Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Curse of Viral E-Mails

We're in the midst of a crisis of conflict and incivility in national discourse.  Conservatives get all their information from Fox News and radio talk show hosts.  Liberals get their information from NPR, network TV, Huffington Post, MSNBC, etc.  Passions are stirred up as ideological positions harden.  Why?

I think a big part of the answer is gullibility, believing what you want to believe, failing to question, and responding to emotional instead of rational appeals.

You can see it in the tidal wave of misleading, viral e-mails -- which people believe because they want to believe them and which people disseminate because they're gullible.  Why gullible?  Is it lack of education, lack of intelligence, predilection to emotionalism, loyalty to their political tribe?  I can't say, but I think that these e-mails do enormous damage because so many people are so quick to accept them at face value.

And all of these misleading e-mails that I've seen over the past few years have come from conservatives.  I haven't seen one written from a liberal perspective, let alone a liberal-leaning one that gave incorrect "facts" to back up its outrage.  Why is it that some conservatives are driven to create these outrageous messages, and others are so quick to pass them along without checking their facts?  Where is respect for the truth?  What are they really afraid of?

This morning I received from a conservative friend I rarely hear from the e-mail at the bottom of this post, which enumerated a lot of specific criticisms of Congress.  As I do with anything that's supposed to make me incensed, I checked it out with Snopes.com and found that most of the "facts" it reported were lies or exaggerations.  I wonder if anyone else on the distribution list bothered to do any checking whatsoever.

I responded to my friend, pointing out the errors and challenging him to send a correction to everyone he had forwarded the e-mail to.  I'd suggest you do the same.  Something has to stop the madness.

Dick Frantzreb

Here's the e-mail:

Unexplainable, Inexcusable

I challenge you to read this and NOT have the will to pass it on to your 20+ or more.

No one has been able to explain to me why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay. While Politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense.

Monday on Fox news they learned that the staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if other news networks will broadcast it. When you add this to the below, just where will all of it stop?

35 States file lawsuit against the Federal Government

Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.

This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on.

This is an idea that we should address.

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.

If each person that receives this will forward it on to 20 people, in three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message.. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States .."

You are one of my 20+
Now, what are you going to do about it? Read and delete, or work for reform

To find out the truth of all these assertions, click on this link:
 http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/28thamendment.asp