I have relatives in the US who are staunchly Republican. That’s fine by me; I also believe in free trade and less aid, even if I’ve supported Democratic candidates for the past decade.
What I don’t appreciate is receiving messages on how Barack Obama is a Muslim. That is so old hat that it’s laughable if you’re still sending it out! More recently, there’s another email circulating that Obama’s being funded by lots of rich foreigners. Thank God for Urban Legend websites and this Snopes article in particular that cites the email in full and points out the inaccuracies and misquotes.
I’ve lost some steam supporting Obama’s campaign for various reasons as I think he is charmingly flip-flopping on some issues, but whether I support him or McCain or anyone else, I believe that facts about candidates must be checked for accuracy before being circulated.
It is fine to disagree with candidates on how America should reduce its dependency on oil, pull out of Iraq, deal with Iran and North Korea and other issues. It is not fair to continually circulate false information on any candidate just because you don’t support them. Especially if your recipients are not savvy enough to do their own Internet research and are thus likely to believe whatever you’re sending them :P
As I am two generations more junior and it is inherent in Asian culture to be respectful to one’s elders, I am deciding how to tactfully point out that it isn’t right to send out emails that are factually inaccurate. Perhaps I should respond politely with a link to the aforementioned article?
2 Comments
or you can just send them here!
Haha. Good one!