural" clouds forming into Teddy Bears or whatever, and you suspect that images might be too good to be true, rest assured that you are probably correct. Most people reading this are probably saying, "I hate email forwards, I don’t even bother with them." I sympathize with you. But plenty of our friends and family members love email forwards and apparently believe just about anything they read in them. For such individuals, it’s beneficial for them to see that they are passing along disinformation. This is especially fun when I respond to forwards sent to me by hyper-politicized neoconservative or left-liberal friends.
A little critical thinking never hurt anybody. We could certainly use some more of it these days. January 30, 2007 Bill Barnwell [send him mail] is a pastor and writer from Michigan. He holds both a Master of Ministry degree and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree from Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana. Visit his blog. Bill is also running for President of the United States. Copyright © 2007 LewRockwell.com |
Email
forward and chain letters are making us less intelligent. So, do
your part for the cause of common sense and check out the facts
in the next wave of email forwards you receive. You’re doing a good
service by showing your friends and acquaintances that most of what
they so readily believe and pass on is factually inaccurate.