*headdesk*

[emmagrant01]

If I had a dollar for every time someone on my Facebook friends list has c&p'd some ridiculous statement that a bit a googling would reveal is a complete falsehood. Today's gem:

President Obama said that there will no longer be a "National Day of Prayer" held in May he doesn't want to offend anybody. Where was his concern about offending Christians last January when he allowed the Muslims to hold a day of prayer on the capitol grounds. As a Christian American "I Am Offended." If you agree, copy a...nd paste no matter what religion you are, this country was built on Freedom !!!

I commented on every instance of it that I saw with this link to Snopes, but all that's going to get me is unfriended. Though now that I think about it, that's not such a bad idea...

Comments

[thalia]

People are idiots. Sheesh.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

And FB is full of them!

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

icon says it all

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yup!

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

I'd LOVE it if there were no longer a National Day of Prayer, personally, but I sincerely doubt it's going to happen...

Being defriended by such folks probably is not at all a bad thing.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

True!

[rubymiene.livejournal.com]

Ditto. As an atheist, I'd be ecstatic if they actually canceled it.

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

Interesting. It constantly amazes me that people spread this stuff around. It has to be one of two options. Either they misinterpret things intentionally and simply enjoy messing with peoples heads and creating havoc or they really are stupid and misinterpret because they don't pay attention to what things really say.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Didn't everyone play that telephone game in elementary school and learn from it not to trust gossip? Or was it just a few of us who learned that lesson?

[longtimegone]

Oooh, if I had a dollar for every time I've seen stupid shit like that on FB I'd be very very rich. I think I might be eligible for sainthood after all the times I've bitten my tongue. :))

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I roll my eyes at most of them, but this one just went too far. :-P

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

You were me earlier when I called out the idiots going on about how Donald Trump posted his birth certificates and Obama still hasn't...am I one of the only people that saw his birth certificate!?!? And they wonder why we're 37th in the world in education...because most people are too stupid to google anything. They just listen to O'REALLY and Rush The Junkie.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Ugh, the birth certificate thing! I don't EVEN. :-P

[singlemomsummer.livejournal.com]

I am lucky enough to only have a couple of those nuts on my fb list, but I do have a couple more who are conspiracy nuts. I have one who keeps sending me information about "miracle oil" which will cure all of our diseases, even my son's mental illnesses, and how the medical industry is keeping it quiet so that they can keep making money. :-/

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's downright offensive of them to send you stuff like that!
:-(

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Do they not get the part about how freedom means freedom for everyone? Why wouldn't Muslims be allowed to pray on capitol grounds if Christians are???

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Sadly, most people don't understand how privilege works. :-P

[abbyvonnormal]

Am I crazy or is what Mr Obama "would do" would actually be considered as freedom of religion? Good thing I'm Buddhist and this doesn't really apply to me, either way. Sometimes the religious Right can be so wrong.

I say let them unfriend you, it's obviously their loss...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the religious Right can be so wrong.

Just sometimes? Oops, there's my cynicism showing again... :-P

[abbyvonnormal]

Well... I was trying to be nice ;-)

[phoenixacid.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* Don't people check their facts any more?

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Sadly, no. And most people only hear soundbites, apparently.

[calmnla.livejournal.com]

‎"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion."
Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP Keynote Address

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

YES! The world would be a better place if more people considered why they think the way they do, and whether or not there was any valid reason to.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I miss him. So much. :-(

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

GO YOU! You are fighting a righteous fight. SAY NO TO NUMPTIES!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I had to go look up "numpties". ;-)

[xenelle.livejournal.com]

I purposefully only c&p the obviously fake ones, such as the one about knowing someone whose been eaten by dragons, or kowing someone who knows someone (and don't forget the hearts). This is because a) I don't care about what Obama does in his own country, I'm Australian-British, currently living in Britain, I don't even think Britain has a National Day of Prayer, of course being non-Xian, I wouldn't post it anyway even if it were true. I did feel like posting on that one that as a non-Xioan and living in a country that isn't the US I don't really care what Obama does bit here's the link to Snopes, should you want to see what he ACTUALLY does. Then thought that it might look like trolling. I tend to check these things out as I keep having to link random family members to it when I get email fowards (though I'm doing that in the hopes that they stop forwarding me obviously racist stuff)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I have seen some of the fake ones, and they crack me up!

[xenelle.livejournal.com]

Yes, that would be the other reason - I'd rather share humour than outrage.

[djin7.livejournal.com]

I find myself having to physically restrain myself from openly thrashing my fb flist for a multitude of sins - I'm being ridiculous, because on fb, so few of us are internet savvy and/or have some other kind of social network background, like, say, oh I don't know...livejournal?

So when they do stupid shit like that? Making all the mistakes every n00b on livejournal (including myself) have done? I have to step back or regret my actions.


It's very, very hard.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I know! I usually ignore this kind of thing, but in this case I saw members of my family "liking" this particular turd of a post, and I couldn't keep my mouth shut. :-/

[shanna-souzou.livejournal.com]

I once had a "friend" defend his Obama hate-mongering with a quote from Hitler.

I live in the South so I've gotten used to having friends with some opposing political viewpoints, but he crossed a line for me. Unfriended!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

That's all it takes to get unfriended?

Hmmm...this sounds like a weekend project for all the people that I stupidly accepted friend requests from.

[kiminii.livejournal.com]

Good on you for placing facts in the face of "random, unquestioning and instaneous OMG it-is-not-fair"

Of course these things only work because they appear to confirm or reinforce views that people already hold, however lightly. Otherwise there would be questioning or rejection.

That kind of scares me given we challeenge and laugh at teenages for that kind of behaviour all the time...