I may live to regret this - Thomas Paine video.

[TNDemo]

My RW cousin that I don't know well sends me all kinds of crap and I usually just take the high road and delete but she sent me this thing about common sense and I only watched about 1/4 of it. It was railing on about how it is common sense to have one language, one culture, diversity is stupid, etc. I wrote back and said if we had been considerate we would have adopted the Indian language when we came.

Has anyone ever confronted someone about unwanted emails and gone on to have an improved relationship? I have always just deleted and ignored it but once in awhile I get randy and answer.

[gateley]

1. The only time I've responded with

"please don't send me any more of these hateful messages" - that was the last I heard from the person.

If it was somebody I CARED about, I'd probably just delete - not gonna change his/her mind. But I LOVED your response! Have you heard back?

[TNDemo]

6. Not yet...

doubt if I will.

[gateley]

9. There's no way she could respond. It was a brilliant statement. nt

[TNDemo]

10. Gee, thanks.

That made my day.

[sam sarrha]

2. i went to the various sites that check and explain rumors.. truth or fiction ..etc then just sent

the link no comment ..maybe when my brother used some made up hate thing, i'd just say.. Jesus only spoke of love forgiveness compassion, helping the less fortunate... all the tv preacher stuff other than that is an abomination to his teachings for profit

didn't get any more of that crap.. he has now turned totally cynical, believes there is no good of any kind in the world.. i just told him to quit listening to others and open a new door into to goodness.. if there is no goodness in the world.. then get busy and make some..

i didn't get into my theory that Jesus lived on the crossroads of the old silk road.. and was most definitely exposed to Buddhism,.. tho perhaps with a couple pages missing..

[lutherj]

3. Was she claiming that Thomas Paine supported these notions?

Thomas Paine was probably the most radical of the founding fathers, and I don't remember any of these notions in Common Sense. Perhaps she should check out The Rights of Man, which is basically an enlightenment critique of religion, among other things. Paine also wrote an essay arguing that christianity is just a latter day sun worship cult.

[TNDemo]

5. Beats me - probably doesn't know who he is.

She just forwards along with all the other RW automatons (like my brother). Here is the video if you care to watch the whole thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKFKGrmsBDk

[patrice]

4. That sort of thing goes on between the "Right" and "Left" wings of

my enormous Family. Some of this goes back to Viet Nam.

Mostly, no one does anything about it.

I have on a few occassions.

The first and most important thing is to be extremely careful in your word choices so as not to use ANY words in ANY part of what you are saying that have even the slightest negative personal allusions associated with them - because - that ALWAYS becomes the issue rather than the REAL issues.

Mostly, I just point out the contradictions and hypocrisies in what they say and that is annoying enough to them to terminate the interaction - not that contradictions are completely unacceptable; they just need to have well thought out concrete justifications.

I can't say that overtly improved relationships result from such encounters. In my Family, Family is absolutely first in spite of our differences, but the "Righties" seem to avoid open communication anyway. It's Sad.

However, given that I know what my Mother and Father taught us about the absolute value of Family, I still trust in that and I do consider our conflict on the Issues worth communicating about because, were it not for someone standing up for the "Left", the "Right" would appear completely dominant (which is an error in TRUTH - something else my Parents taught us to respect at all costs), so I say this IS an improvement in our relationships (especially since I CAN also say that I never have and never will deal anyone personal insults and I avoid revenge and personal anger). And in standing up to the bullies in the group (and I do have stories about those experiences) I at least have my Dignity (another High Priority value that my Parents instilled in us).

[Sewsojm]

7. Ignore her,

Trying to talk to right wing idiots is a waste of time, you'll only be asking her to send you more crap if you reply to her.

[AlinPA]

8. I have read a fair amount of Tom Paine and some biographies. I don't remember

that one culture stuff; sounds like it has been invented by the right. As to right-wing emails from "friends", I just let let them know what I think. I'm tired of the right-wing lies and garbage and I tell them that. I just had an email forwarded by a friend from an originator known for hatred of gay people and I fired right back. To hell with that kind of thinking, I don't want to be around people like that.

[Marr]

11. I've noticed that people who send these things often aren't thinking in terms of left/right.

They're coming from a position of fear and anxiety. They feel as if they're on the edge of losing everything (they may very well be), and they want someone to blame.

When I receive something like this, I respond with something very, very brief about wealth distribution or tax policy favoring the super wealthy, and tell them that our nation's wealthy crooks are very happy to see such petty division among the peons.

[TNDemo]

12. Good point.

I am always amazed at my brother and other people (like this cousin) who don't make much but would never vote for a Democrat. I have asked my brother why he likes to work so hard to keep the rich people rich but have never had good examples of how Republican policies do that. Know any good resources?

[The Straight Story]

13. That depends, is she hot?

:rofl:
Seriously though if you really want to engage in discussion one might try "You know, that is an interesting concept but it leaves me with a lot of questions, like...."

I get a ton of similar mail my dad forwards to me (from his cousins, nephews, etc) - I rarely reply (have a few times though...).

Best thing IMHO to do, start sending out emails that are LW/progressive in nature and see what THEY do ;)

[TNDemo]

15. Are there any??

I never get left wing email.

[SpookyCat]

14. It can work out, yes.

One time I got one from a dear friend who just doesn't always think critically, the one going around about how USA is an xtian nation and if people don't want to pray, hey, they don't have to and all that nonsense.

This one I did reply to. My husband and I spent better part of an hour crafting a message that I think managed to explain our position as atheists and the underlying message in opinions like that, plus the facts of our nations founding, etc...

I was very nervous sending it for fear it would hurt our friendship, but not saying anything would make me harbor this resentment. But in the end it turned out fine. We've had long discussions now about these topics and I've made my POV clear and she sees I'm not actually the boogie woman...etc. So yes, sometimes it can work well.

[Mz Pip]

16. My RW cousin sends me

stuff all the time. He asks if it's true. I debunk it. We discuss it. Amazingly we have very civil discussions. I think he is actually warming up to Obama. He hates McCain so I have been sending him articles from the WSJ and stuff about conservatives who have endorsed Obama. He's sort of an old school conservative who thinks Bush has been a disaster and the Republican Party gets what it deserves. Still, he's not quite ready to abandon ship just yet.

Now I have another RW cousin in law who believes every lying email about Obama. I've stopped getting the Obama slime but she still sends me the prayer chain emails and dumb jokes.

[orleans]

17. one friend of mine sent me some shit one time

and i replied: come on, do you REALLY think you're going to change my mind and get me to vote for mccain? you know me far better than that.

we're still friends and the political email stopped