6.11.2008

The Echo Chamber Keeps Churning Out the Stupid

I ran across a Los Angeles Times blog post about the bullshit forwards we've all seen about Obama - you know, the ones you have to delete when you realize what they are so that anger doesn't cause you to put a brick through your monitor (or maybe I just need a little anger management.

Barack Obama vs. the Internet rumor machine

I think that the type of people who would buy into/be swayed by this shocking level of ignorance a) probably wouldn't vote for an African American*;
b) probably wouldn't ever vote for a Dem; c) probably watch Fox "News" so they most likely wouldn't know the truth if it hit them in the face. Did I mention shallow gene pools? I'm just sayin...

However, I have a hard time letting bullshit get by without at least attempting to set the record straight. Last month Mary Mancini posted a handy response to such e-mails (I've even seen them as Myspace bulletin posts) at Liberadio(!). I've bookmarked it and have found myself almost wanting to get another of those forwards - in spite of the can of worms it might open up:

It’s Time for The Busy to Stop and Take the Time to Fight The Crazy.

The Times article also had a link to a section of Obama's sight set up specifically to counter this type of misinformation:

factcheck.barackobama.com

*Tatie, my favorite editor, was I supposed to hyphenate that? I can never remember.

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