BS: How to spot an internet rumor

Subject: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 12:22 PM

Just in case you're one of the ones that has trouble spotting internet rumors - here are some handy ways to recognize them:

When they promise that you will receive { money, coupons, blessings, a cure to cancer, a free laptop or anything else, or a job ect } if you just send this message to 12 people in the next 12 minutes.

When they urge you to send this message to everyone you know.

There are dire consequences if you don't.

There is danger lurking for you from gang members if you { sit in a theater seat, pump gas, drive your car, ect }

Don't buy a product because the company that made it is into devil worship. Or worse - a bunch of liberals.

THEY are coming for your guns.

THEY are anti-American and are plotting to take away the rights promised you in the Constitution.

Anything about a child with a disease. Or that XYZ company will donate money in their name if you just send this to all of your friends right away.

If you look at the picture just right you can see Jesus.

The following is the cutest video EVER!!!

OK - have I left anything out? I need a full list so I can send it to my wife's cousin.

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 12:30 PM

I got a message today with ALL of those in it! And I don't even LIVE in the USA, so I am puzzled about the part that says they'll take away the rights promised me in the (US) Constitution.

Should I open it and click on the links it provides? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: GUEST,jts
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 12:37 PM

Some time ago my father sent me a forwarded note saying that "Petro Express" was a name that "Hugo Chavez" was using to rename Citgo stations so that loyal Americans would be fooled into not boycotting them. I KNEW different. I wrote to some of the people on in the chain saying, "No that was not the case. It was a company that had sold Citgo gas. They were decreasing their involvement with Citgo and that in fact, I had SEEN, Yes! seen with my own eyes several stations switch their brand to Texaco. That they should be a little more aware of their facts when calling for boycotts that people's jobs were at stake, and that Petro Express was actually, albeit slowly giving them what they want, switching away from Citgo.

They wrote me back and each other insisting that I must be at best an employee of Citgo, at worst an agent of Chavez and to mind my own business. They said I had been "brainwashed by Snopes.com and other liberal media. Based on my experience, I don't have much hope for your wife's cousin.

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 01:11 PM

If it sounds either too good or too absurd to be true, it probably is. Check it out.

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: olddude
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 01:46 PM

I got one that said Little Hawk hooked up recently this girl. Is that a rumor fess up there LH

LHgirlfriend

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: olddude
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 01:48 PM

sorry here is the link
LHGIRL

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 01:52 PM

The internet is a rumour. You are all a figment of my imagination.

Good grief - I must be sicker than I thought :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Greg F.
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:02 PM

Based on my experience, I don't have much hope for your wife's cousin.

Bassed on MY experience, I don't have much hope for half the people in the U.S.

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: BTNG
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:12 PM

which half would that be? or is it all rumour...?

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: saulgoldie
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:18 PM

snopes.com

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:38 PM

Saul - My old boss sent me this one:


Folks,
Seems like everyone goes to Snopes.com for verification of truth on something.
You need to know that Snopes is nothing more than a California hippie couple putting up a website. They have a very far left wing ideology.
They have a huge bias and their input/comments mean absolutely zero.

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:51 PM

If they heard/read it in the news, but there is no link to an actual article

If it actually happened to a {friend, relative, pet, chimpanzee} of the person they heard it from

These work for Urban Legends too, Internet or no!

If I were a figment, I would be magenta.

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: GUEST,999
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 03:11 PM

Take the test.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_image_quiz.htm

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 03:19 PM

Lovely, isn't she, Dan? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 03:21 PM

This

"Hi Lord, it's me. We are getting older and things are getting bad here. Gas prices are too high, no jobs, food and heating costs too high. I know some have taken you out of our schools, government & even Christmas, but Lord I'm asking you to come and re-bless America. We really need you! There are more of us who want you than those who don't! Thank You Lord, I Love you. Amen! (Re-post if you agree)"

was a Facebook meme the week Rick Perry had his football stadium prayer meeting just before he entered the Presidential ring.

It seems to be saying here "I know some have taken you out of our schools, government & even Christmas, but Lord I'm asking you to come and re-bless America" that the cause of the economic decline was the lack of separation of Church and state. I do not think that was coincidence. I think it was likely to have been a deliberate PR move.

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 03:24 PM

If it's in your in box.

John

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: olddude
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 03:32 PM

LH
you have good taste in women

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 04:03 PM

I wish it were easy to identify a rumor or urban legend by its content, but I don't think you can; at least I can't think of any simple rules that I think are reliable.

I wish you could say "err on the side of caution" but even that is ambiguous. People can differ in their perception of which side is the cautions side. For one person, it might mean, if you hear a rumor that X is dangerous, assume it IS dangerous until you see proof that it isn't. For another, it might mean, assume it is NOT dangerous until you see proof it IS.

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 04:33 PM

There's another type of rumour one often sees, but not on the Internet. On the "news".

It is the rumour that some country is building...or planning to build...nuclear bombs. And that this supposedly poses a dire threat to the entire world. And that "we" may have to attack them to prevent the possibility of them someday doing to US what we apparently have carte blanche to do to others!

When you see a steady proliferation of such rumours, you may be well assured that the USA and various of its allies will presently launch a military action upon the country in question, probably a full-scale invasion...supposedly to protect OUR lives and OUR freedoms.

Such rumours are remarkable in their degree of hypocrisy. They remind me of the kind of rumours Doctor Goebbels once was fond of spreading when he was Propaganda Minister of the 3rd Reich, and their purpose is identical: to justify a war of choice by a great power upon a weaker nation, and to get the public onside to support it by scaring them.

There is virtually no way possible for the recipient of such hypocritical scare rumours and accusations to avoid being attacked once the great power has made up its mind to start the war. You cannot disprove an allegation that you have or intend to one day have a weapon of mass destruction and that you might one day use it. You can only helplessly protest the unfairness of it all while waiting for the inevitable high tech blow to fall from WMD World Imperial Central Command (which is located in Washington, London, Tel Aviv, Paris, Rome, and other such western capitals.)

Your only possible way of preventing that imperial blow from falling...and it's a risky one...is to GET some nukes of your own right quick, and make it very plain that you have them and will use them if attacked. Thus you are more or less forced to do the very thing they are saying you must not...simply in order to survive.

It then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it appears to be the only possible way to forestall being invaded. (This was what North Korea did, and it has worked for them so far.)

Or you could just surrender to the Empire...disband all your forces...open your borders to foreign takeover of your government, industries, strategic resources, oil, etc.

Is it surprising that the target country refuses to do so? Would we refuse to surrender if placed in the same position? Yes, we would. We would prepare to fight, as best we could. And the Empire would invade us. And many people would die as the price of a cynical great game in exercising imperial power.

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: olddude
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 05:19 PM

It is insane to even want to build them.   Why would anyone do that, create a weapon that you can never use. Even the crazy bad guys know that. Bin Laden's guys on 911 wanted to fly into some power plants and he said no, things will get out of hand. If a country any country uses one, then the other guy will make all your people and everything you know 10,000 degree centigrade in a billionth of a sec. Now if you own them, you gotta keep track of them, monitor them ...etc.

if they build one so what, it can't be used for it will be used back then what. One thing about dictators, they want to have something to dictate not a cinder of a country or world ..

it is all nuts actually. Yes the US used two in WWII but we were the only guys that had them. Not today

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: olddude
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 05:27 PM

Look at Chemical Weapons, in the first gulf war they knew Iraq had them, they used them against their own people. One message was sent to them, use chemical weapons and the response will be be chemical weapons.
They were not used ... Everyone wants these things to flex muscle but the truth is, it is all a big lie to do whatever they want to do.

probably more about oil then anything else ...

The rumors continue

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 05:56 PM

Well, the only actual practical use for such a weapon is as a deterrent against being attacked by a greater military power. If you ARE a greater military power, however, then you don't want a potential victim to have that deterrent, because it makes attacking them too costly.

I do agree that it's insane to want to build nukes in the first place. The trouble is, the genie has been out of the bottle since 1945, and there seems to be no way to put him back in.

It's also insane to plan wars of choice...period. But it's quite common. No one starts a war unless he thinks he can win it...and make material and political gains by doing so.

(I can think of one possible exception to the above...sort of. The Japanese started a war in December '41 that a great many of their top military commanders had serious doubts could be won. But they figured that not taking a gamble on it would mean total defeat anyway...with or without that war...since their sources of oil and steel had been cut off by FDR's embargo. It meant their military machine would grind to a halt in a year or two even if they didn't fight the USA, Holland, and Great Britain...and they were heavily involved already in a huge land war in China. It would cause them to lose all they'd already fought for. They couldn't swallow that, so they entered a world war which their best commanders felt they were quite likely to lose. Still, they gambled. They gambled on winning so big in the first year that they could negotiate an armistace with the USA on favorable terms and have a free hand in East Asia. They hoped for a limited war and a short campaign. It was a very long gamble, and it didn't pan out for them. And they should have known that it wouldn't. They were brought down by their own pride and fatalism.)

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 12:44 AM

If the message tells you it's been checked at snopes.com and proven valid, the opposite is most likely to be the truth.

The best way to spot an Internet rumor is to Google a distinctive phrase from the message, "putting the passage in quotes." Then you can see what type of Websites display that sort of message. And if you see the text is already on a thousand Websites, maybe that's an indication you don't need to send it on to anyone.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 01:03 AM

You're right about that, Joe. I've received several lately that, after the bogus claims, stated "I've checked this and it's true" and it was listed at Snopes and a hoax. You have to do your own checking.

Thank goodness Wesley's boss was right - they're an old hippie couple in California, keeping the Internet honest, despite his disgust at the possible political implications of debunking hoaxes.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How to spot an internet rumor
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 01:09 AM

If all political hoaxes were effectively and quickly debunked, I doubt that you'd see too many "pre-emptive" wars being launched.