Right-winged email spam.... One of our downfalls?

[johnnie]

Like me, I'm sure most of you are tired of opening up your email and finding a load of these emails that are written by right wingers, fundies and conservatives that, nine times out of ten, prove to be either a very twisted view of a story or a complete fabrication of something that is meant to rile up the reader. Even after repeated attempts by me to stop people I know from sending these to me, or at least check the validity of them before sending them, I still get them in my inbox here and there.
I wondered why I never receive any liberal emails of this type and it got me to start thinking about it. There seems to be a hell of a lot of those emails floating around and from my observations most people read them as if they are 100% accurate. In the last few years the Internet has become a main source of information to a lot of people and I am thinking that these emails have played a part in "educating" a lot of those people. How come we don't have so many of these things? Hell, we don't even have to make shit up like they have, all we have to do is put together a load of emails with pictures and true stories and we could jump on the spam bandwagon. I have a feeling that the spamming that has been going on for the last few years has made an impact on a lot of people who actually believe everything they read in an email.
It was just something I was thinking about and wondered about your opinions on this. Those emails have been discussion on here before and they are always shrugged of as crap and we move on. I am starting to think that liberal spam might be a good tool in us getting the word out. Some creative and intelligent people could probably come up with some good ones that we can use and send to everyone on our email lists.
Any thoughts?


On edit:
I didn't use the term spam correctly it appears. I am referring to creating the type of emails you get from people like family members and friends that have a conservative message in them. It is a tool that I think the right has used to their advantage and we haven't.

[Bill McBlueState]

1. spam

One explanation for the prevalence of right-wing spam compared to left-wing spam might be that liberals don't think it's cool to forward things to everyone in their address book. I hate it when people do that to me, so I tend not to do it to them.

[johnnie]

4. I know. I don't forward either

That's what I am talking about though. It might be time to reconsider what is cool or not cool.

[getmeouttahere]

2. I send "real" news reports to my email list...

one of the great things about DU is that everybody posts the link to the article they are using to start a discussion thread...Michael Moore's website is another good source...this is how I attempt to "educate" my family and friends. My Dad is more willing than I am to send to RW family & friends, so I count on him a lot. I think its especially important to forward these things to your friends in other countries, although they are more likely to see it in their media anyway.

[johnnie]

9. I send that kind of stuff to people also

The thing is, a lot of people won't read a complete article. I guess what I am getting at is if we had those colorful embedded images and big fancy fonts.

[Vincardog]

3. When you get a load of crap email

politely refute it point by point, kindly asked to be removed from any more deliveries of this particular load of fertilizer and accidentally hit reply to all. :think:

[ComerPerro]

5. I hate it when I accidentaly hit "reply all"

[johnnie]

11. You are missing my whole point

Trust me, I rarely get them and when I do, I make sure that I correct the information and reply to all.

[Vincardog]

16. If your point is that we should become spammers I disagree with it

There is no point is sending a lot of email to people who already have open minds. If on the other hand you are using their mailing lists to refute their lies that is a different matter.

[johnnie]

17. It's not "spam"

It is coming up with clever emails that the average person will read like they do to all the right-winged ones that are out there. And getting them circulated like the ones they have been using for 10 years. I am just saying that we missed the boat on the whole Internet email thing.

[OrlandoGator]

6. The catch is, I get these e-mails from my family members usually.

n/t

[quisp]

7. I usually respond with a refuting link from

www.snopes.com .

[annabanana]

29. me too. . . . . . n/t

[johnnie]

30. I have done that in the past also

My OP was more about creating some of the types of emails that have been floating around for years. The ones that end up on Snopes and debunked. The difference would be to make ours true.

[Sweet Freedom]

8. I'm all for it.

I used to not want to impose my views on the unsuspecting members of my address list, but I think you are right. People believe the stories they receive in their inbox (moreso than news stories). (In fact, I proposed our Debunking group specifically to help combat the RW e-mail propoganda)

I'd be happy to disseminate true stories through cyberspace.

[johnnie]

12. That's what I am talking about

I think they have used spam as a pretty powerful tool to get their points across and (as you can see by most of the replies here) we haven't embraced that strategy yet. I think it is time we reconsider just how powerful those tools are. Hell, some of these things have been floating around for years, and people still send them. When we try to get the word out, it usually falls flat in a few weeks.

[BiggJawn]

Hit "Reply ALL" then debunk it.

About the third time you do that, you'll find yourself off a LOT of address books...

Re: "Liberal SPAM"

SPAM is NEVER a good idea. Remember what happened to that Russian SPAMmer last week?

[johnnie]

13. I'm using the term spam as in a circulated email

Not a mass spamming of every email address we can find.
I guess I am having a hard time expressing what I mean here. I just think that the right has utilized email as a way to get their agenda out and it has been pretty successful. We have not used it to the degree they have and I think it hurts us.

[BiggJawn]

18. Same definition I'm using.

"Un-wanted Email"

Somebody sends me the latest debunked-by-Snopes thing, that's SPAM.

A friend sends me (and 235,000 of her friends) a prayer chain-letter, that's SPAM.

I get email from some company who's booth I stopped by at a trade show, and i don't specifically ask to be put on their mailing list, that's SPAM.

"I just think that the right has utilized email as a way to get their agenda out and it has been pretty successful. We have not used it to the degree they have and I think it hurts us."

No, I think the reason you think it's successful is because the people who send it to you are Kool-Aid drinkers, and this kind of crap appeals to their "inner Bubba"

The Right has done a shitload of things that we on the Left have not done. Like outting covert agents and endagering lots of people, for one thing. Invading a Sovereign country and killing over 25,000 civilians for another...

Still doesn't make it right.

[johnnie]

21. OK

Then you disagree. I just think that a lot of the "Kool-Aid drinkers" became that way because the right advertised their message through those types of emails. My thought is that they gained a lot of ground by going after people who don't want to sit around reading forum after forum, 30 page articles and tons of books to educate themselves on what is going on. I guess we, as liberals, just hope that everyone in America decides they want to put their nose to the grindstone and learn about the way of the world and it's not up to us to get a message out to them.

[BiggJawn]

35. So what youre saying is that the End justifies the Means?

Too much work to give the Ditto-monkeys REAL reasoning and TRUTH, so let's take a bunch of bullshit and put a left-wing spin on it, then send it to everybody in our address book.

Is THAT what you're saying? i just want to be sure that I'm understanding you here.

" My thought is that they gained a lot of ground by going after people who don't want to sit around reading forum after forum, 30 page articles and tons of books to educate themselves on what is going on."

In other words, stupid fucking idiots that we'd only care about as long as we could bullshit them into pulling the "Democrat" lever on voting day?

Yeah....Maybe they spoke to something inside of those people. Something that I, at least, would not consider an asset in anyone i'd consider a friend and Fellow Baby.

I'm not going to stoop that low. I'm not going to say "Oh, we need to kiss-ass those people who we secretly hope never move into our neighbourhoods, just so we can get their VOTES..."

Or are you saying that we start an Email campaign of the TRUTH?

What makes reading an email of the TRUTH any more exciting than those 30-page articles you say they won't bother to read?

[johnnie]

39. Yikes

OK, then don't go for it. I think you are over thinking this, but that's fine.
I find nothing wrong with using emails as a way to "advertise" our beliefs. I am guessing that you think that the television ads they show during election time are a waste of time also? Or when someone is running for a local office, they waste time in putting the leaflets out on what they stand for and what they intend to do?
My original intent on this thread was to ask what people thought of liberals using the email methodology in getting some information out there. Millions of people read them and I am just thinking the libs have missed the boat on using that tool.
I guess we can hope that the MSM will start reporting the truth. It seems you are suggesting that the only people we want on "our team" are people that spend half their day searching for answers.

[flamin lib]

10. I have long believed that the RNC propagates these lies.

During the late days of the 2004 election I was getting one a day from various right wing friends. I literally could not debunk them fast enough!

The tone and style are very similar leading me to believe they have a common source.

Tone is attack, use emotion, question patriotism and class warfare.

Style is us against them. We're good people and alike, they are different. Use some "evidence" like citing names, i.e. "the law was signed by Bill Clinton . . ." or "a friend brought this to my attention . . ."

I am convinced that this is Rove's entry into internet marketing. It's ideal. Anonymous, non attributable, free, and useful idiots spread it like crazy.

[johnnie]

14. "useful idiots spread it like crazy." You got it!

I don't know if I would want to call people who spread ours around "idiots", but you hit it on the head.
Liberals have not used the Internet like they have.

[Nevernose]

27. You forgot one other description: It WORKS n/t

[NewJeffCT]

34. They use if effectively, that is for sure

These things are so ubiquitous that they start to sink into the public consciousness... how many people out there think The Sudan offered Osama's head on a platter to Clinton 3 times, only to be turned down? I mean, it must be true because you've gotten 6 zillion emails saying it's true...

[Alcibiades]

15. Break the chain

www.breakthechain.org is another useful site.

I agree with many of the other posts on this one--it really does seem as though the Republicans have set up a cottage industry somewhere sending out propaganda. I am not sure if it is evidence that there is some sort of brain damage associated with Republicanism, but they are almost always factually wrong, poorly written and rife with grammatical errors. It's astounding to me how consistently this is the case, as if they are intentionally disguising the fact that these e-mails are actually sent out by professional Republican hacks, and that the introduction of error is their way of giving these e-mails "a common touch."

Correct them and hit "reply to all." Why not? If there is any rudeness in this, it is on the part of the person who sent the e-mail out to everyone in their address book, not the person who is correcting the errors, who is offering a valuable public service gratis.

[Nevernose]

19. I've been saying this on DU for 5 years now

If I were good at writing crap in the style of Freep-spam, I would've tried to emulate it. Can anyone around here write a liberal spam mail in that infamous style?

[johnnie]

20. It doesn't even have to be a bunch of bullshit

It just needs to be one of those ones with the flag flying and people standing proud with pretty colors and huge fonts. But liberal emails can be the truth. It doesn't have to be 3,000 word in depth articles.

[Nevernose]

23. The traditional format is a list

You probably know the email:

1) It's a list of atrocities that Hitler did. Except, as you scroll down, you discover that GASP! it wasn't hitler at all, but the nefarious BILL CLINTON!
or
2) A list of things that terrorists/liberals have done or are plotting, followed by a recurring partriotic answer like "but that can't happen, because I'm an AMERICAN!!!!!!" Multiple exclamation points are very important on these things, btw.

Most of them begin as Penthouse forum letters, too, with "I never thought this would happen to me..." "I never thought I would write one of these..." or "A friend told me about..." as typical opening lines.

[johnnie]

25. Yeah, or the one that got me thinking about this

It was one saying that the ACLU wants to get rid of crosses on Federal land. Then it says "Let's see them get rid of these" and it shows this:

[flamin lib]

24. I maintain a short Political address book. About a dozen

addresses, half of which are Republicans or self labeled "conservatives". I compose and send documented political emails. I try to make them entertaining with subject lines like "Those wacky republicans . . . ". Lately I pointed out that the renewal of the Patriot act carried an amendment written by and co-sponsored by Republicans that makes suicide bombing a capitol offense.

In another I listed the most important concerns of Americans as reported by polls: Economy, education, health care and national defense. What did the Republicans attempt to write into law? Flag burning.

At least half of the list forwards them on to other personal address books.

[Ian David]

22. Dealing with Spam

Blue Frog
http://www.bluesecurity.com /

SpamCop
http://www.SpamCop.net

FriedSpam.net
http://www.FriedSpam.net

Project Honeypot
http://www.projecthoneypot.org /

WebPoison
http://www.WebPoison.org

[flamin lib]

26. These are great sources if you want to prevent receiving the

emails.

If you want to counter them, do as suggested by several other responders to the OP and counter them.

I do one of two things: If it is a short list with the emails in the address line I reply to all with a rebuttal.

If it has many, many forwarded email address in the body I cut-n-paste them into a BCC and tell them that I got their email address from the "subject line" email and explain to them that their personal email address is spread all over the web. I then suggest that they block the address of the sender of "subject line" from their in-box.

Break the chain!

[Ian David]

28. I do that all the time. Once it really pissed-off my mom. n/t

[flamin lib]

31. I've gotten several responses from people I don't know

saying things like, "I wanted to say that but "Sender" is a friend and I didn't want to start a fight . . ." and "Thanks for standing up . . ." not to mention "I'm blocking a LOT of emails now that I know how, including YOURS!"

[johnnie]

33. I did that not long ago

My father sent me one that one of his friends had sent him. My father is in no way a puke, but sometimes he passes along military ones because he was a Marine for 40 years or whatever.
So I got fed up with getting them and I tore the one they sent to shreds and hit reply all. I haven't gotten any since, but I didn't hear from anyone on that list either.

[johnnie]

32. Countering them is fine

But I have found out that in most case, the people you send the information to don't believe you anyway.
As I have said, debunking those emails are fine, but my thread is geared toward asking why the right uses emails so efficiently, and liberals have not caught on to that strategy.

[flamin lib]

36. Like I said, it's a Rove dream come true.

No fact checking, personal contact, no attribution, and a whole long list of personal address books to spread the message.

It works on several levels: It feeds the base, it has credibility because you know the sender, and it feeds the lowest common denominator.

The left has very similar stuff, but is is all fact based and they are up front about where it comes from. If it's a DNC email, you know it. If it's a Moveon.org email you know it.

I guess what I'm saying is that the left seems to be honest and the right is a lying bunch of . . . but then we knew that.

[Cetacea]

37. try this

use "reply all".
This is the first liberal one that I have ever received:

A Day in the Life of Joe Republican

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what h e was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by t he FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state-funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn 't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

[johnnie]

38. That's pretty much what I'm talking about.

I'm not sure if I have ever seen this before, but I copied it for future use. These are the kind I am talking about. There are 100s of right-winged emails like this to every 1 liberal one.
Thanks
And welcome to DU Artiechoke.

[newyawker99]

40. Hi Artiechoke!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[yankeedem]

41. Someone sent me one once

I forget it was about, but it was anti-Clinton nonsense. It took me about 2 seconds to refute it, then I wrote him this little message.

"You know, I really respect your right to have political views, but it might be a good idea if you research these things first, I have the utmost respect for you, but others may think you stupid if you repeat things that turn out to be lies. I wouldn't want anyone to think less of you."

Well, I sent this reply and I got a nasty email back, calling me a koolaid drinker and the like, and how he was just joking, and that I was no longer a friend (no loss). Maybe it was because I replied all with my message?

[AmandaRuth]

42. what i would like to know is are these types of emails

being financed by someone, and is someone being paid to lurk and corrupt our (liberal) sites.

[tanyev]

43. Wouldn't it be great to find out who actually writes that swill?

I think one reason the left doesn't use them is that I NEVER mindlessly forward anything on to my entire address book. If I forward anything at all, it is something specific that I think a specific recipient will appreciate. I would never plague my friends and family with something they don't want to read.

Several of my friends are not so considerate, but after receiving immediate debunking replies from me, most have them have gotten the message and have removed me from their auto-forward lists. Now I actually miss being able to shoot down the BS on occasion.