Are Americans being brainwashed by chain emails?

Question

You know the type...
Fwd:fwd:fwd:fwd:fwd:
"The media isn't reporting this! Forward it right now!"
Why do people not believe the media, but believe their chain emails?

Answer 1

Not at all. Brainwashing is a coercive persuasion technique that seeks to instill beliefs or attitudes in an individual despite these new beliefs being in conflict with previously held views. The key word there is coercive. All brainwashing has an element of force behind it. Simply reading an email does not qualify. You could truthfully state that Americans are being [duped, suckered, scammed, fooled, misled] by email forwards, but unless someone is forcing them to read the emails and then forcing a certain interpretation of what they've read then it's not brainwashing. It's simple propaganda.



I can't tell you how many forwards I've received. And it's not just conservatives doing the forwarding, some of the most ridiuclous come from liberals as well. One of my personal favorites is the presidential IQ one, where democratic presidents were all assigned super genius IQ's! And it was forwarded to me by someone who should definitely know better. There's a lot of psychology involoved in those messages, it actually makes for an interesting study. But they really just prove the old adage that a good sales pitch will beat a good product any day of the week.

Answer 2

I don't believe ANYTHING without verifying it, unless it is something that fits in with patterns that I already verified as being true.



As for it being a conservative-only thing, perhaps you should try verifying the following things that the left-wing has been spouting for years:



- Bush's alleged AWOL (he wasn't)

- Bush claimed or implied Iraq was responsible for 9/11 (never said this and even directly stated there was no connection)

- Bush lied about WMD

- Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq

- Bush called the Constitution a "goddamn piece of paper."

- Karl Rove's imminent indictment for his role in the Plame affair.



If you dig into the facts (or lack thereof) behind these left wing "common knowledge" items, you just might discover there is no factual basis for believing these to be true. Yet they are plastered all over the leftist blogosphere as true.



Perhaps you should attempt to understand human nature and realize that a lot of people across all political spectrums will believe things told to them without ascertaining for themselves whether it's true or not.

---------

You're either a liar or an idiot. There are NO clips of Bush claiming that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. If there are so many, produce one. Find one and post a link. I dare you to!



As for the WMD, all the Senate Intelligence Reports, even the ones under the Democrat Congress, indicate that it was faulty intelligence, and that there is no evidence whatsoever that there was any deception or pressure by the administration. So, again, where's the proof of the lie? Being wrong based on faulty "slam dunk" intelligence is not lying, if you were interested in intellectual honesty. Which you are not.

Answer 3

I'm not.



The people I believe are trying to do the most brainwashing are the politicians. All these "Congressional" hearings about what's happening with the price of oil. Do they REALLY think I'm going to believe what they talk about in those hearings is going to alter the price of oil (and it's related products) even one penny?



If they are an incumbent and they haven't voted to let oil companies drill where ever they won't get my vote.



If they are an incumbent and they have voted to protect some creature be it vertabrate, invertabrate and that has kept a resource from being developed they won't get my vote.



If they haven't told enviromentalists, OK you don't want us drilling, mining, or building so we can get more energy. Go develop an alternative YOU find acceptable and then come back and we'll use it. Until then take a hike.

Answer 4

I don't even read them. Most have all been around the world a few hundred times and been debunked by snopes.com



The media is part of the problem, no longer do they have fact checkers they spew the same garbage, so when the lack of any real news or a trustworthy news source exist people seek out a different source.

Answer 5

The ones about Obama are hilarious (and false).



People need to make more use of snopes.com before fwd to their entire address books!!



I got some insinuating anti-war=unpatriotic after 9/11--made me mad, but gave me a chuckle as well.



I've blogged about some of them- 360.yahoo.com/tcdrtw





To Call Me Bwana:

AWOL- No, he did what all well-connected and famous people(football players) did-join the National Guard ahead of the long waiting list to avoid the draft. He did serve, though; can't fault him for that.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-06-cheney_N.htm

Cheney directly stated the Iraq-9/11 "link" and held to it after it was proven false (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/11/06/iraq.intel/)

Bush, as I remember, never stated it directly, but definitely used language to beat around the bush and imply it- see http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html



Lied about WMD- we'll never know. He was most likely misled. He was good at delegating and didn't want to know the details and so that left room for Cheney and others to manipulate facts.



God told him to invade Iraq- never heard this attributed to him beyond poking fun at the religious tone/keywords of some of his speeches.

Answer 6

Oh yes, without a doubt. Otherwise they might be able to see different sides of a story and draw their own conclusions. They are brainwashed by churches, preachers, right wing radio, FAUX news, and each other. And the indicator that they are brainwashed is how sure they are that they're not, but can't prove what they say.

Answer 7

the liberty replaced into concentrated by using a collection off-chuffed fool who's probable rotting in an unmarked grave someplace. And Israel formally apologized and presented repayment, which the eastern did not. Switzerland and Iceland are not powerful adequate to be seen a danger, the muslim scum have mentioned so themselves. we are actually not attacked for our help of Israel, nor for our wealth and status. that is by way of fact we are a powerful united states of america of infidels that stands against the tide of Sharia. If the U. S. did not exist, there may well be 2 faculties of power left in the international. Islam and Communism. you have not any information in anyway that the Mossad or Shin wager or the different Israeli job tension ordered or carried out the assaults, and we've different tapes from Osama bin encumbered claiming own duty for the assaults. Pakistan has constantly been our enemy. they seem to be a self-serving united states of america of terroristic muslim scum, and if Bush had had any experience he might have despatched the troops to blast Afghanistan and Pakistan, extremely of gallivanting around Iraq chasing shadows. Islam is the enemy of usa. And the enemy of Europe, China, Australia, and the different united states of america that may not one hundred% Muslim. loss of life to Islam.

Answer 8

Chain mail was stupid when sent via snail mail before the internet. Chain emails are just as stupid. They are created and forwarded and created by the type who are susceptable to beliefs in cults or have a cult-like need to belong to something. Political chain mail acts like this to those who wish to belong to the Bush is god cult or the Fox-cult or to the government is always right unless it is a liberal running it cult or the right wing whack job cult. Of course they don't see it this way. But people who belong to cults don't see their organization as a cult either.

Answer 9

Yes, I know someone who is a millionaire busy running a business & his group of cronies get their info. from these e-mails. He was brainwashed until he started to have to pay so much for gas...Oh, well atleast these people know how to use e-mail. McCain says he has never learned to use a computer.

Answer 10

Wow..... I would think that these folks have just jumped into using the Internet, and don't really know what to make of it. They also don't spent a lot of time on the internet, so they have no idea what to make of it if the e-mail generates from their friends or family.

Answer 11

Well it's lucky I contacted you. You see I am the bank manager of the First Federal Nigerian, where a client of mine has recently died in a plane crash and left $1,000,000....



You get the point. People who believe spam they get in their inbox are dumb as mud and shouldn't even be allowed near a computer.

Answer 12

And the difference between E-mails and Moveon.org is what?

Answer 13

Great point, let me forward this to my friends. But first, I will let them know that for every person they forward it to, they will get another vote for the presidential candidate of their choice.

Answer 14

How can Americans (or anyone else) be brainwashed by something they delete (or should be deleting) before they even read it?

Answer 15

Yes and I'm about to go fist bump my peeps because of our terrorist ties to baseball.

Answer 16

I can verify the e-mails, I haven't been able to verify anything the media spews out. Facts speak.

Answer 17

Only the stupid ones.

Answer 18

One word comes to mind....IGNORANCE