Fearmongering: It's Not Just for Politicians Anymore

You see the political ads every day. One candidate says the other is out to get you. They are liars, they only care about the other guy, they fill their pockets and the pockets of their friends on your tax dollars and leave you to rot. Sometimes it's true. The hardest thing to do is to ignore this hate rhetoric and fear-mongering. But now they are using YOU to carry their messages. And they are making you lie for them.

Remember that email you got Monday, warning you about health care tax increases that will make you pay taxes on income you didn't make. It's a lie. You panicked, sent it to everyone you know and then sat back in fear of what is going to happen in January when you can't pay the house note anymore? Nothing. Maybe you vote differently this election or next, that's the original e mailer's intent. But you didn't research it and neither did the person you got it from. There were links claimed as proof of the tales they told but you didn't click them. You never know when an email will contain a virus or send you to a page that attacks your computer. You are savvy in the ways of the internet! Or maybe there was no link, no proof, just someone important claimed as the source of the information. Either way, you did exactly what the haters wanted, sent it on to everyone in your list.
If the email had told you there was a fortune to be made by following this easy step by step plan, you would see it as the crap it is right off. But these guys are tricky. They don't want your money, they want your vote.
Since when did we become a society that believes everything we hear on TV, radio and in email? We used to question everything, show me the proof. But you never see any in these emails and they don't have to prove ANYTHING. Because emails are not governed the same way as other "news" sources. Often we don't know who the original poster even was. So, no one can be sued for slander, made to prove their sources or made accountable when they simply outright lie about the source of the "information" they are spewing.
Most recently I have received a dozen or more emails claiming my taxes will skyrocket in 2011, I will pay taxes on income I don't make and my house sale will be taxed at insane levels. Before I send anything on (and I usually DON'T) I run a few simple checks on the information. I go to Snopes.com first. They usually have what I am seeing by the very title of the email, and it's almost always CRAP! They also tell you why and how it's crap with LINKS to the sources of their information. Now, I know that few of us have the time, inclination or understanding to read the health-care bill in it's entirety. Thank you Snopes for reading it for me so I can find the lies out quicker. If that doesn't work or the lie is to new to have been picked up, I turn to my search engines. Usually I can find several websites, often including government sites, with the forms, files or laws that are being referenced. This takes longer, but I get to the truth.

Are you mad yet? I was. I am being used to carry lies and spread them like herpes, ruining days like an outbreak at every click of the send button. Now after a research run on the internet, often no more than five minutes tops, I reply to all and let my friend and everyone they forwarded to know, you are contagious. You are infected with fear and stopped using the brain I know you have. Intelligent individuals caught up in their fear and anger at the government to the point that they simply stop thinking for themselves. Want to know what's wrong with America? Why the politicians are running crazy with power and the economy has gone to shit? There it is, a deep seeded fear that negates thought and drives us to make irrational decisions based on lies and propaganda.
9/11 was a horrible, scary and tragic terrorist attack. The crashed economy did more damage to more lives. And we have only our own fear driven panic to blame. Educate yourself. Research EVERYTHING. Take absolutely nothing at face value until you have thoroughly exhausted your ability to get the facts. And finally, before you hit the voting booths, use your common sense. Just like bankers in Nigeria who are holding $3.5 million for you in a safe deposit box til they get your bank account number to transfer it to, if it sounds too good (or bad) to be true, IT IS!

here are links to the facts I presented.  If there is something you want to be proven, comment and I will respond ASAP!
Taxed health care coverage
Healthcare Bill Taxes my house sale
Nigerian Scam
Email Sites Kiplingers as source