Someone I consider a friend and a person who should know better forwarded me and about 50 other people an email that was extremely bigoted and, if the truth be known, originally created by someone who is obviously not of high intelligence and incapable of logic. It managed to be offensive about race, politics, and religion all in one fell swoop. Rather than let it go, which I might have done a few years ago, I responded in a way that made it crystal clear how offended I was. And then I got even madder.
I’ve had it with people mindlessly firing off forwarded emails:
(1) that they obviously do not understand and haven’t thoughtfully considered.
(2) to absolutely everyone they know, whether or not that person might be offended.
(3) that contain no logic of any kind.
(4) that try to build fear and hatred.
Then there are the emails sent out to one and all in a person’s email address book, along the lines of “Your cat will die if you use such and such a product on your floors,” “collect plastic bottle caps and when you redeem them a cancer patient will receive a free chemotherapy treatment,” and of course “Obama is not a US citizen.” College graduates blithely pass such nonsense along to all their friends. I’ve even received emails that say “I don’t know if this is true or not, but….” Here’s a concept: if you don’t know if it’s true or not, why are you passing it along? If you use email, you should also be Internet-savvy enough to check out anything that seems amazing or incredible in some way at www.snopes.com or some other solid fact-checking service.
Whatever you do, don’t send your narrow-minded, bigoted, hate-filled, illogical crap to me. Because I’ll just think you’re stupid. And I’m lifting 10-pound weights these days. Don’t mess with me.
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Mom, I can make this all better. A person who cares very much for me has entered me in the Nigerian lotto--and I won! Surely, the millions that are headed my way via instant transfer will be able to handle a simple problem such as this one. Don't tell anyone, but I've actually won the Nigerian lotto several times. I hope this doesn't keep me from collecting my latest winnings.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I've just started deleting--unread--anything with a subject line that starts with FW. I don't care who you are, I ain't reading it. If you said anything else in the e-mail, you gotta get back to me without forwarding me anything.
Now, I've got to go do the "100 Most Important Things to Avoid Swine Flu." It's all over the internet, so it must be important.
I am happy to say that none of the people I regularly correspond with are knee-jerk forwarders, except for the occasional corny pun or joke that they know I have a weakness for. But I do have a cousin that used to forward me the most appalling things. One of the worst was a link to a series of sound files of...well...flatulence. And I don't know which was more depressing---the thought that an actual adult took the time to assemble a series of flatulence sound files or the fact that my cousin thought I would enjoy them. Come to think of it, though, I guess flatulence sound files are better than bigoted, racist, or hateful any day.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I can see that Tara clearly has her Mom's keen sense of humor. :-)
ReplyDeleteI feel just like you do. When people assume that I have the same religious or political thoughts or feelings and send me emails that slam other beliefs, it really broils my butt. At least, you had the guts to say something.
ReplyDeleteGo, girl! That's about all I can say. I don't get many of these emails. When I do, I usually write the sender, point out the errors, maybe even get more extreme and say I am eagerly supporting whatever person or cause they are slamming. I don't get many more after that. The "your cat will die" ones are fairly innocuous (though I always resent that they don't check snopes.com first). But the others are poison.
ReplyDelete