Before Your Forward, Check The Facts

I hate election years.  HATE. THEM.

Especially since that sinister Kenyan-Marxist-Socialist-Communist-Anti-American black man is running again.

(Apply massive schmear of sarcasm to that word bagel above.)

The POS emails are beginning to fly through cyberspace again.  Forwarded by those without thought, intellect, a brain in their heads.  (Aunt Betty may make one helluva potato salad for the family reunion picnic, but a political savant she is not.) If it fits their inner narrative of Republican hate for Obama, their misplaced rage that everything wrong in their life - from their job or lack thereof to their bunions to their shoelace breaking is the result of HIM - they will forward it. 

And the scarier the better. 

Just like that ball of cybershit about him being a secret Muslim that STILL makes the rounds, your inbox will soon be receiving the latest in propoganda to gin up fear, hatred, and voter turnout.

Today's entry in the Low Effort Thinker's Email Sweepstakes is titled:  HOME SALE TAX.

It would have you believe (based on how often it has been forwarded and its copious use of exclamation points, that beginning in 2013 every home sale will be subject to a flat 3.8% tax - thus clearing your pockets of more of your hard earned dollars.  It does math problems for you.  It uses ALL CAPS in spots to really get you going!!!!!!!  And it cites that scary health care bill - you know OBAMACARE - as the place where it hides from we good, hardworking citizens.

Now, let's clear away the piles of email excrement, shall we?

The 3.8% being referred to is a Medicare tax on investment income (that may or may not be from real estate sales) that will be derived from the profits OVER the capital gains threshold and only affecting those who make OVER $200,000 a year (single filers) or $250,000 (joint). 

THAT LEAVES OUT OVER 97% OF THE AMERICAN POPULACE.

This is not some sinister flat tax hiding in the shadows and twirling its curled up mustache waiting for the average seller to put a SOLD sign on their home. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look, this information is not hard to find.  It's not hiding from you.  You don't need a PhD to sort the fact from the bullshit.

You just need a little self respect, intellectual curiosity, and appreciation for FACTS.

Did I mention I HATE election years?

Comments

[Katy]

Unfortunately, a good percentage of that 97% refuse to find out the facts, listen to what their preacher/neighbor/friends (insert whoever) tell them as facts and the ignorance continues.
My personal rule from now till election day, delete all e-mails that discuss any sort of politics (and will tone out most TV commercials as well) and vote for who I chose come November. I can't control the rest of the population, just me.

[Tracy in Cincy]

This is a very stressful time for me because half of my family agrees with my politcal views and half do not. I refuse to get into any discussions with any of them because I don't want to start any bad blood that will continue after the election.
I don't forward emails, and like Katy, just delete them when I get them...along with not forwarding facebook statuses, etc.
Agree with you Linda, I hate election time, but it is better than the alternative.

[Lynn Kelly]

Last election year I temporarily lost a large section of the hair on my head - all because of stress, fearing that Obama would not win and Sarah Palin would be our Vice President. Hope I get to keep my hair this time around!

[Chris]

I wish I could be in a coma for the next 5 1/2 months...hate all the devisiveness that elections have become. I believe that our president is smart enough to get himself re-elected!!!!

[Robin in NM]

This is when Factcheck.org, Politifact, and snopes.com become my favorite places. I usually reply to the sender of the falsity with a link, or a copy from the study showing what they are full of. After two or three such replies, they usually quit sending me such stuff.

[Chrissy]

I think I've shared my method of dealing with this shit before. I reply to the original message with this email:
Dear (whomever): I think your computer may have been hacked - some asshole is sending out complete nonsense under your email account!

You'd be amazed at how this cuts down on the number of them sent to you. It's kept me from tearing all my hair out.

[Susan in PA]

My mother is famous for mass-emailing her address book with anti-Obama nonsense. I usually hit "reply all" and send everyone a link with the facts. However, I like Chrissy's suggestion above. Might have to try that one.

My mother is a one-percenter who is very comfortably living her retirement years in Florida. Even though she's done extremely well financially the past 3 years, she wants the "brown socialist" out of the White House. I don't get it.

[Kerry]

I really like Chrissy's idea. And Robin, I agree with you re: all the fact-checking sites. Sadly, I encounter a lot of people whose answer to those is to claim they're all Dem/liberal run/biased too. :::sigh:::

I check everything myself as well, and usually never forward anyhow, but do make the effort to check on what I was sent. It is very crazy-making.

And I'm in FL - south FL to be exact - a major swing state and specifically swing counties (most of FL votes GOP, but the three county area where I live, with a very large population of retirees and Hispanics usually voted Dem, so we're heavily courted). I'm so not looking forward to this. And I'm sooooo tired of Marco Rubio, Alan West, Rick Scott and the whole GOP apple-dumpling gang. Is it December yet?

[Katy]

It might be a cop-out, but when any one of my family sends me an e-mail, I usually reply with a short note that says "interesting. Thanks for sending." and then do as I stated earlier, just delete. Life's too short, I've already lost a sister and two brothers, so instead of alienating a sibbling, I just nod and smile. I'll vote for my candidate (they'll never know who I vote for) and when Obama is re-elected, they'll just have to live with it!

[Shawn]

I have a neighbor who is going thru mortgage hell at the moment. And I am pretty sure she blames Obama for it. **Sigh** They have done pretty well over the years we have known them even the last three plus with President Obama in office. But doesn't stop her from posting crap on her FB feed. I finally started to hide her which I hate to do. She has a right to her opinion but she is so ignorant of facts.

Recent post was about how President Obama threatened to withhold SS if the debt ceiling isn't raised...and blah blah blah....and that happened last summer (2011) but she thinks it is NOW. Sheesh.

[Nikki in NYC]

Th vitriol against this man is astonishing... but, of course, it isn't racially motivated. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you...

[Robin in NM]

Factcheck.org is a product of the Annenberg Foundation. Founded by Walter Annenberg. The man who REGULARLY hosted Republican Presidents at his Palm Springs estate. (Start with Nixon, then Ford, then Regan) I hardly think that Walter Annenberg would have allowed his legacy to be a liberal-biased organization. I know, I know, facts do not matter to the committed.

[Lori in Texas]

My husband's uncle, who lives in England and, as far as I know, has never set foot in the U.S., sent me an e-mail today with a blatantly racist Obama joke. Even myhusband couldn't believe he'd sent something so horrible to a person he'd never even met before. I responded with a very short, very blunt reply which said that what he had sent to me was vile, disgusting and offensive, and to never send something like that to me ever again.

I'm so sick of this crap. Seriously.