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Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Ortsacras posted:

Why can the folks who forward these emails not ONCE manage to do it without making any basic spelling errors?

They can't help it. I doubt that the authors of most of these emails has much beyond a high school education. Those that do managed somehow to avoid a writing class beyond the freshman level

I've been a TA for large, freshman classes on multiple occasions. I've graded term papers written by kids just out of high school who never really learned to write.

Many of them read better than these emails, but the phrasing, breathless prose, and lousy sentence structure and spelling are all hallmarks of poorly educated (or ignorant, or both) writers.

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Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Chajara posted:

My sister just sent me this:

:ughh:

Bill Cosby didn't say that. :colbert:

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Chuck Norris posted:

"Washington certainly has reached a new low by forcing American citizens who oppose abortion to pay for abortions via their taxes in this massively comprehensive way.

Well, Chuck, don't worry, their taxes aren't paying for abortions. They're paying for the hilariously over-inflated defense spending in this country.

My taxes are paying for abortions. So, it's okay.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Cryosleep posted:

Jenifer ***********
The only natives of this continent were the ones the US Government
stole from, forced from their homes, took away their children and
almost exterminated with guns and biological warfare (smallpox contaminated blankets).
Today at 12:35am

Gene **********
Actually Jenifer, there was no private ownership of land in this country before the settlers arrived. Territory was taken by force in wars between tribes.

And the tribes didn't live in homes, they lived in camps in what we would call today "tents". Their home was where they made camp.

There were atrocities on both sides, and it is sad. I have of course heard of the smallpox/blanket thing, it's possible that it's true... but there's zero proof of it one way or the other.
Today at 1:02am

Gene's an idiot, and (unsurprisingly, given the rest of his blather) completely wrong about indigenous groups.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.
drat, your mother is a loving racist.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

ought ten posted:

Filled it with seed, eh?

:fap:

Lovingly.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Deteriorata posted:

This blog post seemed quite closely tied to this thread:

If you were a proper nutcase, you'd forward that.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

jonjonaug posted:



Sincerely, Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby didn't write that. :colbert:

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Pungent Mammy posted:

I just sent him the Treaty of Tripoli as a counterpoint to the last item, although he said he won't trust anything but the "actual document". The link I sent has a scan of the actual document, so I don't know if that will be enough proof.

Well, insist on the actual document as the only acceptable proof when he claims that Obama is "violating the Constitution."

"I won't accept anything but the actual document" is the equivalent of *fingers in ears* LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA LA.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Tongsy posted:

Just as I was reading this thread, one came in from my Aunt.

These always crack me up.

The same people who spout American (or in this case, Canadian) exceptionalism are the ones who act as though we should be following the lead of every tin pot dictator and oppressive regime around the world.

The cognitive dissonance is staggering.

EDIT: Beaten. Me am retarded.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.
"This is the best response to / explanation of __________ I've ever read. I can't believe it was written by a ___________, but every American should read this."

What's the deal with these intros? Does the intended audience of these emails need to be told explicitly that X letter is written by a "smart," but conservative, author? And do they need what appears to be validation that other, like-minded conservatives have read it and agree? The more I think about it, it's like they're letting each other know it's okay to read something other than the directions on the mac and cheese box.

Is this a way of basically saying, "This guy talks like a fag and his poo poo's all retarded, but you should listen anyway"?

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.
First Bill Cosby, now Robin Williams.

Why in the name of gently caress do the people who write these assume that somehow using the names of famous comedians, almost all of whom are liberal as hell, will get them added credibility?

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

TheSpookyDanger posted:

You know who else has ties to terrorists like Al Qaeda? The USA, maybe we should boycott them?

You know, the sad thing is that Photoshop is becoming so effective that soon you won't even be able to present photographic evidence to these morons.

Don Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam? Someone photoshopped it.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Zuriel147 posted:

1. Where is it mentioned about the separation of church and state, and if they are separate, why does the pledge of allegiance specifically say "one nation, under God" (was this added later? What about on your money?)

"Wall of separation" was written by Jefferson in a letter. Treaty of Tripoli refers to the fact that the US government was in no way founded on the Christian religion.

"Under God" was added to the pledge in the 1950s to distinguish us from the godless Communists. And "In God We Trust" was added to US currency in the 50s and 60s. Prior to that, the motto was the much cooler "E Pluribus Unum," and it's one of the reasons I love coinage from that period. Well, that and the awesome designs...

quote:

2. What is your impression of the NHS (or the "average American")? I find it incredible that people are willing to pay taxes for people like the police and fire service to protect them, but are fine with them becoming bankrupted with medical bills if they are injured in the line of duty.

You're not going to get a non-biased answer on this forum. Most of the people who are against it don't really know why they are, except that other people told them they are because SOCIALISM / COMMUNISM / FASCISM / JISM. They're not bright enough to realize that the people telling them to hate socialized medicine will never have to worry about bankruptcy because of health concerns, and probably are fully in the pockets of the companies who would stand to lose from government involvement in health care.

And a lot of those same idiots don't really think they should have to pay taxes for services like cops and fire protection, either. They seem to think government services they actually use just show up.


I've been flicking through the thread and it looks like there are well informed people in it, I am particularly interested in the answer to 2 though.
[/quote]

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Blarghalt posted:

My favorite part from those types of emails is that they always, always have some line that goes to the effect of "If we didn't take GOD out of _____, this would never happen!"

Yeah.

Seems to me that the writer had cause and effect a little confused, too. Getting God into the courtroom seems kind of like the wrong point in the chain, if you ask me.

"If only we had kept God in the hospital, these people wouldn't be sick!"

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.
Those poor Christians, always getting pushed around for celebrating Christmas.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

JohnClark posted:

Today one of the lieutenants posted this as his status: "For the individuals complaining about the new screening process for airline safety. Are you kidding me? Do you remember 9/11 or the pile of attempted attacks since? Some of our freedoms and rights were forfeited after 9/11 for over-all safety. If you don’t like it, drive your car but for me, I’d rather have an X-ray picture taken of everyone on the plane with me than die. Grow up and suck it up"

Any recommendations on how to respond to this without starting another dramafest, or is it better to leave well enough alone?

How about you grow up and not get into political arguments on Facebook with your co-workers, particularly when they didn't start it with you.

Don't respond. You can work with people and not argue with them about politics, even if you disagree.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

swarthmeister posted:

The solid history linking the two is that as Christianity spread throughout Europe, it co-opted local holiday traditions. They really are just holiday trees and wreaths, nothing originally Christian about them.

There taken are TRADITIONS!

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.
Edit: This is a bit less relevant now that davidb is no longer posting here. If mods want it deleted, please let me know.

freebooter posted:

I don't think it's particulaly outrageous to say that Islam, in general, is a harsher and more uncompromising religion than Christianity.

This is a result of the specific character of the cultures in which Islam is embedded, not of Islam itself. There are plenty of moderate Muslims in the US and elsewhere. It can be hard to separate a religion from the culture of its practitioners, particularly when both the culture and the religion are foreign to the observer. That may sound like liberal apologism and "cultural relativism" to you, and to some extent, it is relativism. But cultural relativism isn't "let 'em do whatever," it involves understanding the context of practices and beliefs of other cultures within their own belief structure, rather than superimposing your own over it and interpreting it all based on foreign values.

quote:

edit - I'm not saying Islam is an evil religion populated by woman-hating monsters, I just do think it's generally the strictest and most patriarchal of all the major religions. I find it odd how liberal atheists (which I am, and which I'm sure many other posters in this thread are) will attack Christianity yet defend Islam simply because they perceive it to be the underdog. They both suck.

It's not a question of defending behavior or a religion that's an "underdog." But you're equating cultural practices with an entire religion, and that's not how it works. he culture in which the religion is practiced is affecting the way in which the religion is practiced.

As was noted, look at some of the Christian practitioners in a variety of African nations.

Or how about the practice of female circumcision? This is not an Islamic practice; it's a practice with a deep history that precedes Islam, but it's been co-opted by practitioners of Islam in some parts of Africa and Asia.

Walter fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Mar 5, 2011

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.
EDIT: Never mind.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

XyloJW posted:

Email reply all "What country was he fighting in?" Seriously, what Communist revolution was fought off recently?

I know very well this is a simple PR stunt by some no-name company, but the most effective way to shut these things up is to point out that they're lies and who is telling these lies.

I recall seeing an earlier version of this letter where the "professor" was replaced by a family at dinner with the anti-Communist revolutionary, who had been fighting in Cuba.

These things are all recycled.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.
I always love the "If you don't agree, just hit delete" comments at the end.

quote:

Dear So and So,

Unsolicited, I'm going to send you this inflammatory, nasty email that I acknowledge you may not want to receive. If that's the case, please just calmly hit delete and ignore the poo poo I sent you. I don't want to have to deal with any blowback by forwarding unwanted crap to people.

Thanks, bye.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.
Never fails to amuse me how "experts" and "college professors" are ridiculed as liberal biased and horribly naive, right up until the right wants to have a figure to argue from authority one of their talking points.

And then it's a college professor. Or Bill Cosby.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Nucleic Acids posted:

As the Right sees it, they're never willing to take up issues of religious descrimination against Christians, even though they've done so repeatedly throughout their history.

They filed an amicus brief supporting Rush Limbaugh, for gently caress's sake. Of course, I'm sure he's never gone out of his way to make this clear in his hypocritical screeds.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

QuickLime posted:

How in the world would this work? If you don't like the toll, take a different road? How many roads does this guy plan to have run to his house?

It'd be fun to explain to him how his "self-made" successful businessman was driven into debt and out of business before he could ever get it off the ground because he had to pay tolls on the roads he needed to distribute his product, while the businessman living in the world of publicly-paid for roads could freely move his products hither and yon to his buyers.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Grem posted:

This poo poo is getting on my nerves on Facebook:

I looked up the numbers. These are current as of this year (had to update the retired POTUS $).
Salary of the US President .................$400,000
Salary of retired US Presidents ...........$199,700
Salary of House/Senate .....................$174,000
Salary of Speaker of the House ..........$223,500
......Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders .....$193,400
Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN IRAQ and Afghanistan:$38,000
I think we found where the cuts should start! If you agree RE-POST


$400K x 1 = $400K
$200K x 3 = $600K
$174K x 430 = $74.8 million
$223.5K x 1 = $223.5K
$193.4K x 4 = $774K

Total: $76.82 million

Total salaries above as percentage of 2012 US budget ($2.267 trillion): %0.0034

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

JerkyBunion posted:

You're missing some people here.

Who? 1 current president, 3 ex-presidents still alive, 435 members of Congress (of which five of them are paid at different rates - Speaker of the House, and the majority and minority leaders in each of the two houses of Congress)...

I'm not trying to go over the full payroll of the US government, just those people who were cited in the stupid email.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

CaptBushido posted:

Yeah I read his figures and was like "Did Carter or HW Bush die and I not know about it?"

Man, sometimes my brain takes a journey somewhere completely elsewhere. On the other hand... I can't be the only person to forget about Jimmy Carter. :downs:

And the 100 senators, too. Threw a bunch of figures into Excel and my apparently brain stopped working. gently caress me, that was dumb.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

vxskud posted:

Those Kids should have miscarried themselves knowing their mother couldn't support them without government cheese.

:smug:

The ultimate libertarian wet dream. Personal responsibility in the womb, and fetuses bootstrapping themselves into the toilet when faced with the reality of their mother's economic situation.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

katlington posted:

Ask them if they work several thousand times harder than a person who sorts trash at a recycling plant for minimum wage?

With one qualifier, I don't care what a private company pays their upper management. That qualifier is, of course, that any person working for that company should be able to earn a livable wage from their job, regardless of whether they're a janitor or on the production line or whatever.

If a CEO makes millions, but the people in his company who directly contribute to the company's ability to pay an exorbitant wage to the CEO are unable to live on the wages they earn at their jobs, then something is very wrong.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

TheBoyBlunder posted:

I've got one from my dad today. It's a list of programs the teabaggers want to cut that, mysteriously, looks a lot like a list of programs that Republicans don't like. It also continues the mantra of "it's not a revenue problem, it's a spending problem!"

quote:

Save America 's Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.

I think the enormous numbers thrown around with respect to the budget have dulled peoples' minds to what are still vast sums of money.

As an example... Save America's Treasures is primarily a granting program to provide support to museums and other collections repositories. Among other things, it provided (I say provided because it's already been cut) funding to update curation and preservation facilities to standards that will ensure that those collections, which cannot be replaced because they're not making prehistoric archaeological sites or whatever anymore.

$25 million is not even a drop in the bucket of the federal budget. But to museums whose collections are literally rotting in place because of curational facilities that have not been updated in 50 years due to a lack of funding, $25 million is a godsend.

Of course, I wouldn't expect the people who forward these things around to care about an argument like that.

Some of those in the list are also seemingly innocuous ("Sell excess federal properties") but I'd be shocked if those "excess" properties included federal lands in national forests and other conservation areas.

I suppose a point-by-point rebuttal is possible, but like most of these letters, why bother. I doubt the forwarders even bothered to read the entire list, and they'll just laugh off any rebuttal as "liberal lies" anyway.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.
Snopes reports that Dick Forrey was also mistaken and has since apologized, in writing, for that mistake.

Apparently he wanted $100 directly from his local Target for a veterans' charity, but was told that Target only donates at the corporate level. I assume he made the rest of that up, although it appears someone added the "gay and lesbian causes" statement later.

You know, just to make Target seem a little more lefty/commie.

At this point, I think the default reply to these should just be a Snopes link. They've pretty much got all of these covered.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Branis posted:

Aren't food stamps just a debit card now in most states anyway? How could you possibly know someone paid with food stamps unless you're up in their face.

Some self-checkouts will blare it loudly. I've heard people use them in one of the grocery stores I go to, sometimes. Seems lovely - people should be able to use them without having it trumpeted to the world.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

RagnarokAngel posted:

^^^ It really sucks I can't tell people 1984 is one of my favorite books because people will get the wrong idea.

Whoa, they made a book out of that album? Van Halen rocks, dude!

quote:

Now I'm not insinuating that Occupy Wall Street is literally run by future Hitlers, I'm just asking questions!

Is the Occupy Wall Street movement a fake "grassroots" protest manufactured and organized by liberal media and "the Left"?

You decide!

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

yaoi prophet posted:

That always just reminds me of those 'invented by a schoolteacher!' Airborne tablets. Surely I want to trust my respiratory health/government to someone who has literally no expertise in the relevant field.

An awful lot of these forwards seem to start with some variation of, "This was written by a law student / med student / doctor / transexual clown. I don't know what he's running for, but I'll vote for him!"

It's a prime for the reader, to get them into the "Wow, common sense wisdom, why aren't all the boneheads in Washington thinking like this?" mentality.

But it always comes off like something out of Reader's Digest or something; feeble attempt to seem "folksy" or something. Either way, it annoys the piss out of me.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

r.y.f.s.o. posted:

Get a clue kids...Perry or anyone is better than the narcissitic, economic illitrerate we have now. Is there any way to A) raise Reagan from the dead; or B) re-elect Clinton? At least those guys actually knew what they were doing and didn't consider themselves the leader of the planet. Obama's stupidity and arrogance offends me. And I am an Independent. God I hope Newt wins the GOP nomination just so I can see the "annointed One" get shredded in the debates. No teleprompters allowed. He is the dumbest smart guy ever.

I assume this is a forward or FB post?

It's certainly moronic enough to fit the bill. Or have we begun to produce our own awful politically illiterate statements, like some kind of spontaneous generation from the bottom muck in a stagnant pond?

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Kim Jong III posted:

LMR? What's that? I wonder what /r/seduction has to say about...


:barf: :barf: :barf:

There's a thread in this forum specifically for Reddit posts, including MRA and PUA poo poo.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

ts12 posted:

more of this rear end in a top hat.



This is the guy, by the way. Looks exactly how I expected. Some faces you just want to hit repeatedly with a cricket bat. This is one of those faces.

Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

Countblanc posted:

I really don't think making fun of how the dude looks is necessary. His opinions are completely terrible, that seems like enough fodder. I'm sure there's plenty of people who agree with every part of your political ideals who look just as weird.

Absolutely there are. But there's something satisfying about seeing a guy who has completely reprehensible opinions, and realizing that he looks like just as much of a prick as you thought.

Conversely, the first time I ever saw a picture of Osama bin Laden, I thought: "That guy? But he looks so friendly."

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Walter
Jul 3, 2003

We think they're great. In a grand, mystical, neopolitical sense, these guys have a real message in their music. They don't, however, have neat names like me and Bono.

dur posted:

Chuck Norris wants you to lose your job for being the wrong religion.

Wonder what ol' Chuck would say about a Muslim business owner excluding Christians in his hiring practices.

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