My Repub SIL sends me the false e-mail about Obama blowing off the troops

[mnhtnbb]

during his recent visit to Afghanistan.

This sister-in-law is died in the wool Repub. I have gotten into it with her over and over
again about checking her facts before sending these BS e-mails around. So this time,
I really put it to her:

It was the e-mail debunked on Snopes here:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/afghanistan.asp

I sent her this response:

XXXXX,

I have suggested repeatedly that e-mails such as this false one about Obama blowing off the troops during a visit should be checked for accuracy
before sending off to everyone in the blogosphere. Since I can't be assured you will correct this false information with everyone who
got the original e-mail, I am taking the liberty of hitting "reply all" so that everyone will be informed.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/afghanistan.asp

Please, folks, with election time upon us and all those with an axe to grind working away, it behooves us all--whether Democrat or Republican--to do
some fact checking.

Thanks,

xxxxx


You know, I am getting to the point with this woman that I don't care if I ever communicate with her again. She's been married to my brother for 30-some years, and I've known her since high school (late 60's) But I'm really fed up. :spank: She just keeps doing the same thing--sending out lies and bullshit--over and over again. I suppose I should be glad she had me on the list so I could correct
this with everyone she sent it to, but I'm getting to the point where I don't give a damn.

And it's only August!

:cry:

[bunkerbuster1]

1. Has she told you "Snopes is Left Wing!" yet?

Has she griped that the facts have a liberal bias?

[mnhtnbb]

10. No. But she has said she's not concerned with facts! I couldn't believe that!

:wtf:

[Frances]

2. You did the right thing

I have a ditzy cousin who sent me attacks on Kerry in 2004. I wrote a passionate defense of Kerry and hit Reply All. I got some interesting responses.

[mnhtnbb]

4. I used to follow the etiquette of replying only to her, but I didn't

the last time she sent me one of these things. I was so pissed, that I actually typed some of the Snopes info into my response and hit reply all. Wow. One of her friends really got angry with me
that I should dare to send her an e-mail with my opinion in it.

I thought after that exchange that my SIL would get the message--but she had some BS reasoning
that it didn't matter the e-mail was factually incorrect, because she agreed with the conclusion!

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

[ieoeja]

20. I have had that experience many times.

It never ceases to amaze me that when you give so many of these dittoheads the facts showing that someone else has lied to them, they get angry at *you* for telling them the truth. Truly bizarre.

The Conservative and Liberal mindsets are drastically different. In fact, the only times I have goaded Conservatives close to physical violence is when I agreed with them and gave rational, logical reasons why they were correct on the issue.

Their positions are right because they are right. You can not argue a point, even in favor of it, because to do so implies the possibility that it could be wrong. And their positions are moral absolutes. There is no arguing it.

So you have to reply-all -- which eventually leads to them taking you off their mailing lists -- not to argue with the person sending the e-mail, but for the benefit of the non-Conservatives on that list who might otherwise be fooled by the falsehoods.

Just one thing, you should blind-copy everyone on the reply-all. That way you won't end up subjecting everyone to a debate in which they are not interested should one of the recipients choose to reply-all back at you. That could be annoying.

[azmouse]

3. I stopped talking to my RW sister-in-law 4 years ago.

I haven't talked to my brother in that time either. No loss.

I did the same thing you did when she would send me religious and Rep emails. I asked her to fact check them. It pissed her off to not be allowed to spew her hate so she stopped sending me any emails at all. Like I said, no loss.

[BOSSHOG]

5. fact checking is for sissy liberals

Real patriotic conservative americans don't have to fact check they just have to hate and lie and if the facts get in the way well fuck em cause this country is the land of the party of integrity and responsibility and made up shit. But I digress.

[mnhtnbb]

8. Thanks for the laugh. I really had to stomp on my fingers while

writing that reply.

:rofl:

[mnhtnbb]

6. I only have one brother. I hate to give up the connection. He's just as right wing

as she is, but he's savvy enough not to send me this crap. Thank goodness they've moved
across the country to CA--I won't have to think up excuses to not visit them anymore.
When they were in Philly (and I'm in NC) I used to go up at Christmas to see them.

One of their sons is coming to visit in 10 days--but he's a Dem!

[azmouse]

13. I have only this brother remaining.

Our other brother died in Nov and even then this brother and I didn't talk. I've written him off. Sometimes that's better for family harmony. I hope he's happy with his RW harpy.

Glad to hear that some other members of your family are Dems. :hi:

[gateley]

14. If you asked her to remove you from her e-mail list, would she?

I understand about not wanting to alienate your brother. I asked my brother (and he's a Dem!) about his son possibly voting for McCain (my niece ratted him out to me). My brother said (kind of irritated) "Oh, I don't know - that's so far in the future." Just THAT attitude, that it wasn't really important - pissed me off so much I realized it would be best if I never broached the subject again.

So now we just swap lame jokes and pretty photos. :).

[mnhtnbb]

21. I tried very hard to get my brother to vote Kerry--or at least not Bush--in 04

He's a very well-educated scientist (MD/PhD)and I took the approach of how awful the Bushies
have been to science.

He finally said, "let's just not talk politics". It's really hard when you have family that
understands the importance of knowledge--and is working actively to press the boundaries of knowledge--
to say they don't want to hear facts about something else. It's very disappointing.

His wife--my SIL--is another story. She reminds me so much of my mother--who never wanted to be bothered with the facts. She had all the answers.

I think she accidentally sent me this e-mail, because I haven't gotten anything political from her in a long time.

[gateley]

23. Whoa - I just got an e-mail from my S-I-L's CO-WORKER!

Apparently SIL had passed along a comparison of Obama and McCain's tax plans. This person was trying to convince me that it wasn't FAIR to tax the rich people more who are ALREADY PAYING THE MOST TAXES. WFT??

Then, S/he sent me another e-mail with an article on how we're driving the wealthy out of America by wanting to raise their taxes. "What will we do when they all leave?"

I was polite because of my SIL (but pissed at her for forwarding the e-mail), but asked told the person s/he didn't need to contact me again since the enclosed articles and arguments weren't going to change my mind.

:rant:


I understand your disappointment in your brother. At least my brother - please God - will vote Dem, even though he's not interested into delving into it much. My parents always voted Dem until Reagan, when my mom fell in love with him :eyes:. My dad didn't fall for it, though. And you bring up a good point -- both my parents were highly educated - my dad was a surgeon, my mom had a Ph.D. in education - so I wonder why one "got it" and the other strayed? More proof that education doesn't necessarily make you wise in all areas.

I'm not sure how my SIL votes - I know her mom was a staunch republican and strongly influenced Barbara, but my niece (my spy) told me she thought Barbara voted for Kerry last time. I'm afraid to ask! :-)

Politics and religion -- such explosive topics!

[mnhtnbb]

24. Why is it the Repubs are always sending this kind of stuff around?

I think it's winning at any cost--pushing their point of view. Entitlement. And I think
they have tremendous disrespect for the democratic process.

[gateley]

26. My SIL e-mailed me and said

since LaMar (my new pen pal) is always sending out political crap at work, she forwarded him my e-mail about Obama vs McCain. She told me to tell him to fuck off if I wanted to.

My first reaction is that it's not only repubs who send that shit around (because it was my e-mail that started this), but I honestly haven't seen BULLSHIT Dem slurs, so the Reps are definitely the fear/hate/propaganda mongers here.

[BOSSHOG]

22. My kick ass wife

has banned any discussion about politics between me and some of her siblings. We get along great as long as we aren't talking political stuff. She knows the shit would hit every fan in the family if we did.

[DangerDave921]

11. sad

politics are important, but losing family over it is too much.

I have a lot of relatives who are Rush-loving Repubs. We joke about politics and fight over it, but always in good fun. I can't imagine not talking to my sister over it.

[azmouse]

15. It got to the point of my SIL's family harrassing my mother over my views.

It was just too much. Better to end contact with those RW relatives than see my mom being hurt further by their behavior.

[DangerDave921]

16. I guess

if they are really obnoxious about it, and harrassing her, that's a different story. Didn't mean to judge your family relationships.

[azmouse]

17. It's alright.

I don't talk about it much here. We all have our problems in life to deal with.
If not talking to my brother is as bad as it gets... well, I'll consider myself lucky.

[mnhtnbb]

19. I was the only Dem in a Republican family of four. Both parents are dead--so it's

just my brother left

Unfortunately, hubby's family is also all Republicans. I'm not looking forward to a visit
with them later this month in Georgia. My BIL never misses listening to Rush. That ought
to tell you what we have to deal with if they start talking politics!

[gateley]

7. An exceptionally good rebuttal from Snopes --

Let's pray your S-I-L reads it. (Sadly, I don't think it'll change any minds - I really don't think anything will.)

[mnhtnbb]

9. I thought it was interesting that they prefaced the whole thing with the fact

they were waiting for this crap to appear. I also thought it interesting that they
mentioned how many e-mails they'd had from soldiers who got to see Obama.

[gateley]

18. And that they included the retraction of the asshole who wroth

the original e-mail. I thought it was powerful that another serviceperson said that s/he was disgusted to serve next to someone who would spread such untruths.

Too bad he won't face disciplinary charges.

[BOSSHOG]

12. Lets imagine the reverse situation on Free Republic

I got an email from my skanky dumbocrat SIL questioning my facts. Can you believe the liberal bitch. All they care about is accuracy. What the fuck is so great about accuracy. Everyone knows Obama is an American hating Muslim. Who needs to check those facts.

You go girl. My ignorant SIL used to pull that fact shit on me. Its like they think facts are important. Fucking liberals.

[mnhtnbb]

25. Just got an e-mail from one of my SIL's sons (my nephew) saying

I beat him by about 3 minutes sending the Snopes link to his mom!

Ha!

[mnhtnbb]

27. My SIL just sent me an e-mail saying "my bad" and trying to excuse

the fact that she didn't check it first on Snopes. Plus, she got annoyed that I didn't trust
her to correct the erroneous e-mail. She sent her e-mail to everyone; she just sent another one
to me that indicated most of her e-mails didn't go through! Maybe everybody has blocked her e-mail
address! Or maybe they've blocked mine!

I've decided I'm ready to go to war with her over this. I'm really fed up with her--and frankly, I'm sick of being nice to someone who sends this kind of shit around. Let her stew for awhile.

Here's my answer to her:

Dear xxxxx,

Just stop sending me this shit. That's just what it is and I'm tired of it. Rationalize all you want why you didn't check it--but obviously at some
level you don't care that you are sending this shit around to people.
You told me the last time you sent me one of these that you didn't care that the information was incorrect; you agreed with the opinion.
You wouldn't have sent this one if you weren't agreeable to be forwarding some kind of negative information about Obama to people.
If you'd sent me something that was full of lies about John McCain, I would have done the same thing.

If you don't like the insinuation that you can't be trusted, then don't behave in an untrustworthy manner.

xxxxx

[mnhtnbb]

28. Kick for evening discussion.

[mnhtnbb]

29. Update: I have now notified my SIL that I have blocked her e-mail

I also wrote a lengthy e-mail to my brother explaining my decision. I have told him I want nothing more to do with her, and that she must live with the consequences of her cavalier attitude about sending
garbage around before checking it.

I am really f*cking fed up with the Bushie/McCain supporters in this country who participate/condone/encourage the propaganda machine of lies. It shows incredible
contempt for our democracy and disrespect for the truth. I am just sick of it.

The irony of all this is that I'm not an Obama fan. I am standing up not for him, but for
the process of democracy and the requirement that democracy depends upon an educated and informed
public. Garbage in--garbage out. Look what we've gotten by tolerating the spread of lies.