I am so proud ...

My somewhat elderly father loves to forward e-mails. Jokes especially, but glurge, dire warnings, all of the crap that comes through his inbox. (At America Online, of course. :rolleyes: ) Tonight, he sent on a bit of crap about Barack Obama being a clandestine radical Muslim.

With a note saying “too bad people don’t do a little research.”

And a link . :eek:

Well done, Padawan. You are ready to face the trials, and become a Jedi Master.

As soon as you cancel your AOL account.

My mother, who has a doctorate and speaks all over the world, was my biggest offender until a few months ago. I usually sent her Snopes links and other contradictory evidence to whatever crap it was. Other times, I wrote up a replies like a well-done GQ post. Later, I started just saying things like “SNOPES!! PLEASE USE IT!”

The glurge halted and I was finally at peace. Do you know how she changed her behavior?

Over Christmas, I found out that she just took me off of her extensive mailing list.

Oh, Shagnasty, that’s just sad.

Oh, Shagnasty, that’s just dodging a bullet. Pat yourself on the back.

My aunt used to send me these all the time until I sat down with her and explained that most, if not all, of the e-mails she gets about scams and fundraising or things like that are fake, and she shouldn’t spread the ignorance. And then I stopped getting them. It lasted for weeks, until I got one from her today.

It was something about telemarketers getting your cell phone number, and how you should call this number to opt out of the advertising list. I rolled my eyes and was ready to hit delete when I noticed that she’d added a note for me: “Hey, Antigen, you told me these were usually not true but I wanted you to check this one for me - I don’t want to send it to people if it’s fake.”

Progress!