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Case in point: an article I received a couple of weeks ago. “An Interesting Take on Trump” by William J. Bennett. Does the name sound familiar? Of course it does. He was the former Secretary of Education and is now the host of “Bill Bennett’s Morning in America” radio show. And his name was blatantly tacked onto the op-ed piece to give it credibility. Let’s be honest; if I were to write this article and e-mail it around, it would probably die instantly. But if a big name wrote the same piece of pap, then everyone would immediately accept it as true, or at least worthy of consideration.
So I looked this article over. Some of the points sounded credible. This was an op-ed piece, so rather than being based solely upon truth it is based on someone’s opinion. It could be some conspiracy theorist sitting in his basement by the computer, or it could be someone with keen insight into the political world. It was probably written by the former, and tagged with a recognizable name (like the latter). And that’s when the article, no matter how good it might have been on its own merit, became a lie.
You’ve seen countless examples of this yourself over the Internet years. Robin Williams used to get falsely attributed to many articles, some funny and some not. So did George Carlin. See a trend? People who made us laugh obviously are worth listening to no matter what the subject. Right? Not when they didn’t say it! Allowing some clown to filter his opinion around the world simply by tagging a celebrity’s name to the piece isn’t acceptable!
It’s not just opinion pieces. There are scams, and possible examples of practical jokers pulling one over on the world. Remember e-mails that touted how AOL, Microsoft, Disney (and others) were testing a beta program and would pay you money over the next two weeks if you forwarded the e-mail? Total bull. Made up… no truth whatsoever. And yet inboxes were flooded with this crap.
“But what if it’s true and I don’t forward it? I’ll be missing out on a great deal!” Yeah, yeah, yeah… and what if you’re standing in your back yard at night doing a little stargazing and an alien craft comes by and abducts you for a little anal probing? Both have equal chances of happening.
So what are you going to do? If you’re not sure about an e-mail you receive, either delete it or go to a fact checking website and see if it’s real. If it is, cut and paste the web link from the verification page and then send it on. If it’s false, you might want to point it out to the sender by sending them the link to the page that debunks the story. You might also want to suggest that they fact check these things before passing them along.
Yes, this pisses some people off. There are those who believe that you’re being overly critical of them whenever you point out that something they’ve forwarded is false. Too bad, you big babies. When you forward something that is clearly a lie, or a piece that has been tagged with a well-known name to give it more credibility, you have become a liar yourself. And I, for one, am tired of it. Take the time to fact check your garbage before you hit the “forward” button!
What’s worse than people who, in their ignorance, forward pieces on (believing they’re performing a public service)? People who know a piece is a lie, but forward it on anyway.
A classic example: “In God We Trust” has been removed from the new dollar coin. E-mails circulated telling people that “God was being forced out of America” by the omission of the phrase on the new coins. Don’t accept these coins! Boycott! And so on. I received one of these e-mails, and responded to the sender that this was not true. The truth was that the phrase no longer appeared on the obverse or reverse of the coin, but on the edge of the coin. (Also appearing on the edge was “E Pluribus Unim”, the mintmark and date.
The response I got for pointing this out was, “that’s not the point!” Which is interesting. If being honest isn’t the point, then what is?
Here’s the point. People who would normally wrap themselves in the flag and cradle the Bible in their arms while spewing platitudes about “honesty is the best policy” will also turn the other cheek and lie out of the side of their mouth if it advances their cause. “The end justifies the means” does not mean always being honest, and folks… it’s that time again when this is going to come home full-force. Be on your guard for blatant bullshit slinging: political season in America is in full swing!
Received an e-mail you’re not sure about? (Which should be every e-mail these days!) Try looking it up on these sites before sending it on:
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