Most of my friends are parents of grown kids. Therefore most of them should still be able to recall how easy it was to tell when your young kids were not telling the truth.
Well, guess what, many of those tried and true tests also work for Internet Bull Shit.
1) Loud insistence: When a message heavily uses ALL CAPS it is either from a poor writer or a poor liar (or both). Just delete it.
2) Inflated ‘facts’: Remember how a kid’s story would often grow like Pinocchio’s nose. Well, next time you get an email warning, just do a Google search before you forward it. It has probably been around for years and you will find that more recent ‘updates’ get more and more sensational.
3) Pretty sure I’ve heard that one before: Remember how your kids would come home from school with a story that you’d heard before, perhaps slightly different, and long since learned it was false? If I really need to explain how this is also true about Internet Bull Shit … perhaps I’m wasting my time writing this post.
However, here’s a fabulous example of BullShitTest#3: These days people are telling me that Obama is using the same tactics used by Hitler when Hitler used Fear to rise to power. LMAO! The first time I heard that opinion, it was about a previous (Republican) PotUS and the story was that they were using 9/11 just the way Hitler had used similar events.
I could go on, but surely I don’t need to.
So the next time you get a warning of doom or alert of treason via email from (your favorite rumor source) or even an African Prince in prison, please just delete it. But if you really want to believe it please just do a Google search and at least test it with the adult wisdom you surely gained from raising small children.
I dream of our country slowly getting smarter, wiser and more effective rather than more angry, more frightened and more dangerous to ourselves.
Sincerely,
dws.
my road 