BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian

Subject: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 05:58 PM

I have a keen interest in folklore and this subject took my fancy.
For some years now True-love's American friends have been sending, by email, fake stories supposedly from here in Australia. They are quite familiar to us all as hoax stories and are widely circulated on the net. I'm wondering why so many are claimed to be Australian with Australian references and locations. Sometimes with actual people named. Often they are about gun laws and use of guns. Revenge and personal protection feature and some are thinly disguised porn. The tag-line is usually something like
"... and if this was America that brave old lady would not have been allowed to carry a gun."
Some stories relate to American right-wing politics.
The stories usually have very obvious mistakes. Like misconceptions about Australian gun laws and use of Americanisms uncommon in Australia. One, claimed to be from an Australian newspaper, was accomanied by a cartoon with the logo of the Times-Picayune in the corner.
I note that, regarding the gun-use stories, Australia is seen as the new Wild West but the stories urban tales.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 06:12 PM

Because, Joy... people like 'interesting' stories, and often forget where THEY first heard them... so they write them up as best they can and 'embroider' the details. That is why Snopes.com exists.
We get many, many stories here too that have gotten far from whatever truth might have existed..... and some have become folk songs!

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 06:46 PM

I love Snopes.com. I go there often. I do think that these particular stories are more specific than most. They are quite deliberate propaganda. Sometimes old jokes are used with locations and names slotted in. One recent one named General Cosgrove and placed him into a story about Australian Boy Scouts being taught to use guns.   
I'm interested in the fact that Australia is named as the source.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 06:57 PM

Can you give us some examples, Joy?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Bugsy
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 06:57 PM

I used to get similar types of emails on a regular basis. All of them Urban Myths, All of them from a far right wing perspective and most of them from a racist point of view. I sent out a "Reply to all" email and stated.

"These emails are NOT TRUE, are URBAN MYTHS and I find them OFFENSIVE. Do not send me emails of this kind again!"

I don't get them any more.

CHeers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 07:19 PM

Yes we do the same. I usually send a link to Snopes.com too.
OK Joe.
This one's been around for at least 10 years.
I'll paraphrase as we last heard it.
A nice innocent young girl in Melbourne is raped. The police can't help (for some reason I can't remember). The girl's old Granny takes out her gun, she should have handed in and didn't, and shoots off the rapists dangly bits. The cops say they can't arrest the old Granny. They give some strange reason why not and tell her that it's just as well she isn't in America where she wouldn't be allowed to carry a gun!!
I remember that the language the cops use is American.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 07:25 PM

The General Cosgrove story has already been written up by Snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/military/reinwald.asp

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 07:29 PM

Here's the one about the Australian granny:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/justice/grambo.asp

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 08:55 PM

Thanks, Jim. Snopes notes the American terms used in the granny story. I was born and raised in Melbourne. No "skid row". No "bums" except those we all have. What is the connection between American gun laws and Australia I wonder?

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 09:35 PM

I sent out a "Reply to all" email and stated.

"These emails are NOT TRUE, are URBAN MYTHS and I find them OFFENSIVE. Do not send me emails of this kind again!"

I don't get them any more.

We have (well, we had) a good friend who (unfortunately?) got married. We believe his new spouse is the one sending all the trash in his name. All of them originate with the same bigot, and are FWD FWD FWD tagged. At least half are chain letters.

I did the same as indicated above, several times, with no effect.

Sadly, I was forced to put a block on "his" email. I still get them, but now they go directly to junk mail. I don't even look at them, so I'll probably not know if he encounters some "life event" for which I might be (or once would have been) a friend.

Regrets - - but not many.

John

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 09:43 AM

Oy!

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 11:57 AM

Yes, Oy! But is it kosher??? ☺

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 03:24 PM

No, Bill, it isn't Kosher; but it is Halal!

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 08:41 PM

What is it with bacon? At another website I sometimes frequent, I have seen lots of references to bacon. Nobody offers a full explanation of why they are mentioning bacon in a thread that has nothing to do with bacon. I gather it's some sort of running joke, but I don't quite get it.

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 09:38 PM

Neither the naked hand nor the understanding left to itself can effect much. It is by instruments and helps that the work is done, which are as much wanted for the understanding as for the hand. And as the instruments of the hand either give motion or guide it, so the instruments of the mind supply either suggestions for the understanding or cautions.

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: frogprince
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 09:55 PM

Bruce? Maybe you'd better let one of your friends go over your meds schedule with you?
(Was that a post intended for another thread?)

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: GUEST,999
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 11:05 AM

For shame, Dean. That was penned by Sir Francis Bacon!

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Joybell
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 05:10 PM

Well, this is a bit of fun. Who'd have thought we'd drift into philosophy and the Bacon connection.

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: Mr Happy
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 05:57 AM

I always enjoyed the one about the controversy of who wrote Shakespeare's plays; Will the bard or Bacon.

The dispute was finally ruled on by the Royal Shakespeare Company who stated they wouldn't continue if they had to be called the Royal Bacon Company!

Furthermore, the publishers of 'Lamb's tales from Shakespeare' said they'd be dismayed if they had to re-title their book!

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 04:24 AM

Sorry for taking the thread off course, Joybell.

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 04:58 AM

The types of story you talk about in the OP appear from time to time, more so lately with the internet. I expect there would have been more Piltdown Men or Tasaday had the internet been ubiquitous as it is today. Twain said, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." I think he was right.

An example that grew legs in North America in 1995 was Neil Armstrong's remark while on the moon. The story can be read at Snopes. The thing is, it's a great story.

The grandmother tale has had variant forms and they serve a social function: good overcomes evil thus making people who feel disenfranchised or powerless the opportunity for the 'empire to strike back', with a vengeance. Of course, the further away the story takes place the better it is. Concomitantly, the facts are more difficult to check.

It's a ploy not lost on politicians (if the last American election is anything to go by). The old "if you can't beat 'em with brains, baffle them with BS."

Once again, my apologies for derailing the thread.

Subject: RE: BS: US fake stories claimed to be Australian
From: kendall
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 06:11 AM

I don't mind getting these stories, it gives me the chance to educate the sap who sent them.