I pit the "F.Y.I. Obama" email and provide a rebuttal - Please send it around

[BrainGlutton]

@ambushed

There is yet another ugly, racist mass email making the rounds again, this time spreading vicious lies about and attacking Barack Obama as a Muslim, a traitor, a member of some “black power” group, and a racist (oh, the irony!)

Get used to this sort of thing, it’s not going to stop.

“Everybody started calling me” when the e-mail first made the rounds, Andy Martin told me. "They said, ‘Hey, did you write this?’ My answer was ‘they are all my children.’ "

[mobo85]

@Ludovic

I hear he paid for his Madrassa education with Monopoly money!

He did, but only once. In 1960. For 20 minutes. In Rio.

[Weirddave]

@Giraffe

And I think my response to your post was quite appropriate.

I am sure you think it was appropriate, that’s why you made it. It was not accurate, which was what I took issue with.

@Giraffe

You took the tone of a post by a single person which had already been roundly criticized by everyone else in the thread and generalized it to a broad slam on “the leftist side of the political spectrum”. Make ham-handed partisan swipes like that out of nowhere and people might make fun of you for it. How ironic!

It was not a swipe, nor was it ham handed. It was an observation, one made in direct response to the poster’s question. I also believe it to be an accurate one, as leftists often do categorize people who don’t agree with them as ignorant bumpkins who must be told what’s good for them. In the 26 responses to this OP prior to my post, we have the following:

@The OP himself

Post #1 On the other hand, I believe the majority of the people who’ll see this and not know the truth – dull-witted though they may be – are open to being corrected and learning the facts on this and other issues.

Post #3 What you say would be perfectly true if the typical reader of this piece was intelligent, informed, and calmly rational. But such is simply not the case, surely, or they would not need to be informed of the facts in the first place – they would look it up and discover the truth for themselves.

Post #11 Again, I very strongly disagree! I am quite convinced there are a huge number of basically good-hearted, basically open-minded people who will read such a thing and accept it – not gullibly or stupidly – but simply because it appears to the ordinary person to be more calm and credible than not, has the air of a legitimate scoop (they may think:“you know, you just can’t expect the damn liberal media to report things like this”), and perhaps they simply don’t have the time, the inclination, the links, or the knack to learn the truth themselves.

Don’t you think that’s at least a reasonable working hypothesis?

I know that’s completely true of most of my own family, who are indeed basically good-hearted, basically open-minded people who read it and accepted it. Not because they’re dumb or ignorant or racists or xenophobic, but just because it was the path of least effort. After I sent out my email response to them, I received several notes of thanks for making it so easy to learn the truth of the matter.

And responses from other posters:

Staggerlee: presumably the type of people who would read and digest the original soundbite slurs might not find the lengthy truth so readable.

Martiju: the rest are going to go with the easy soundbites they get off Fox and from their equally brainless friends.

Of 25 posts (I’m omitting your moderator post as off topic), 5 of them castigated people who don’t agree with the slant of the OP as ignorant, uninformed or stupid. That’s 20% of the replies to one single topic on these boards, and I think that that clearly supports my statement (you know, the one you took umbrage to?) that this sentiment is:

@me

one that is often heard from the left side of the political spectrum

[PunditLisa]

1. I don’t forward ridiculous “Obama is a secret terrorist” e-mails nor would I forward ridiculous “He is not!” e-mails. My immediate circle of friends know my political views without my shoving them down their throats. Everyone else falls outside of my realm of influence, which is a polite way of saying that they don’t give a shit what I think.

2. The OP comes off as a 7th grader who has just learned that folks can and do lie, exaggerate, and dramatize to further their agenda. Obama is hardly the first candidate who’s been attacked unfairly. I hope you get as riled up over unfair attacks of your political adversaries as well.

3. As noble as your intentions, I doubt there is one person who has read your OP and found himself suddenly enlightened. Unfortunately, you can either recognize bullshit propaganda for what it is or you can’t. Most people can’t and therefore don’t seek the truth.

Let me close with my signature line, which I normally hide because I find bumper stickers to be annoying:

“Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”
-Paul Simon

[Giraffe]

@Weirddave

It was not a swipe, nor was it ham handed. It was an observation, one made in direct response to the poster’s question. I also believe it to be an accurate one, as leftists often do categorize people who don’t agree with them as ignorant bumpkins who must be told what’s good for them.

Fair enough, I’m convinced. Leftists do in fact make sweeping generalizations about people who don’t agree with them. Man, leftists are stupid!

[Marley23]

@mobo85

He did, but only once. In 1960. For 20 minutes. In Rio.

There’s no cocaine reason to imply Obama got the Monopoly money by dealing cocaine.

[Weirddave]

@Giraffe

Fair enough, I’m convinced. Leftists do in fact make sweeping generalizations about people who don’t agree with them.

Often times they do. Often times right wingers do too. I’m surprised you think that stating the obvious is some kind of gotcha.

@Giraffe

Man, leftists are stupid!

I happen to agree with you, but these are your words, not mine. My criticism was a little bit more (heh) fair and balanced:

@me

one that most lefties just don’t seem to realize is very offensive and condescending.

So, anything else you need to be corrected about today?

[stolichnaya]

Maybe it’s more fair to say that the type of person who will not research the claims in a random email for themselves are not going to pay much mind to a pre-researched rejoinder.

In any given mass email list, 75% of the recepients are not reading the email. And of those, 75% are rolling their eyes at the sender. The remainder are not worth engaging.

[wring]

@Weirddave

Often times they do. Often times right wingers do too. I’m surprised you think that stating the obvious is some kind of gotcha.

than why use the qualifying “leftists do this” if your (real) point is that partisans (both left and right) do it? Unless, of course, you’re intentionally trolling. IOW by using the designation “leftist” the implication remains that the others (rightists) do it, otherwise there is no particular use for using the word at all.

[Dangerosa]

@Giraffe

Speaking as a poster now, I have to say that the proposed email in the OP is simply terrible. It’s way too long, and the fact that you actually argue each crazy point gives it far more validity than if you had simply responded to the email with something like Marley23’s “almost NONE of this is true” and a Snopes link.

I’d add Slypork’s Matthew quote, too. Remind them of what they REALLY claim to believe in (or many of them). But that’s it.

[Slypork]

@John Mace

So, his full name is Barack Mohammed Hussein abu Osama? Have I got that right?

Actually his full name is Barack Mohammed Hussein abu Osama Adolf Stalin Zarqawi Qadhafi Pol Pot Mao Benito Genghis Vlad Khan Vader Obama II. His parents had great plans for him.

[Weirddave]

@wring

than why use the qualifying “leftists do this” if your (real) point is that partisans (both left and right) do it? Unless, of course, you’re intentionally trolling. IOW by using the designation “leftist” the implication remains that the others (rightists) do it, otherwise there is no particular use for using the word at all.

Because I was responding to a particularly blatant example of leftist elitism. If you had asked me about the glurge email that the OP was about, I would have classified it as typical right wing innuendo and exaggeration. All partisan politics is bad, period. The left tends towards elitism, the further you move from liberalism towards leftism, the worse it gets. For the right it tends to be jingoism, again, getting worse and worse the further right one moves.

[John_Mace]

@PunditLisa

Let me close with my signature line, which I normally hide because I find bumper stickers to be annoying:

“Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”
-Paul Simon

So, what you’re saying is that Obama, I mean Osama, often got a come-on from the whores on seventh avenue, and that there were times that he felt so lonesome he took some comfort there?

[wring]

@Weirddave

Because I was responding to a particularly blatant example of leftist elitism. If you had asked me about the glurge email that the OP was about, I would have classified it as typical right wing innuendo and exaggeration. All partisan politics is bad, period. The left tends towards elitism, the further you move from liberalism towards leftism, the worse it gets. For the right it tends to be jingoism, again, getting worse and worse the further right one moves.

Really? can you give me an example from these boards wherin you do that? Call the rightist idiocy on theirs? 'cause FME, I see you coming into political threads and throwing out those "leftists do/say/are ‘some negative thing’ " overgeneralization then claiming to be centrist and claiming (note I say claiming) that you are an equal opportunity snipe-ist.

[Giraffe]

@wring

I see you coming into political threads and throwing out those "leftists do/say/are ‘some negative thing’ " overgeneralization then claiming to be centrist and claiming (note I say claiming) that you are an equal opportunity snipe-ist.

How ironic.

[you_with_the_face]

What’s she’s saying is that you can call him Al.

As in Al Qaeda!

[wring]

@Giraffe

How ironic.

Are you claiming that I drop into political threads and point out foibles of the right, while claiming to be centrist and never pointing out foibles of the left? Because I would challenge that in that:

1. I don’t claim to be centrist. I am uabashedly left leaning, and founding member of the “Liberal but not a fucking lunatic” society. (thereby not claiming to be centrist).

2. While I do indeed go into political threads and point out foibles of the right, I do, also, make it a point to poke at folks on the lft when they’re being idiots, as well. Thought I was rather known for it, I did.

[Weirddave]

@wring

Really? can you give me an example from these boards wherin you do that? Call the rightist idiocy on theirs? 'cause FME, I see you coming into political threads and throwing out those "leftists do/say/are ‘some negative thing’ " overgeneralization then claiming to be centrist and claiming (note I say claiming) that you are an equal opportunity snipe-ist.

Gee, you find it odd that on a board that leans left, I’m often arguing against some of the ridiculous excesses of leftist politics. How…myopic. Still, you only asked for one example, would this thread qualify?

[myskepticsight]

I just saw this piece of crap posted on my MySpace bulletins, by someone who always buys into this shit. I sent her a message and the Snopes link. Hopefully she’ll think twice before passing on any more crap.

[wring]

@Weirddave

Gee, you find it odd that on a board that leans left, I’m often arguing against some of the ridiculous excesses of leftist politics. How…myopic. Still, you only asked for one example, would this thread qualify?

Wow. Way back in 2004, you wrote a letter to the editor about an op/ed piece from Canada. Well, that sho’ duz put me in my place. However could I allow the scads of posts you’ve made here overgeneralizing and mischaracterizing the lefts, posters here that are left leaning cloud my vision so. You are, sir, a beacon of centrist thinking. A veritable baron of equanimity why you, sir, out O’Reilly, O’Reilly himself. I bow to you.