How We Get News/Information, Part Two

Americans, and indeed people all over the world, have always had to deal with rumors. Rumors are another form of information. A rumor may turn out to be fact or fiction, or something in between, but there’s no denying, rumors are a part of the information we have thrown at us. What is different is, in the age of the Internet, rumors can spread quickly; so quickly, that people with “agendas” can use rumors to further their own causes. In this day and age, unsolicited emails arrive with all sorts of “agendas;” from trying to sell us things, to trying to get us to click on a link that may take us to virus infested websites, to trying to get us to go to fake websites and provide personal information which can then be used to loot our bank accounts or even steal our identities. Then there are the “information” emails. These emails want us to believe that a person in one or the other political party is trying to do some nefarious thing. Usually these emails make some spectacular claim against a particular political figure, sometimes twisting truth to make it seem nefarious. And of course, the email frequently ends by urging the recipient to “pass along this email to all of your email contacts.” And just to prod the recipient further, the email “may” add, “If you don’t forward this email along to others, you’re not a good American,” or some such nonsense. Unfortunately, these things actually work at times, although I would guess that they work most often with people who are already predisposed to believing anything nasty about people they don’t much like in the first place. In that case, they actually serve to reinforce negative views of political opponents, but some folks, not necessarily predisposed to such beliefs, fall for them anyway. Another favorite expression used in these “propaganda” emails is, “This is something ‘they’ doesn’t want you to know,” or even, “You won’t read or hear this in the media.”

About a year and a half ago, I asked someone, a Republican, who they planned to vote for in the Republican primary. This person often passed along many of these political-type emails, mentioned above. The person answered something to the effect that, “I may not even vote. There isn’t anyone who really represents my views. John McCain is a traitor to America. I know the true story about him.” There was good news in this reply, that being there wasn’t anyone who represented that person’s views! There was no explanation as to why “John McCain is a traitor to America.” The man is a former POW, for Pete's sake! Don’t forget, this person was a REPUBLICAN! Just think what they must feel towards Democrats! Now, did this person get information about McCain from some email? I don’t know, but I do know that when I challenged some of this person’s forwarded emails, they didn’t like it, even replying one time, “I don’t want to get into a discussion about it!” Don’t forget folks, there’s that body part encased in your skull between your ears. Use it! Remember, just because you read something on the Internet, doesn’t make it true.

WORD HISTORY:
Prank-Linguists are uncertain of how English got this word, or perhaps it's modern meaning. English had a word "prank," (verb) which meant "to dress well, dress up." German, a close relative of English, has "prunk(en)," which has the same meaning, " to dress well," but also can mean "to show off, flaunt, strut," and Dutch, another close English relative, has "pronk(en)." By the 1500s, English had "prank," (noun) which for a time meant "malicious act," but which later softened to our modern meaning "a mischievous act." Whether this was derived from the verb is not known. "Prankster" seems to have been an invention of the American form of English. The original word is almost certainly related to "prance," which was used more in reference to horses, and whose relationship to "prank" is more easily seen in the German figurative sense, "strut."