Do people deliberately not check stuff out?...

Seems I am seeing more posts from people where they blindly repost something they see on the internet, or get sent via email, and it never enters their head to check out the validity of the items before they post.

I seriously thought people were joking when they said "it's on the internet, therefore it must be true", but it seems more and more that people actually do believe something, just because it was posted on the web somewhere!

Seems the world has gone crazy and lost their ability to use 'google' to check out the validity of items. Even better they could use something like 'snopes' which will go so far as to break items down and let you know if parts are true or false or if a whole article is true or false...But, no - why bother checking out something when you can just blindly report something. That is obviously the intelligent thing to do! (not)

Only this morning I received an email stating how the ACLU is trying to stop active duty soldiers from praying, and how we need to stop things like this happening! Well that would be well and good if the ACLU was actually doing this, but it took me approx 30 seconds to discover that this is not what they are doing, and that this was something that was first started, 6 years ago to discredit the ACLU, and for some reason known only to crazy people, has resurfaced this year! The person who sent it to be, is someone I have the utmost respect for, a very intelligent person. I have replied to their email and given them the link to the article which explains that the accusations against the ACLU are false. I may well upset them by doing this, but to me it is far more upsetting to circulate something that is factually incorrect, than it is to point out the error. 

A Facebook acquaintance recently posted, a list of Muslim acts of terrorism and then defied anyone to find similar acts conducted by Christians, because she truly believed that Christians did not commit acts of terrorism. While I did not take pleasure in reading the posts that ensued, I felt so relieved that this lady was suddenly jumped on by so many people who listed Christian terrorism in history that included, The Crusades, The Holocaust, the IRA, Oklahoma City bombing and Sandy Hook school shooting to name just a few. The lady who made the original post went very quiet for a while - I suspect she was hit by a bolt of realisation at the bs she had posted!

I remember my own Dad being outraged about a Muslim parade that he had been emailed about. Apparently a Muslim group in NYC, was taking over some square in the City somewhere EVERY week to protest or celebrate something and it was totally outrageous! Once again it took less than a minute to check the facts and discover that yes, this Muslim group did take over this particular square in NYC! They just did it once a year, not once a week every week, and had been doing so for several years without any issue whatsoever! My Dad actually realised just how damaging his mistake could haven been, and became a huge advocate of Snopes, and very rarely did anything false or misleading get past him again (thank goodness).

Here in the US, I believe it is far easier for people to be misled, mainly because the country as a whole is so sheltered from what is REALLY going on in the rest of the world. The American people truly believe that they as people have rights that people in no other country have! So many have no understanding that other countries in the world, also have exactly the same rights and don't feel the need to spout about it all the time - it is just accepted as the way things are! This isn't the fault of the people, but the government that treats them like small children that need to be sheltered. As a people there are huge gaps in historical knowledge thanks to a lacking in education, and when it comes to religion, there is pretty much zero education on other cultures and religions which leads to a society that is frightened by what they do not know or understand-  and also a society that reads something online to do with another religious group and instantly believes that it MUST be true - like all Muslims are terrorists, the Holocaust never took place, and Jesus, Mary and Joseph were actually white anglo-saxons who spoke perfect English despite the fact that they lived in the middle east and so were undoubtedly brown skinned, not Christian and didn't speak English!! 

More recently over the Presidential election, there have been such huge lies told on both sides of campaigning... Apparently Hilary wanted to tear 9 month old babies from mothers wombs, when actually nowhere was that ever stated as a thing. The current law on abortion states that an abortion can only be carried out after 26 weeks if the life of the mother is directly at risk! The Democrats were in support of the current law, quoting Roe v Wade...The US laws on abortion actually are pretty much the same as they are in every other country, although now President Elect Trump may well go for a change to the current law which will ultimately put more women at risk, because it won't stop them seeking abortions, it will just bring back those 'back street abortionists' of days gone by, and women will be at risk of infections and death.

Another common discussion with the Presidential campaign is Trumps proposed wall between the US and Mexico.. I have seen so many posts about other walls in other countries, with tag lines about walls being acceptable...What people haven't checked out is why these other walls were built - the wall I keep seeing posted in Spain is only 8 miles long, the wall in Pakistan was built to help with terrorism. Point being that not all the walls being used in these posts were built to help with illegal immigrants - some were but not all; and just because one country does something doesn't make it right. It just means we are adding to what is wrong!

I could go on and on and get nowhere - the point behind this post is, check the validity of what you are posting people. Don't just blindly believe something just because it is on the internet. Information is not magical, it is posted by people, like you and me, people with opinions that they choose to share - some people are very discriminatory in their posts, some people post about stuff they have zero knowledge on. There is nothing that says that just because something is on the internet that it is true. Use your brain and check stuff out, think for yourself and have the courage to stand up for what is right and not be a sheep! But above all else, have compassion for your fellow man, as you would expect your fellow man to have compassion for you.