About a year ago one coworker told me Obama had eliminated term limits so he could run again. Yesterday another one said trump had ordered the evacuation of all Americans from South Korea, so of course war was imminent. I asked him where he got his news and he cited local tv stations. Not long ago he blamed the Katrina relief fiasco on Obama, so he’s unreliable at best.
Co-Workers = Bureaus of Misinformation
I called my dad the other day and we had a long conversation about a few topics. The next day I talked to my mom and discussed the same topics with her and she told me what my dad had relayed to her from our phone conversation, and and basically my dad had gotten everything mixed up, jumbled and totally wrong.
I always cringe when he starts to tell me “something I heard on the [right-wing talking head] radio…” but now I am going to be even more suspicious, considering what a terrible reporter he actually is.
In high school one of my teachers had us play “Telephone,” the game where people repeat a story, one after the other, just to see how garbled it can get.
There’s also a classroom exercise (sometimes called "Eyewitness’) where an unannounced event is staged, and the class writes down what they saw and heard.
Moral: If someone tells you the sky is blue, better go outside and check.
Either your coworker is trolling you (lying) to get a rise out of you, or they are lying about where they got their information (because they know that they would sound suspect if they told you they got it from CrazyRightWingStuff.com). Either way, they are an unreliable source of information, and probably an unreliable person in other respects too.
He may be getting it from the TV.
Omg…I thought I was crazy…I have a friend who is always repeating incorrect newsy things…I thought I must of been missing things. I would go home and research everything she told me and could never confirm any of it…I thought I was getting Alzheimer or something…thank you OP!!
Yeah, but it’s not just the right wing. I remember when the Shrub was president, and liberal types were saying that he was going to revoke term limits and become President-for-Life too.
Who would’ve ever thought that we would look back on Dubya with nostalgic longing?
People talk politics at work?
Lying coworker is easy - “Hey, Obama eliminated term limits!” you - “Ha ha, yeah ok. Well, i have to get back to work”
or
“Hey, Obama eliminated term limits!” you - “Yeah? Where did you read that?” “Oh, on TV” you - “I doubt that. Thanks for the info. Well, I have to get back to work.”
I just ignore people like that. People that have never been within 1000 miles of Chicago are constantly telling me I’m going to murdered any minute now. People that have never left their small Midwestern towns seem to be experts in no-go parts of London when I’m travelling there.
I had a coworker (female) who rabidly hated Hillary. One day I overheard coworker tell a group of people that Hillary wanted to take children away from their parents and raise them in a village.
This is a time-honored tradition going back to George Washington. (Not that there were term limits then.) I think every president has had people prophesying The Big Takeover.
Could be that your co-workers are just reporting true snippets, devoid of their qualifying context. My neighbor used to keep TV on in the house for noise, and once in a while her ears would perk up at a buzzword heard on Fox and Friends, and she would report some heinous social fact. An opposition congressman charges that millions could be left without school lunch, and now, Have you heard that they are cutting out school lunch?
Discovery Channel is rife with this kind of “fact”, preceded by "Could it be that . . . " or “Some expert believe it is possible . . .” and now a whole generation of Americans believe in megalodons and ancient astronauts.
Early onset of senile dementia? Ask his doctor to test him.
In 2009, my great grandfather announced that he’d heard on the news that Social Security wasn’t going to send out any payments for a whole year. (What actually happened was that there was no cost of living adjustment for 2010.)
I’m sure there were, but I don’t recall it happening before the Clinton admin was coming to an end. No doubt this is due to the internet effect.
That’s probably true. Before that it was newsletters and front porches. Historically, there have also been any number of partisan newspapers where it would crop up.
There were many conspiracy nuts in early 1940 who thought FDR wasn’t going to abide by the future 2-term limit. And they were right!!! :eek:
Thanks Gore!
It’s pretty easy to tell who listens to right wing talk radio, watches Fox News, and visits the nutbag websites.