Seeking out anybody’s advice implies that we assume the luminary in question has the most valid answer within [reasonably] easy reach. These folks have acquired question authority, and they will continue to rest upon pillars until such time as they prove themselves unworthy or unable.
Those who are willing to check their own work, make corrections to past errors, and accept the laws of science and fact no matter how uncomfortable or unpopular they may be prove themselves to be worthy of the challenges we bring.
More, these sources have a fairly solid history of successfully supplying satisfying answers. We seek out the truth using the brightest light at our disposal. I would love to be able to take several days off work every now & then and lose myself in a dark & scary corner of the Library of Congress doing some of my own fact finding, but this just isn’t feasible for most.
The human race is (as far as we know) the only species to have formed a collective intelligence, there are a few of us deemed more capable of dipping into it for the benefit of the rest of us.
Excuse me, but our local McDonald’s has a pull tab recepticle. Are you trying to say that people shouldn’t contribute to it?
Yes, I have at least stopped my sister from forwarding the e-mail and whenever I get one from someone else I send back a link to the same story on Urban Legends. (I don’t know whether it does any good though). Only one person has thanked me for the address. I printed a hard copy of a letter that I finally sent to one friend that was not getting the message and took it to my neighbor that just got her first computer. I said, “I had to send this to a friend of mine. Before you start trying to save dying children 5 cents at a time by forwarding e-mails, read this.” Ok, so that’s 3. Three people that don’t forward urban legends because of my efforts.
If you think Unca Cece gets uncritical acceptance, you ought to spend more time over in Comments on Cecil’s Columns.
There are two things at work, here. First, much of the genuflecting at the shrine of Cecil is mildly tongue in cheek. Second, if you go through his books (increasingly available on the archives) you’ll notice that while he does, indeed, admit when people catch out errors in his columns, the percentage of people who catch him in an error is tiny compared to the number of people who yell “Aha!” only to have him demonstrate that his research was better than theirs.
Some of us are more credulous than others, but I think we uphold a certain level of skepticism pretty well.
(A couple of months ago, Libertarian started a thread in Great Debates challenging the quality of Snopes. It was a pretty merry brouhaha for a while although I don’t remember the Topic’s title.)
(Cecil caused the Encyclopædia Britannica to modify one of their articles; I haven’t.)
I have to say, I got the KFC one last week from a former co-worker. (she still works with my husband) I actually wrote back and said not only was it untrue, it was so fucking ridiculous that I was worried about her for believing it. She told my husband that she was embarrassed, and always had admired my ability to “tell it like it is”. Needless to say, no more forwards.
I’m also fighting the good fight with my aunt, who USED to send along all that shit. Now she doesn’t bother. She meant well, though.
Zette
“If I had to live your life, I’d be begging to have someone pop out both my eyes. Just in case I came across a mirror.” - android209 (in the Pit) Zettecity
Voted “Most Empathetic”- can you believe that?
I’m not saying that they don’t have value, just that they don’t have much value. It almost seems an act of cruelty to toss the can in the trash and say to those kids in the R.McD house: “You can’t have this aluminum can, but you can have this little pull tab!” It’s like throwing a four course dinner in the trash but saving the crumbs left on the place mat for the hungry & homeless.
Snopes sez:
And…
The point is, people are missing the point. Collect a million tabs and the R.McD house gets a measly $474. Expend the same effort and collect a million pennies, and they get ten thousand dollars. Walk through your office and ask people to reach into their pocket & donate either (a) an aluminum pull tab, or (b) a penny. Which do you think you’ll get more of?
For what it’s worth I’m also a “reply all” type. I REALLY hate those stupid chain mails. Here’s my version:
The message sent to you earlier was a hoax, one of many floating around the internet. As much as I’d like to say “Thanks for the spam, thank you, goodbye!!” you are a friend (or a friend of a friend) so I’m just passing this on so you know
While it’s nice to get “stuff” from friends, it would be nicer if that “stuff” was pleasant, friendly messages wishing someone a good day rather than another useless warning cluttering up inboxes around the world. Please check one of the following website for information concerning chain e-mail, urban legends, and hoaxes - email and otherwise. Some of these links are dry, some entertaining, some educating, and other just pretty damn funny.
I haven’t gotten any nasty responses; most of them are along the lines of “Who are you?” To them I send the one about the boy with a bag of sawdust for a body
Aw, now I see. I don’t drink soda because I’m severely allergic to it and I don’t drink enough beer in cans to be worth the 3 minute drive to McDonald’s. Actually, I was hoping you’d tell me something that I could take to the McDonald’s to have them get rid of that big annoying recepticle that takes up so much of that valuable waiting in line space. And I’m proud to say that we donate our whole aluminum cans to our local volunteer recycling group. I give pennies to Ronald for his houses.
Many of you seem to be losing hope in this noble batle against ignorance. There’s at least a half-dozen posts here asking, “does it do any good to try to enlighten people?” Of course it does! After all, most of the people on this board, I’ll wager, once did believe UL’s, and were probably told by a friend to be more skeptical.
For what it’s worth, I always reply all to dangerous (i.e., “Don’t use sunscreen!”)or pointless (money in various forms for forwarding comes to mind) hoaxes or panicmongers (virus warnings, gang initiations), making sure to include a reference or two and the strongest of the logical arguments. On the other hand, some of the stories, although false, are nonetheless funny enough to have merit in their own right (most alleged Darwin Awards fall into this category).
The thing to remember is that yes, misinformation spreads quickly on the Internet, but the truth has the potential to spread just as fast.
“There are only two things that are infinite: The Universe, and human stupidity-- and I’m not sure about the Universe”
–A. Einstein
The demigod part is a joke. He’s not really a demigod. His columns have had plenty of vetting.
Barbara Mikkelson, Snopes, are long time regulars at the usenet group AFU (alt.folklore.urban). Their website contains a digest of the collective knowledge of AFU. They regularly update the legends at the website, and send out mailings inviting interested others to peruse and criticize them. AFU frequently entertains discussions of the snopes pages. It’s not that Barbara is mostly right, it’s that her website is.
It’s great your local McDeath has a pull-tab donation bin. But you’re better off pitching pennies into it than pull tabs.
Dee da dee da dee dee do do / Dee ba ditty doh / Deedle dooby doo ba dee um bee ooby / Be doodle oodle doodle dee dohhttp://members.xoom.com/labradorian/
The first time or few, I generally reply politely to the sender with links to the various UL sites. If repeat offenses continue, I’ll move up to the reply-all technique and send nastier replies, still including links. Since (1) writing civil-yet-evil replies is one of my favorite hobbies :D, and (2) I work in MIS and am therefore obviously an expert on anything even remotely technology-related :rolleyes:, that usually fixes the problem. Or at least they take me off of their distribution list. (We do have a policy against email to ALL staff, so I don’t reply-all on those; I wait for the email gods to strike down the offender.)
One of my favorites - I replied to an UL email with a link to a debunk site; the UL site mentioned the fact that another email was in progress warning that the first email was a virus and stating CLEARLY that the virus threat was a hoax…I got a plaintive reply asking me for help with the virus that was now on their computer. !!!
And I’m proud to say that we donate our whole aluminum cans to our local volunteer recycling group. I give pennies to Ronald for his houses.