Or at least a case for being able to criminally prosecute people for Emailing Without Brain Cells.
My mother forwards things. There are days when I am deeply sorry I ever helped her set up a Hotmail account. Some sharp words and some begging have gotten her to stop forwarding me things with titles like I AM A BAD AMERICAN or CHRISTMAS IS UNDER ATTACK!!!!!! And somehow my siblings and I were able to convince her to let my dad check most of the MISSING! BABY! PLEASE! HELP! and THIS CHILD HAS CANCER AND HER ONLY WISH IS TO SEE FOUR TRILLION NAMES ON THIS FORWARD BEFORE SHE KICKS IT things before she sends them. It has at least slowed the deluge of crap she perpetuates; I still get ones about Friendship and Love and Send This To Five Women Who Rock! but I'll take those over stupid, inane rants about how OMG gas is SO expensive you guys! Everybody, don't fill up your car on April 23rd, that'll show 'em! or the far-worse racist idiocy that gets billed in some circles as "just speaking the truth."
Tonight I got a forward which prompted the following reply:
MOM! Please check Snopes before you forward things!
http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/peroxide.asp
I am very disappointed in you! You took a lot of Chemistry to get that nursing degree, you should be able to spot a fake like this a mile away. And as a R.N., you shouldn't be encouraging people to put hydrogen peroxide into their mucous membranes. Does soaking any part of your body in peroxide for ten minutes really sound like a good idea? That's not just bad advice, it's DANGEROUS.
I'm sure it won't sink in, but at least I've done my part to try and make the world a little less stupid.
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