I love my parents. I do. But sometimes they irk the hell out of me. Today, I received from them a forwarded email, which was apparently based on
this site and which attempted to expose Obama's "lie", found in the completely unsourced and undated quote: "I only saw Rod Blagojevich one time ... and that was in the stands and from a distance at a Chicago Bears Football Game." The email used pictures from the site and added lots of text explaining what an idiot he was to think he'd never be caught in such a bold lie. Of course, as mentioned, there was no valid source for the quote, and no date for it, and the mysterious "..." in the middle. So, it might never have been said, it might have been said ten years ago or so, or the "..." might have been "last week" or "since I was elected" or "when he was wearing a dress" or something similar.
It doesn't bother me that many people don't like Obama's politics. That's what America's all about. I happen to like him, but I respect those who have differing opinions - at least if they can summon up a few brain cells to defend those opinions. Likewise, I think people who support him should have some actual reason to, as opposed to just following along (sheeps is sheeps, no matter which side you're on).
What bothers me is that my parents (mainly my dad) almost undoubtedly experienced a great deal of glee over how Obama had been "caught in a lie", when the source is so obviously biased and weakly supported that it's obviously either a complete lie or a deliberate misrepresentation. What bothers me more is that the sites that linked to that quote are often racist and unfailingly write in a way which would be understood and agreed to by drunken rednecks. I've got my redneck cred. I grew up in the midwest. I lived in an almost all-white town. I got drunk in cornfields. I rode in the back of pickups. But I was raised to not be a racist and to use my head, and so it irks me to see my parents - again, mainly my dad - so readily fall for this horseshit and probably read those sites. They listen to radio programs that stress that Obama's not a white Christian. They (again, mainly my dad) seem to think that it's OK to mock Muslims and people from the Middle East because, hey, that's not racist, right? And they (again, mainly my dad) seem incapable of rational thought when it comes to looking at things they see in email or on the internet or that they hear on the radio.
I think that rational, thinking adults can be Democrats, Republicans, Independents, religious, atheistic, PC users, Mac users, *nix users, bikers, truckers, ballet dancers, gun enthusiasts, pro-life, pro-choice, straight, gay, knitting fiends, pot smokers, teetotalers, intellectuals, soldiers, poets, wrestlers, and even Audioholics forum members. Difference of opinion is what makes this country great.
But, oh, how it irks me when my parents blindly buy into something without giving it a second thought -
and then forward it to me. And it's not because it's anti-Obama. They could have forwarded an email that proved how his excrement tasted like pudding and how his touch could cure cancer. It's more, in this case, the racist undertones on the sites that shared that quote (I went looking for a source) and the fact that they just blindly accept anything certain people forward to them.
Sorry. I just had to vent. I gotta run to catch the completely true and unbiased news from Air America, then I'm off to an anti-war rally, a love-in at Harvard Square, and finally an Al Gore speech.
