E-mail "Rumors"

[EasterJoy]

I have a conservative relative who send these “rumor” e-mails out as if they’re the truth. He does not even bother to verify them, although sometimes he asks “what I think” about them. I have sent him replies pointing out that the e-mails are total loads of BS, and now he’s treating me as if I have a Dukakis sticker on my car.

Does anybody else even bother to reply when they get e-mails that are full of lies? Does anybody even care?

 

[SummerSmiles]

Ugh, my mom does the same thing. And she takes these things as if they were the absolute truth! Then, when I try to explain how flawed they are, she makes it sound like I’m the immoral idiot who is too wrapped up in the secular world and doesn’t believe the truth even when it’s staring me in the face.

I do get the occasional email like this from other family members, and usually I just ignore them. When someone (my mom) asks what I think about them, I tell her the truth. These things are generated on the internet, they’re written by God knows who, and it’s probably better to do some of her own fact-checking. And when she says, “oh, it’s true alright! I KNOW it’s true!” Then I just smile and nod and change the subject, or I make some sort of noncommittal answer. It’s not really worth my time to argue with someone who I know isn’t going to listen to my points on the issue anyways.

 

[Bix]

I usually don’t respond and simply delete the email.

If it is something I’m curious about or a forwarded prayer request, I check it out on snopes.com. There are a surprising number of false, pitiful sounding prayer requests people with good intentions forward to everyone they know without checking it out first…

Maybe you could search their site and then forward the info to this person in a kind manner to inform him.

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

I, too, generally hit the delete button. Sometimes these things are written like email chain letters, which if sent in snail mail are illegal and a federal offense.

And I get the same ones all week long from various friends who have enormous “friends” lists to mail to, as well as receive mail from.

 

[Robertanthony]

I have **a conservative relative **who send these “rumor” e-mails out as if they’re the truth. He does not even bother to verify them, although sometimes he asks “what I think” about them. I have sent him replies pointing out that the e-mails are total loads of BS, and now he’s treating me as if I have a Dukakis sticker on my car.

Does anybody else even bother to reply when they get e-mails that are full of lies? Does anybody even care?

The “delete” button can be your friend if you give it a chance, I know it’s mine. If the person is reasonable, tell them about snopes.com, on that site you’ll find many urban legends/myths debunked, if not, delete and say a prayer for the poor fellow. I know I have a relative who has paranoid tendencies and that translates into him buying into stupid conspiracy theories which I sometimes must suffer listening to, and I know things would likely quickly escalate if I said how utterly stupid I think it is for someone to think 9/11 was an inside job. From the mere look of it, your relative wants people to agree with him, he’s not sincerely asking for others’ opinions.

It just occurred to me how gracious and charitable it is of you to call them “conservative” when other less flattering epithets could have readily come to mind.

 

[graciew]

QUOTE=Robertanthony;9103930]The If the person is reasonable, tell them about snopes.com, on that site you’ll find many urban legends/myths debunked

,.

This is what I do too.If not,delete

 

[EasterJoy]

The “delete” button can be your friend if you give it a chance, I know it’s mine. If the person is reasonable, tell them about snopes.com, on that site you’ll find many urban legends/myths debunked, if not, delete and say a prayer for the poor fellow. I know I have a relative who has paranoid tendencies and that translates into him buying into stupid conspiracy theories which I sometimes must suffer listening to, and I know things would likely quickly escalate if I said how utterly stupid I think it is for someone to think 9/11 was an inside job. From the mere look of it, your relative wants people to agree with him, he’s not sincerely asking for others’ opinions.

It just occurred to me how gracious and charitable it is of you to call them “conservative” when other less flattering epithets could have readily come to mind.

I’ve told him about Snopes. I guess it is frustrating because I don’t have a Dukakis sticker on my car and usually this is a relative with whom I can actually have a conversation about politics in which all parties can really disclose the ways in which they agree or disagree with whatever is blowing in the political wind. I mean, he really is simply conservative, rather than being affiliated with some particular political bandwagon.

I guess this has gone from puzzling me and over into simply annoying me, though.

The thing that really annoys me, though, is getting an e-mail of lies sent to me and 40 other people. I could just delete it, but it seems like tacit approval. A few times, I’ve given a rebuttal via “reply all”, but that probably just annoys 40 people instead of just the one.

 

[DaveBj]

Maybe we could start a thread on the Back Fence where we post email rumors and refute them.

 

[gh4]

I go to Snopes, and then put the link in a “reply to all” email and send the link that refutes the email. And then I delete. Respond to all doesn’t work if they use BCC, but at least you are getting that link to the source who passes this stuff on.
If they don’t get the idea, eventually they get tired of my emails back to everyone and they quit sending this stuff to me at least.

 

[EasterJoy]

I go to Snopes, and then put the link in a “reply to all” email and send the link that refutes the email. And then I delete. Respond to all doesn’t work if they use BCC, but at least you are getting that link to the source who passes this stuff on.
If they don’t get the idea, eventually they get tired of my emails back to everyone and they quit sending this stuff to me at least.

So far this has not worked, but I’ll keep trying.