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As many of you know, I spend a lot of time on the Internet. Partly for business, sometimes for fun, and many times for education or enlightenment. It has become, for better or for worse, a big part of my existence. Trust me when I say it truly is a love hate relationship.
One of the real love hate aspects is e-mail. It can be funny, as many of you who read the Dunn’s Web column in this paper every week know, or it can be a means of passing along needed information. Be warned though, once you’ve opened Pandora’s E-mail Box you have to take the good with the evil.
Oh, by the way just to clarify a misconception that some of you have, I DO NOT write Dunn’s Web, I just pass it along. As any of you computer geeks out there know, once you get out there and start e-mailing your friends and business colleagues you start getting a ton of joke e-mails. A few of them are funny but to be honest the majority are terrible. So while I don’t write what you see in Dunn’s Web I do have to wade through a ton of shit to find one that I find funny and is still funny after I take out all of the curse words.
Now that we are in the midst of an election year the majority of the jokes are of course, what else, election year themed. This means that all of my Republican friends send me anti-Kerry jokes and all of my Democratic friends send me anti-Bush jokes. Me, being a bi- partisan individual, as far as humor goes, I take the good with the stupid and the witty with the mindless.
Just for my own amusement, and because I’m a sharing type of guy, if I get something that I find funny, say from the Democratic side poking fun at Bush, I take the time to send it to all of my Republican friends. I also do the same with my Democratic friends, which of course confuses the hell out of them. But funny is as funny does. If it’s funny, it’s funny, politics be damned.
Some of the people who spend a lot of time sending out political partisan e-mails have a tendency to take these things far more seriously than those of us who are strictly on the receiving end. As if their attack e-mails have some validity as to the choices we will make come November 2nd. This is where I personally draw the line. Especially when they want to take what is designed as a joke and attempt to make it seem like there is some truth involved. Nine times out of ten there isn’t. As I have found out the hard way, when you try to point this fact out the to the people who sent it to you, they sometimes get ultra defensive.
Unlike me, who as I pointed out earlier, just passes them along if I think they’re funny, I don’t get emotionally involved. I may be dumb but not dumb enough to think that I will politically sway someone one way or the other through an e-mail.
I will, occasionally, attempt to set the record straight if I receive something that I can tell is full of holes and is intended to be malicious. I will either go out and find the answers for myself on an unbiased web site on the internet or consult someone who I know has the answers and can give me an unbiased answer. Just a word of warning: this can lead to the aforementioned ultra defensive attitude on the part of the person who sent it to you. Which, if you think about it, is downright bizarre considering they aren’t the one who wrote it to begin with. Politics can really make some people crazy.
I told my son the other day one of my philosophies for keeping friends which is to never discuss religion or politics with them unless they share your viewpoint. Sometimes this can be a bit tough to do. Especially when you couple things like an election year and an awesome piece of documentary filmmaking like Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. If you want to know what I mean, just try mentioning Moore or Fahrenheit 9/11 to a Republican. It doesn’t make any difference whether they have seen the film or not the sheer mention of it sends most of them into a tirade, and it’s downright scary. You would think you were in church and mentioned the Devil and his spawn the antichrist.
Apparently it has incited a pro-Republican into producing a hate film on John Kerry that is due to be released shortly before the election. Not having seen it yet I can’t vouch for its accuracy or to its quality. Considering its rushed production I doubt, when the Academy Award nominations are announced, that it will be a nominee, but I know for sure Moore’s film will be.
Personally, I think that Fahrenheit 9/11 should be mandatory viewing for all undecided voters. If this other film is not just a vendetta film and is a true documentary it should be shown as well. Maybe they could do a double bill at a theatre and make it a polling place as well and let the best film help the fence sitters make a decision.
Hey if it happens I will let you know by bi-partisan e-mail.
The Shrub Speaks: After listening to the litany of complaints and the dour pessimism, I did all I could not to make a bad face. St. Louis, Missouri, Oct. 9, 2004
B.D.’s Response: Dubya, if you hadn’t screwed up the country, there would not be a litany of complaints and pessimism.
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