Annoying Falsities

Now, I know I'm already preaching to the choir for the most part, or at least preaching to the not-retarded, but I went to pick up some barbecue for dinner last night and saw something that has annoyed me all day today. Posted on the door to the dining area was a flyer, with a big "Read This!" hand scrawled at the bottom. It was a picture of the democratic presidential candidates all standing with their hand over their heart except for Barack Obama. The picture isn't doctored, of course, but the caption and warning is. I'd heard the story about Obama refusing to say the pledge of allegiance to the flag or even put his hand over his heart from my dad, but I was suspicious about the veracity of the claim. I wasn't compelled to do the research to see if it was true or not at the time. However, seeing this photo posted in a public place with that same claim as fact did get me on my butt and typing queries into a search engine.

It turns out that my suspicions were right. The photo is real, but the caption is a blatant misrepresentation of the facts. (Don't you like the way I paired up the very forceful blatant with the neutral misrepresentation there? Writing is a craft, people.) There was no pledge being said during the time this photo was being taken and Obama never refused to say the pledge. In fact, he's been on C-Span leading the other senators in the recitation of the pledge to start the senate proceedings. Check out this other blog post for more details along with videos of the actual event the photo was taken from and Obama leading the pledge at his day job. Even Fox News, the virtual mouthpiece of the Republican party, published this article about the event. Even Hannity and Colmes acknowledged it was during the anthem in their discussion of it. Oh, and the whole thing with the flag pin? Bush doesn't always wear his either.

That's not the only stupid e-mail forward making the round, just the one that has an effect on anything important. Another one is in regard to the new movie The Golden Compass, based on a book in a fantasy series by Philip Pullman. While it is true the original author was highly critical of organized religion and the story could easily be interpreted as an allegory for the evil religion brings into the world, but the shocking e-mails I keep getting from relatives and hearing from others keeps saying that it's a kid's movie where they murder Jesus. First off, people, it's fantasy. There's going to be an evil, extremely powerful bad guy that needs killing. Second, the book isn't set in the real world, but a fictional one where Polar Bears talk and people have a living animal representation of their true spirit that follows them around. Third, there are no direct references to the Christian religion or deities. The story is basically that an being has taken control and through his advanced powers and a priestly organization has convinced the world that he is God even though all he does is torture all the souls of the dead regardless of their virtue in life. In the end, the heroine (whose friends have been kidnapped by the sinister organization) frees souls from a hell-like place and storms the home of the evil being and kills it. Now, how you associate an evil being pretending to be god with Jesus is beyond me. The stories always painted the Jewish hippy carpenter as a pretty cool dude.

The best way to take these stories is as an attack of people who would take the religion and twist it to the use of evil like wars, supporting unjust governments, and intertwining religious beliefs and law. After all, the being that is killed at the end is in no way a god, just a powerful being pretending to be so. Plus, the movie avoids the religious overtones of the novels and turns the organization from a religious sect into a mysterious group of evil doers.

I mean, is it that hard to fact check these things? I mean, if it's not on the news and seems like huge and important information, there may be a reason for it. I'm not saying important news isn't often neglected, but if you're taking forwarded e-mails for face value, then you probably don't care about the type of stories not making the front page or TV broadcast anyway.