Last week, I got an email that quoted the book of Revelation. Specifically it mentioned the anti-Christ (ironically, the anti-Christ isn't even mentioned in Revelation) and how Obama could fit the bill.This week, my favorite email claimed to be from Bill Phillips of Phillips 66 Oil. He was just writing to make sure that we understand that a) there are no big oil companies in America, b) we could get more oil with very little effort, and c) that it's the Democrats deliberate and evil plan that has resulted in high gas prices.
While none of these things are true, there is a sad truth about them. The fact is that millions of Americans get their political information in the form of Internet forward. These forwards have no references, no trackable history and most importantly, no credibility. We don't know who wrote these articles or if any of the claims can be taken seriously.
Yet people continue to forward them. Something in our brain actually considers that Barack Obama might actually be the anti-Christ, and thanks to our hotmail account, we know it now. Our minds seem to justify Winston Churchill when he said "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
If you were a candidate for President, would you want someone headed to the polls with a head full of fear mongering and frivolous email forwards, about to spill onto a ballot with little to no clue as to who the better candidate is? I would certainly hope not.
And so, as we near the election, I would quote America's 35th President, John F. Kennedy, who said, "The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all." So ask yourself, what is John McCain's policy on Iraq? Senator Obama's policy on immigration? Either candidate's policy on health care? Do we know what our candidates believe on these basic platforms? These are issues that not only affect Americans, but things we need to know in order to rightfully use the freedoms that make us proud to be Americans.
Here's the truth on the last two weeks of internet forwards. No descriptions of the anti-Christ whatsoever are found anywhere in the Bible. Obama doesn't fit the description that was concocted by the email's mystery author anyway.
Exxon Mobil, the largest oil company on the planet, is an American oil company. The Republican party has been in power for the last eight years, and had also had control of congress for six of the last eight years, so it wasn't an evil plot by the Democrats to charge more for gas.
Whenever you find yourself gaining new information from an email forward, do some research. Even a quick Google search can shed some light on the validity or falsehood of what you've just read. Another great place to check is here. It's a website that researches the validity of claims made in the political arena.
Or you could just ask yourself: did you get the $10,000 per person that you forwarded that AOL study on to? Hmmm....
