<p>Is anyone else finding that otherwise rational people are believing/spreading outrageous rumors about Obama? These e-mails keep filling my inbox and I find it kind of aggravating and frightening. What do you say, if anything, to people who send them? I can’t think of anything that isn’t rude, but then the rumors are more than rude.</p>
<p>I just received one ten minutes ago, which takes Obama’s words from “The Audacity of Hope” completely out of context and makes him look like jabbering racist/Islamic extremist. It’s sickening.</p>
<p>Treat those emails like you would if they were ***** enlargement ads and Nigerian scams.</p>
<p>Good advice. But it’s sad and scary to think that there are people out there who actually believe this stuff. Incredible.</p>
<p>Well, there’s also the Flat Earth Society and people who believe the holocaust never happened.</p>
<p>Or that the moon-landing was filmed in a studio.</p>
<p>It wasn’t? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>My MIL sent me one too many of those kinds of things last election. I send her a polite, yet terse and direct, response. Took care of it. No one but my MIL would even consider doing that kind of thing.</p>
<p>My friend tried the same approach with her mother, but it hasn’t been too effective, unfortunately.</p>
<p>My father sent me one of those. He is a conservative Republican and believes all of that garbage even though I refuted it with solid data point by point. </p>
<p>My favorite was the picture of Obama not placing his hand over his heart during the national anthem. Supposedly this made him “anti - American”. I pointed out to my father that it is not a custom to do that for the Anthem, only the Pledge. Hats off yes. He would not listen when I pointed out during a baseball game that no one did it either. </p>
<p>I got the last laugh this weekend when during graduation I pointed out to him that he must be “anti - American” too since he did not have hid hand over his heart during the Anthem. He was not amused. </p>
<p>It is racism and fear pure and simple. We still have a long way to go.</p>
<p>Attributing a widespread dislike for Obama to racism is a little presumptuous, don’t you think?</p>
<p>Widespread dislike, no, we are talking about idiotic chain email.</p>
<p>The chain emails are completely false and racist. So yes, I stand by my statement.</p>
<p>Why does no one ever talk about McCain’s wife (his 3rd). She stole drugs from a charity and was addicted to Vicodin and Percocet. And McCain’s team covered it up. Or McCain’s numerous affairs (he started seeing his current wife while still married to #2). All true and documented.</p>
<p>[Salon</a> News | How Cindy McCain was outed for drug addiction](<a href=“http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/18/drugs/]Salon”>http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/18/drugs/)</p>
<p>[Cindy</a> Hensley McCain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Hensley_McCain]Cindy”>Cindy McCain - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Don’t you guys have gmail? It has a pretty good spam filter.</p>
<p>I had a friend who kept sending me a lot of negative emails about various political figures. I told my friend that I didn’t need more negative energy in my life and would they please take me off their mailing list.</p>
<p>My friend took me off the list, but if I had kept receiving the emails my next step would have been to block their email. I realize this is not possible with close relatives, but at least you can look at the header and just delete the offending email without even looking at it.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s time to rethink your friendships!? Family is of course another matter…</p>
<p>Interestingly, I’ve never received one of those emails, but I’d love to see one. Can someone copy one into a PM and send it to me?</p>
<p>“It is racism and fear pure and simple. We still have a long way to go.”</p>
<p>Here we go again. Say something negative about Obama and it is racist.</p>
<p>There are chain mails, blogs, websites, message boards, etc. totally devoted to trashing the opposing candidate ON BOTH SIDES. Why ***** and moan about distorted truths and call it “frightening” - a little overdramatic in my opinion. </p>
<p>Its called politics. And the game and the rules, as it has been played for years, should not have to change because now we have “black” candidate… provided that being like 10% of a race qualifies you as that race. (note: I am not supporting the game and the way it’s played…so don’t start harping on that)</p>
<p>It’s a non issue for most people, except his supporters who like to point the race finger.</p>
<p>You don’t think the “Obama is a secret Muslim” nonsense has a racist and discriminatory character?</p>
<p>Much of these negative emails against Obama are generated by racism and fear of Black advancement. The last thing that many people who are clingling to the racism of the past is for young Black kids to have a sense of hope and pride in this country that seeing a Black man in the presidency would afford. I’ve heard conservative radio shows broadcast blatant lies about Obama (he’s a Muslim, he’s not American (as if Hawaii is not a part of the US), and other things I won’t even repeatl</p>
<p>Snopes.com and Factcheck.org have detailed information debunking all of those emails – for example, here’s the entries on the false quotes from Obama’s book:</p>
<p>[FactCheck.org:</a> Did Obama write that he would “stand with the Muslims” and that he nurses a “pervasive sense of grievance and animosity” toward whites?](<a href=“http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_obama_write_that_he_would_stand.html]FactCheck.org:”>http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_obama_write_that_he_would_stand.html)</p>
<p>[snopes.com:</a> Barack Obama in His Own Words](<a href=“http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ownwords.asp]snopes.com:”>Winds of Change | Snopes.com)</p>
<p>I would suggest that you simply check these sites, then hit “Reply” and say - “I’ve checked, this is a false rumor” and then provide the links. If you have a tolerance for the risk of receiving more spam, you can click “Reply to All”. </p>
<p>While most people who spread these vicious rumors probably don’t care, you might at least cause some people to think twice before passing this stuff on.</p>
<p>Frankly I am feeling a bit left out of the loop on all these emails. I get a lot of spam, but why is absolutely nobody sending me this Obama stuff?</p>