How To Alienate 30 Friends and Family Members in under 20 Minutes-

[ScreamingMeemie]

Send a 'Reply All' in response to the "FACTS" email that, disgustingly, is making its rounds on the internets all over again.

You remember the one...with the Supreme Court having the 10 Commandments on the doors and walls (never mind that the numbers I-X stand for the first 10 amendments to the Constitution). The one with the quote from James Madison, arguably the statesman most in favor of separation of church and state, that he never said or wrote. And the misinformation just goes on and on...down to quoting Thomas Jefferson...

Aiyeeeee!

I wasn't going to reply (I usually delete in the interest of harmony and stuff) but, after the 3rd forward in 10 minutes, I had to say something. Yes, I spent too long on my point by point (with links) rebuttal of the whole stupid thing...

-but--

--I feel good about it. :) And I know for a fact there were at least 15 people in that forwarded message that will be glad that I did. At least, I think.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/capital.asp

[RKP5637]

1. Recommend!!! n/t

[Pirate Smile]

2. Everyone should do that. The one or two who used to send me that crap stopped rather quickly after

I responded in a quite "unreceptive" manner.

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. I used to do it all the time. Until people stopped sending it.

It started up again. I'm hoping for, at least, a removal from the forward list-at best, a few changed minds...or at least a snopesing before sending. :hi:

[Angry Dragon]

3. In time they will bow down to you

and anoint you with oil for showing them the error of their ways.

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. I'll even be okay with just a simple removal from their forward list.

:D

[flying rabbit]

4. Weed out the chaff

and maybe educate someone along the way!

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. I hope!

:)

[mitchtv]

5. my freep family is shrewd

they send bcc and reply all doesn't work with those

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. My freep family sends me messages on facebook after I unfriend them,

creating a need to block them. They now think I "left" facebook. They are not smart enough to think about bcc. :D

[Sweet Charming Dem]

39. I know the feeling

I'm about ready to block all my family and let them think I've "left" facebook.

[neverforget]

6. I bookmarked the snopes link because i know I will be getting an email

like this sometime soon.

Good job! We have to fight ignorance where ever and whenever we see it.

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. I love snopes for including links etc.

I hope your friends/family are smarter than mine.

[Atomic_rooster]

7. Be that as it may, since we took God out of Schools, society has degenerated.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. I don't know. My son and my daughter are pretty awesome, upstanding,

responsible people. All without "God" in their school. What if the "God" wasn't your "God"??

Oh yeah...welcome to DU. :hi:

[K8-EEE]

18. Mine are too and they didn't have GAWD in the Pledge in the 50's

much the less in schools!

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

11. How exactly can you "take God" out of schools?

Take My word for it, as long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools.

And it will be voluntary, just as Dad and I planned it. :)

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. Applebee's has a pretty awesome lunch menu. I bet God would like it...

...enough to leave school for even. :D

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

17. Do they have a Kosher menu?

Dad still sticks to the Old School diet.

[Angry Dragon]

19. Perhaps he would like a little variety in his life

B-)

[Mariana]

27. Some of Your alleged followers

seem to think that You and Your Dad are rather sad and pathetic, as dieties go. Makes me wonder why they bother to worship You at all. What's the point, if they believe that You're so weak and powerless that You can't enter a school building?

[ScreamingMeemie]

29. Well, you didn't get this from me, but I heard that, the last time he entered

the building, he forgot to get a visitor's pass, and was subsequently banned. But, again, I heard it from someone else.

[Warren DeMontague]

35. You can't even get him out of orgasms.

Oh God, Oh God, OHHHH GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Angry Dragon]

16. What god did we take out of school??

[Gold Metal Flake]

22. Where is your god now?

[hyphenate]

33. My goodness!

That was rather quick!

[Sweet Charming Dem]

LOL

[Sweet Charming Dem]

37. LOL

[Sweet Charming Dem]

38. LOL

[uppityperson]

63. kick for this post

[Sal Minella]

23. I remember Ronald Reagan whining about "kicking God out of

the schools" -- after the Supreme Court ruled against forced mass prayer in publicly-financed schools.

I really wouldn't care to believe in a weakling god that could be kicked out of a bunch of buildings by puny little human pronouncements like that.

[csziggy]

24. Oh bullhockey. Schools and society have degenerated since Reagan cut budgets

And made OUR government the enemy. I was in school when they forced our whacko fundamentalist teachers to leave their Bibles at home and stop opening the classes with prayers specific to their particular brand of hate and fear filled religion. It was such a relief to the students who had those few religious nut jobs to not have to deal with their weirdness. And in the following years, nothing horrible happened - students learned, maybe better than ever, and we all got to get our educations in peace.

:rant:
Watching from outside the system, I see that once Reagan defined government as "the problem" and started cutting education and social programs to the bone while demonizing the people who need help along the way, society became more self centered, accusatory, and generally more mean spirited. Rather than hold out a helping hand, our government and society in general slapped people down and came up with ridiculous concepts like "welfare queens" as if any one wants to live on the barely subsistence level pittance that most "entitlement" programs pay. How a political party that claims to be "Christian" can be as deep down mean and vicious, I don't understand.

School budgets have been cut, and cut, and cut until I don't understand how they can possibly do their jobs. Every teacher I know spends a sizable amount of time and money supplementing class materials and trying to make their subjects as interesting as possible. And then after school is out for the day or for the year, they are usually spending all their spare time and much of their vacation time helping with after school programs, summer programs, and preparations for the next school year.

If the GOP weren't using the "Christian" fundamentalists to achieve their goals of dismantling entitlement programs and public education, I might feel a little more charitable. But it seems to me that much of the meanness and nasty feeling originates from those so-called religious people. Treat people nastily and they will return it. Treat people with respect and they will develop a sense of self respect and work even harder.

:rant:

[Control-Z]

40. That was perfect, csziggy.

I could not have said it better. Thank you.

[csziggy]

41. Thanks. n/t

[A-Schwarzenegger]

26. TSed already.

[Obamanaut]

31. If one really believes in the omnipotence and omnipresence of god, any god, then

that god could not have been 'taken' out of anyhing, anywhere.

Isn't there a verse with words to the effect that "...Lo, I am with you always..."? If this god were 'taken' out of schools so easily, then the "I am with you always' statement must not be true.

[hyphenate]

32. I doubt if that has anything to do with it

I definitely don't think there should be even the hint of "god" in the public schools. Public schools are secular for a reason--religion is not part of our government, and we need to keep it that way. I would actually suggest that it is those kids who have rabidly religious families who have a great deal to do with the bullying and making fun of GBLT kids in schools, and why suddenly there is a lot of hate and intolerance in these schools. Families who hate other races, or people who are different should stick to parochial schools, private schools, or homeschooling for their kids. If they want to have their children get the best education in public schools, they should STFU about hatred, intolerance and lack of respect for others.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. I know! There's hasn't been a good lynching in, shit, I don't know how long!

Know what? I fully accept that it's against the rules, but, Fuck Off, Troll.

[SecularMotion]

44. Police: NC Bible college student killed in dorm

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hzshgCq3dO0yMjfwAiqU4ojU_MlgD9IL7UM80?docId=D9IL7UM80

Yeah, right.

:crazy:

[Pacifist Patriot]

45. Tempted to respond, but since I believe in neither God nor ghosts...

not much point now. RIP

[Amaril]

46. Bullshit. n/t

[gaspee]

47. Yeah

I kind of miss praying to Thor.

You know, I think it was color TV that did it myself.

Or maybe it was the invention of the telephone. Yeah, society has really gone downhill since then. What a perfect society we used to have. Do I really need a sarcasm tag? Really?

What a ridiculous statement.

[krabigirl]

49. Lol

[Lucian]

51. You're an idiot, and thank your god you got TSed.

[NoSheep]

53. Only the people who needed to believe in order to be nice.

[Arugula Latte]

59. Bwa ha ha ha ha!!

:rofl:

What utter crock!

[Caretha]

61. Oh so funny you be

but as Yoda would say....without brains be this one.

[MadMaddie]

62. Are there no religious schools for students to go to?

What about churches? Whose religion will dictate what is taught in public schools? Catholic, Southern Baptist, Lutheran? If the religion rules the school can all students attend? If they are gay? If they have learning disabilities? If they are of different cultures and races?

What about the responsibility of the parent who instills bad habits like bullying, hate-mongering, cheating and lying? Is it really the schools responsibility to teach the children the basics of life? How to live an honest life?

Lack of religion in schools is not the problem, it's the parents.

Note: There are a lot of good children and teens out there and that's because they have great parents.

[cleanhippie]

71. Buwahahaha! Uh, I hate to break this to you...

God was never IN our schools....


Religion was, in some aspects, but as we all know that endorsing any religion is contrary to the Constitution. But you knew that.


And degenerated? Hardly. I would call the discarding of the old mythologies in favor of logic and reason PROGRESS. Religion is the anchor holding us back.

[treestar]

72. God is in the churches. Why isn't that enough?

[ldf]

75. are you serious?

since the bible trumped science, public education has become a joke. (along with teaching a test, instead of knowledge.)

the only place a god should be mentioned in the educational process is in a comparative religion course.

where they should all be ridiculed, equally.

maybe we could also get some civics, social sciences, humanities, art, music back into the curriculum. with a little critical thinking. history is written by the winners, but we don't need to rewrite it to please some vengeful, hateful, jealous..... christians.

until we do we will continue to sink, educationally.

[Goblinmonger]

77. Wow, jingoinst, bullshit, RW talking points

without any substance to back them up. Golly, you must be right.

Google prayer in schools and get back to me. Do you even know the history of that?

[iamjoy]

20. I Do That!

and the nastier the tone/allegations of the e-mail, the nastier my response.

and I've defended Conservatives, too from lies/smears. But always with the, "there are plenty of real reasons to dislike/disagree with Sarah Palin (or whomever), there's no need to make up stuff. Baseless smears distract from the valid issues and concerns"

[ScreamingMeemie]

65. I sandwiched mine between an "I hope everyone is well" and a

"we miss you all so much", trying to sweeten it a little. :)

[Lint Head]

21. I did that too and the wingnut spam stopped. Now

my sister hardly speaks to me.

[ScreamingMeemie]

66. It's crazy how that happens. As I mentioned above, I had to blcok

a close cousin on facebook because he wouldn't drop it.

[DirkGently]

25. Had to do that(ish) at work once or twice, actually. Good on ya.

[patrice]

28. People who freak out about Reply All need to get a life (or at least 2 email addresses, one for

control and the other for potential Reply Alls).

At this point all of us are getting all kinds of stuff in our inboxes that we don't want. Anyone who can't just delete the Reply Alls along with any of the other junk that they delete as a matter of course, REALLY just wants to be angry more than anything else.

[ScreamingMeemie]

67. You are right. Self-righteousness is as epidemic levels.

:hi:

[AmandaMae]

30. ugh I hate those types of forwarded emails.

[calimary]

36. I did it and a lot of it stopped.

I got an angry, indignant retort (How DARE you question and not swallow what the rest of us so mindlessly have!!!!!!!!"). BUT - best of all, and most surprisingly, I got an email from a woman somewhere halfway down on that "reply all" chain who thanked me profusely for speaking out. She said she hated getting these and usually just deleted them but didn't think she could actually talk back to this and voice an objection. And she said she felt like she better keep quiet because from the looks of it, she was most certainly savagely outnumbered - and thereby even more ridiculously WRONG. Maybe she just felt surrounded by knuckledraggers and teahadists. You can convey all kinds of meaning and mind-fucking with shit like this. My retort had given her moral support and verificaton that she wasn't alone in her thinking.

That, I think, is part of the motivation behind sending these shitty wrong-wing emails. To make you feel diminished and intimidated because you're barraged with all this loud, indignant (usually in larger font sizes, sometimes underlined and bolded, and sometimes in colors as well) and you subconsciously conclude that you're in a tiny minority with your contrary opinion. Emails like that are psy-ops in so many ways! Look how you're surrounded! Look at all the strings of recipients out there (surely they all agree with this email and not with you, 'eh?) and look how adamant and forceful it is, and the statement it makes (certainly you couldn't say this stuff if it weren't true, could you?) and look at the assertions of "facts" and attribution (which more often than not is COMPLETELY bogus, fabricated by some CONservative asshole).

STAND UP TO 'EM! They're just being common growth-stunted snot-nosed schoolyard bullies in grown-up costumes. They expect to intimidate and out-shout you and have you back down all the time so they can win. They're thrown off when you prove you didn't get the how-to-cave-to-bullies memo. When their tried-n-true tactic doesn't work on you, they're thrown. They don't have a template, or talking points, to fit that scenario especially since they don't have to confront it all that often. DESTABILIZE THE ENEMY.

[ScreamingMeemie]

68. Hey calimary.

One of the email recipients ( a friend of a family member, I guess) wrote back to me expressing the same gratitude. What was so amazing is that the original senders of this email were not the 'type'...or didn't use to be the type who would send mass, misinformed missives.

[calimary]

76. Yeah, all they need is to know somebody else is out there who shares their view -

that they're NOT ALONE!!!

When you are confronted with a barrage like this that's come through several other senders with all these other people's emails on there, it is EASY to assume that you better just keep your head down because you are SO overwhelmed and overpowered and outnumbered. Surely every last one of those names on the list is in lock-step solidarity with the bullshit in the main message. And more often than not, that's NOT the case!!! And all they really need is to see, hear, or read that somebody else isn't gonna take it and stands up to this wall of morons ("morans"?). Just remember that famous photo of the single Chinese guy who stood in the middle of the road in front of all those big fearsome-looking tanks. Well, they stopped.

These assholes live and breathe intimidation and bullying because thug tactics are the only way they get their way. They can't do it through a genuinely fair not-fucked-with election. They know deep-down (and will NEVER admit) that they're a fringe edge of the "movement" and in a majority-rules society, they are squarely in the minority and they lose EVERY TIME (which is why it's so crucial that every last one of us gets off our asses and sets our apathy or sense of futility down and GO VOTE). So they cheat. They resort to psy-ops - if they seem loud and ferocious enough, you might be tempted to conclude that there are bajillions of them and they have you completely surrounded. THEY DON'T. They're the minority. If they're loud and noisy they get attention and so they seem a lot more numerous than they are.

DON'T BE FOOLED - OR COWED!!! Because that's the only they have to win. They can't win on a level playing field. They can't win with facts. They can't win when they have to play by the rules. Why do you think some of them are advocating violence and "second amendment solutions"? Because they can't win fair-and-square.

[Maru Kitteh]

42. K'd and R'd. Nobody sends me crap like that anymore.

[ScreamingMeemie]

69. For a long time they didn't.

I think think there is a statute of limitations on not bugging the crap out of family members. :)

[Sentath]

43. I got Mom kicked off the church mailing list

Does that count?

[ScreamingMeemie]

70. LOL

I was once asked "not to come back, please" to my next door neighbor's bible study. :)

[felix_numinous]

48. K & R

Great idea to respond with these facts and photographs. Interesting Mohammad is represented with other lawgivers in one relief on a wall of the Supreme court room, along with Confucius, Moses and others-- that will certainly get some underwear in a twist. (I am sure Mr Ashcroft would have put a drape over him if he had caught this, along with Lady Justice's offending breast.)

[ScreamingMeemie]

73. Snopes has a great rebuttal, and an explanation that Moses is present

as a great lawgiver, not a religious figure.

[Lucian]

50. Fuck harmony.

Those idiots need to be called out for their stupidity.

[NoSheep]

52. I've done it. Now they all know not to send that shit to me anymore.

[unblock]

54. yeah, a lot of jerks send around those emails and pretend that it's the RESPONSE that's obnoxious

sending around partisan, provocative offensive crap AIMED at insulting people who don't agree with them is somehow neutral and cool and acceptable, but responding with a disagreement is obnoxious and disharmonious.

sorry, it's not my job to let lies float around without a fight.

you did the right thing.

[GreenPartyVoter]

55. You get a high five from me! *hugs*

[bvar22]

56. OMG...Heads will explode

Mohammed is enshrined in the Supreme Court as a "Law Giver"

(screencapped from Snopes)

Its a Muslim Plot I tell you!
They're EVERYWHERE!
Sharia Law...here we come.
The Supreme Court is IN ON IT!

[madmax]

57. Fabuloso nt

[we can do it]

58. I've Been Doing That, Too

does any one else get accused of using "liberal" facts? That cracks me up. I then tell them you are entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts.

[jmondine]

60. Woah! The Supreme Court south wall depicts Mohammed!

That's odd... the original email left out that little tidbit.

[Iris]

64. I'm glad you feel good about it! You can bet the 3 who forwarded this crap to you had no qualms

at all about alienating anyone! It's good for them to know that not everyone is on that bandwagon.

[treestar]

74. I remember a relative sent around the crap about Rev. Wright

I responded to all and got some positive responses from some of the people on the relative's list!

Idiot relative has a black friend on her list and mindlessly sends racist stuff. One of those who assumes everyone agrees with her.