A group of women I get together with twice a month was talking about emails we all receive that are mean-spirited and often just plain false. We agreed that they spread harmful misinformation and perpetuate distrust and animosity. In other words, there’s nothing positive about them.
Why do people send them? Some have an agenda–check out the rash of attacks currently against presidential candidates–while others just love passing on anything shocking or upsetting, true or not. Some think they’ve discovered a brand-new fact that’s just been discovered, even though the message has been recycled again and again over ten years or even several decades. Others think they’re protecting country or religion (think about the recurring email saying that In God We Trust is being removed from money when, in fact, the words have simply been moved). Many people have good intentions but don’t stop to think and evaluate. They unwittingly spread rancor and untruths and often never realize they’ve done so.
My group decided that this is a practice that’s harmful to all of us. If nothing else, it wounds our souls. In an already dysfunctional world, we need to fight such practices, not foster them. It’s up to us to be more alert and conscientious. Before sending a negative email on its insidious way, we should do a little fact checking. The two easiest sites for this are www.snopes.com and www.truthorfiction.com. There are others, likewww.urbanmyths.com and ones dedicated to specific topics, like politics (search urban myths politics–or whatever other topic). They aren’t any good, though, if people don’t use them BEFORE they hit the “send” key to forward an email.
Stop those emails, and send a note to the person who sent it to you (delete all the CCs), setting him straight and encouraging him to tell everyone else he sent the original email to. This really is a small thing that everyone can do to work toward a more loving peaceful world.