I received another forwarded email from a long-time Republican friend

[grumpyduck]

asking for my take on it.

To cut to the chase, it took me less than a minute online to find out that most of the "facts" stated in the email were incorrect.

And I sent him back a nastygram saying that it rankles the [galaxy-class profanity here] that people send out that bullshit and expect readers to be so fucking dumb that they won't even check it, when it's so quick and easy to do so.

I like this guy. We've been friends for over forty years and have avoided politics all this time. He's a nice guy. I'm starting to see a tiny glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, but unfortunately I come from a generation when people respected other people's opinions even if they didn't agree with them, so I don't see a need to work on him.

But it really makes me think that people spouting this bullshit do think their readers are just a bunch of fucking morons who will swallow anything without even bothering to check it. IOW and IMHO, they seem to have no respect for their readers.

And maybe that's just the way it is.

[AllaN01Bear]

1. cool. i have a female friend who is staunch republican. untill today was totaly

behind trump, now wants the whole thing over with.

[Hekate]

7. I have to ask: why is this day different from all other Trump days?

What happened today that was the last straw?

[ecstatic]

12. Was the "kids are immune" line the straw that

broke the camel's back?

[malaise]

17. The kids are almost immune and it is what it is

broke most camels' backs

[napi21]

2. Unfortunately I think lots of the Pubs DO believe whatever they read & never take the time to verify

the info. That's likely why he thinks nobody checks the info, because his Pub friends never do.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. My evangelical sister often turns to me for fact-checking...

... since she's apparently too mentally lazy to do it herself.

If she wasn't family, and a kind person, I'd be done with her.

Edit:
This old Simpsons clip reminds me of my sister flip-flopping over various issues, as she gets input from me and, for example, some religious idiot friend who denies the seriousness of Covid-19. If she had better critical thinking skills herself, maybe she wouldn't treat so many topics like they're just different opinions from various people?

[csziggy]

3. My Dad and some people I knew used to send out GOP lies

Since they sent them to groups of people and were too stupid to do blind carbon copies, I would "Reply All" and send the detailed list of facts refuting the claims to everyone on their mailing list.

Most of the people never sent me anything like that again. At least one of Dad's friends sent me a "Thank You!" Dad never apologized or admitted he was wrong, but was much more careful about what he sent out after one or two times of me doing this.

[Hekate]

8. I had the same experience, in that I used Reply All to vent my fact-checked opposition...

At least one person wrote back thanking me.

Now the same people that used to spam their friends’ emails go straight to FB with their awful misinformation.

[csziggy]

15. Forutnately, Dad never got on Facebook

The other people, I don't know. I no longer have contact with them.

[stopdiggin]

5. kinda' depends on what kind of voter you're talking to

(or about) And (hopefully) I would take it as a good sign that this guy thought to run this by you for an opinion -- rather than just shoving it at you and saying, "You need to read this!"

But, back to my header -- there's some really low information voters out there on both sides of the aisle -- (we have our share too) -- although I think the Rs are alone in trying to promote and encourage the misinformed and lack of information. And in this "information age" -- all of us run the risk of living in an echo chamber of our own devising. Again, this really reaches across the aisle. But there's lots of Republican voters out there that are plenty savvy -- and quite well informed. You can't make the mistake of thinking that they're all reality TV, Fox News rubes. Maybe your friend will take the initiative and start checking things out for himself. Then too -- he might be just as happy with the way he does things now -- and won't be at all happy for your input.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Way too many people, including some here on DU,

just re-post or forward all kinds of crap without ever checking it. And invariably it takes about six seconds to find out something isn't true.

As I often point out, Snopes is your friend.

[SunSeeker]

9. Here's the thing, Trumpers DON'T CARE IF THEY'RE LIES.

I am constantly pointing out how wrong the assertions are in the memes my right wing in-laws post, and they just change the subject and post yet another lie.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. Lots of religious people pray to an invisible God too.

Many of them tossed critical thinking into a trash can long ago.

And many of the right-wing lies are similar because they can't be absolutely disproven. They're often ridiculous and have no real evidence to support them, so they're deemed to be invented lies, but that's the case with many religious ideas too.

Then they'll often say things like, "Everything is just an opinion anyway." Once that happens, where do they go? Likely to the "opinions" that make them feel better about themselves.

[SunSeeker]

11. Yup, they love to misstate facts, then say they are entitled to their "opinion."

When you point out their "opinion" is an incorrect statement of fact, i.e. a lie, such as "masks don't work," they get all offended like you're trying to deny them their right to have an opinion. They appear to not know the difference between a statement of fact and an opinion.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. Yeah, and I sometimes think their past mistakes...

... might make them even worse.

I'll use my evangelical sister as an example again, like earlier in this thread. She will frequently say, now more than ever, "Lord knows that I've made many mistakes in my life!" Then she uses that as a crutch to not THINK even more!

I've tried to steer her to thinking logically, but it's like a constant uphill battle. She's more like, "Well, I just saw more people on Facebook saying that Covid is just (insert a ridiculous conspiracy here)." Then I go through how such a conspiracy would require the cooperation of millions of people around the world, all of whom are keeping it a secret when it's nearly impossible for even a small group of people to accomplish that feat, etc.

And just when I think that I've "fixed her brain" on a particular issue, off she goes and finds another "opinion" somewhere which she COULD dismiss herself IF her brain had a better bullshit meter! Yet it's like she doesn't even trust her brain anymore, given her many "past mistakes" in life.

Edit: Calling it a faulty "probability meter" might be more accurate than a bullshit meter.

[Mister Ed]

14. The originators of that propganda don't think their readers are just a bunch of fucking morons...

...who will swallow anything without even bothering to check it.

They know their readers are just a bunch of fucking morons who will swallow anything without even bothering to check it.

[mercuryblues]

16. Your friend is a concern troll

They know that you would not read any RW slop of lies, so they send it to you under the guise of "fact checking" for them. It will not change their mind, nor will he use the facts when talking to their other friends about the issues.

He will admit to you the fallacy of the talking points, but go right on repeating them every chance he gets.

Face it, if someone sent me an email and I found out it was nothing but lies, I would never trust that type of source again. yet they do. They know trump lies, but they trust what he says.

This is nothing but a game for them, as they learn nothing.

[grumpyduck]

18. Actually, no he's not.

Thinking back on it, the first item or two he sent me, maybe a couple of years ago, were "here, you have to read this." I think it was about Benghazi, but I may be wrong.

After I sent it back with a fact-check -- including that several separate investigations were launched by Congressional Republicans, and all of them failed to find any wrong-doing -- the next one he sent asked me to fact-check it. And on this past one he agreed with me that the guy who wrote it was probably just a lazy agitator spewing bullshit and expecting people to swallow it.

I also mentioned that when I'm following a story, I usually check a number of sources, including CNN, NYT, WaPo, UPI, AP, Reuters, local papers, the BBC, and others. I want to see how many of them agree on the "facts." That's what tells me what to believe. And I ignore the opinion pieces.