Extremists Use Modern Technology

Just as the 9/11 hijackers used cells phones and the Internet for their purposes, our own extremists from both sides of the spectrum have found a degree of fertile ground by using the same technology. The way out factions send emails out claiming all kinds of nonsense, like Bush was behind 9/11, or Obama was born in another country, knowing full well that there are those whose curiosity, or dislike of a particular person, will cause them to open that email, and then pass it along to others. Thus rumors of all kinds of nonsense circulate unlike ever before in our history. Then when it grows to such a point, cable news takes note and mentions it, and the nonsense gains added life. Then when they beat the story to death, it goes to what I guess we still call the mainstream network news, ABC, CBS, and NBC (and PBS). The person who is, or the people who are, the subject of the rumor are more or less forced to respond, which also adds to the whole circus atmosphere.

Now, do people have a right to send out such emails? I suppose so, it's a free country, although there are laws about libel and slander, and I'm not a legal scholar to say what is, or what is not, legal in all of this. Of course, performers have been subject to all kinds of "scandal" stories for decades in the tabloids strategically placed by the check outs in supermarkets and drug stores. I seem to recall Lucille Ball ("Lucy") took one of these...ah..."publications" to court over some story, and she won! I've got to believe there have been other cases, too. I'm not advocating this process, as it gives these nuts more publicity than they're worth. Like Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels, the ring leaders of this nonsense know that the bigger the whopper, the more attention it will get! I just hope that any of you out there will NOT become party to such stuff. Be careful opening emails from people unknown to you (for one thing, they can contain viruses), and please, please, don't jump to the worst possible conclusions if you do read an outrageous claim in an email or hear the same on radio or television, just because it is about someone you dislike politically. Don't like them, don't vote for them! Don't like them, write a letter or letters to the editor, or engage in some public debate over the issues, but please stay away from this Nazi....I mean nasty...nonsense!
(A word history next time)