Question Regarding Snopes? (Left Wing Myths Debunked)...

[The Great Escape]

Are there any popular liberal, progressive themes or theories that have been debunked by Snopes? I receive the occasional right wing chain email and can typically debunk these with a link from Snopes, forwarded "to all." Recently, a family member replied to me that Snopes cannot be considered a "valid source," since they only debunk right wing myths. A myth is a myth in my book but then again, I have never consciously looked for discredited left wing myths on Snopes. I don't receive them in my email box, so I've never had a reason to look. Can a few fellow DU'ers point me toward a few?

[kestrel91316]

1. Maybe there AREN'T any "left-wing myths", lol, to BE debunked.

We know the RW lies all the time about everything as part of their SOP. The left has no need to. The truth will suffice.

[meegbear]

2. I would toss it back at the poser ...

Have them send you a "left wing myth" and the points that prove it wrong. They need to site the facts.

If they can do that, then they have a case.

[The Great Escape]

14. Very good idea

[FormerDittoHead]

35. Yes, for some reason, this myth-by-chainmail thing seems to be is a right wing thing. n/t

[Geoff R. Casavant]

3. I don't know specifically about debunking left wing myths, but

I do know that Snopes never hesitates to report when a right-wing story is true. There is one I remember in particular, where President Bush visited a wounded soldier, saluted him, and kept his salute in place for the time it took the soldier to return the salute. Much as I hate our former prick-in-chief, I had to give him props for that.

[The Great Escape]

8. That Is a Very Good Way To Look at That...

I have never seen Snopes as a partisan site.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. our problem is we tend to seek a fact based universe.

And many D sites are afflicted with truthiness.

[Wickerman]

5. The truth, does indeed, carry a leftwing bias. n/t

[Enthusiast]

19. And that is the problem.

My relatives kept sending me ridiculous right wing e-mails. Those tea bagger types want to believe this stuff as truthful. Most of it is absurd. GOP zealots will tell you it is *documented*. :rofl:

[Turbineguy]

6. This one

http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/kinsley.asp

It seems that us lefties are a bit more skeptical of utter bullshit so these chain emails never really get a chance to proliferate.

[csziggy]

30. But apparently Nixon did describe Reagan as "Shallow" and of "Limited Mental Capacity"

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2007/11/nixon-tape-reagan-was-shallow-and-limited-mental-capacity

[EOTE]

7. Snopes mostly debunks right wing myths because the RW...

are the ones who need to constantly make up stuff to bolster their arguments. But you can look at this link for dozens of myths about GWB, many true, many false. That should prove that they don't selectively debunk myths which would benefit the right.

http://snopes.com/politics/bush/bush.asp

edited to add the link.

[YOY]

9. Usually they're just poiting out that gaffes weren't really gaffes...

There are a couple...I think we won hands down for the severe lack of bullshit chainmail letters.

[The Great Escape]

12. It would just never occur to me to forward an chain email even if it confirmed my point of view...

I don't get too many. I have asked most folks in my address book not to send me politically inspired emails.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. How many retarded ass racist 9/11 conspiracy theories can you fit on the head of a pin? n/t

[nuxvomica]

13. 9/11 conspiracy theories are not exclusive to lefties

They occupy that political no-man's land where Alex Jones has prominance and he's no lefty.

[nuxvomica]

11. Do a search on Sarah Palin or George W. Bush

There are plenty of false rumors about them both but they don't really constitute left-wing myths. The left doesn't generally traffic in myths considering how outrageous just the truth is these days.

[imdjh]

15. The black doctor who died because a white hospital turned him away is the only one I can think of.

The one about the black buy who invented the artificial heart, or kidney machine, or something being turned away by a hospital in the South. It made it to MASH during the preachy phase, and was commonly accepted as the truth.

Other than that, I can't think of one. The propensity to believe in this kind of crap seems to increase in proportion to the willingness to believe that Elian Gonzales was saved by a magic dolphin and Miriam ben David appeared on the side of a bank in Clearwater.

[90-percent]

16. Profound

The way to get an extreme right winger to have more respect for us lefties is simply to ask him to define a leftie myth and then produce the subsequent debunking of lefty myth by snopes.

You guys make it seem like it simply can't be done.

Hey, if this world was really "fair and balanced", then fully HALF of the contents of snopes would be left and exactly the other half right.

And in this universe it isn't even close.

Is it illogical for me to conclude that the right wing mind is fulled to the brim with COMPLETELY MANUFACTURED BULLSHIT?

What a horrible way to go through life, son.

-90% Jimmy

[Mz Pip]

17. I remember doing snopes search

before the election on false chain emails and found that the vast majority of the emails that turned out to be out and out bullshit were right wing screeds.

I did this because my cousin, who is very conservative, would forward me all this crap and intially was surprised to learn it wasn't true. I became his debunker. But it did make me curious because I never receive any left wing screeds from my liberal friends.

It's not as though left wing bullshit doesn't exist; it just doesn't seem to exist in the quantities that the rw bullshit does.

I particularly like the ones that say "Snopes says it's true" and if you actually take the time to check snopes you discover that it's false and been debunked.

[napi21]

18. Usually when I reply to all to debunk a RW email, I also check

FactCheck. Apparently the RW believes them more because Cheney quoted them once. Most of the time, I find the same info on both sites.

[MajorChode]

20. You've just identified the problem with the wingnut definition of "balanced"

A wingnut will point out that just because snopes has more RW myths debunked, that MUST mean they aren't "balanced". However it ignores the possibility that maybe wingnuts simply perpetuate more myths.

They make the same bullshit argument about the MSM. In other words, their points of view MUST be represented equally no matter how nutty they are or you don't have "balance". It never occurs to them that their views aren't represented equally because they simply aren't worth a day old dog turd.

Personally I think it's quite funny that wingnuts shun factchecking sites like snopes. It just makes it all that much funnier when they perpetuate bullshit that's already been debunked. It makes them look that much more ignorant.

[LeftinOH]

21. Being liberals, we have powerful bullshit detectors; RWers tend to be very gullible

[texastoast]

22. All those well-funded puke "think tanks" crank that stuff out

to the true believers who then send it to everyone in their address books.

I don't get lefty "myths," but I get a boatload of RW emails full of downright actionable lies (were someone so inclined).

[Godhumor]

23. One I most remember is the "How many is a Brazillian" joke

Yes, Snopes took it up:

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/brazil.asp

Due to lack of sources the authors left it as undetermined, but it is clear they don't believe a word of it.

[Statistical]

24. Here is a couple

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/reportcard.asp

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/palin.asp

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp (this one was popular on DU despite many who tried to kill it because it undermined the real story)

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/piper.asp

I just did a search for Palin.

If you searched for George Bush, Reagan or other people not too popular with the left I am sure you can find dozens more.

[Seeking Serenity]

25. The Super Bowl Sunday/increase in domestic violence myth

Snopes pretty much did a smack-down on that piece of hysterical propaganda.

[imdjh]

31. My mother believes stuff like that. OF course, she also believes in astrology and fullmoon silliness

[Seeking Serenity]

37. I never bought that Super Bowl Sunday myth

My cynic meter kicked into high gear when I heard that one. Didn't make sense.

[valerief]

26. When the right temporal lobe is damaged, there's no reasoning with these people. nt

[Arkansas Granny]

27. I don't recall getting chain emails with Left Wing talking points or "myths".

The only chain emails I get are RW myths. At least, I used to. I started sending them back with the Snopes link that debunked them and I don't receive nearly as many now as I did just a few months ago.

[lpbk2713]

28. It's the RWers that keep cranking out all the bullshit.

It's the way they do things. They will say anything from how Obama wants to take away everyone's guns to how Obama refuses to pledge allegiance to the flag just to create hysteria among the uninformed. And it works considering how so many of the Shittoheads are below average in intelligence. That's what keeps Limbaugh and Hannity et al on the air.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

38. Yep. The ratio must be something like 50-1.

[BlooInBloo]

29. Rove has been indicted?

[imdjh]

32. There is a downside to SNOPES.

Folks like my mom, who are weary of everything they thought was true being wrong, dismiss SNOPES because it makes them wrong.

[treestar]

33. What is an example of a left wing myth?

Right wingers are unclear on the concept and probably consider it a "myth" that single payer healthcare would be a good thing. They cannot tell the difference between facts and opinions.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

34. Bush looking through blocked binoculars; Bush reading a children's book upside down.

Both were debunked as Photoshops in Snopes. It is a fair site, os as close to fair as you're gonna find.

[RockaFowler]

36. Wow - check out the Barack Obama page

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/obama.asp

Some of these are just outrageous. I can't believe anyone had to even debunk it.

[CANDO]

39. In RW world, if you challenge it, it is in doubt.

Hence they challenge Snopes, therefore it is in doubt. That's their time tested tactic in a nutshell. It works on global warming for them like a charm.