Watcha Readin' Wednesday

More stupid emails than you can shake a stick at.

Seriously. I've started doing the research and replying to the sender just to show them they look like idiots. Last week it was a message from some snotty Pampered Chef rep who was upset that a Tupperware gal didn't like her being a pain in the butt customer. Tuppergirl posted a names-free whine about it on some email group which, unfortunately, Pamered Bitch was a member of. So our Pampered friend dashed off an inflammatory message and sent it to everyone in her address book and asked all of them to send it on, blackballing Tuppergirl.

Nice. On careful scrutiny it was obvious Pampered Bitch had no leg to stand on for her complaints and really didn't know what she was talking about. (her main tweak was that the Tuppergal wouldn't order her product without prepayment. In fact, Tupperware requires their consultants to prepay for their orders, which this girl could not afford, nor should she have to) In this instance, I emailed PB directly and told her how crummy I thought it was for her to be trying to destroy this woman's business, after which she told me they'd talked it out and made up. Of course, no mention of her emailing everyone she knew to tell them this...

Today it was an erumor from 2002 about McDonald's buying beef from South America and how we should boycott them. Fact is, the U.S. gets almost all its beef from New Zealand and Australia and we export ours to Canada and Asia. But twice in one week I've received this message, and it's all in the name of protecting the U.S. economy. Which is silly. I mean - the beefgrowers are still sellling their product. If everyone boycotted McDonald's, their sales would tank and they'd lay off people by the thousands (or just cut their hours til the employees ended up on Public Assistance). Wouldn't that hurt the economy much more?

It amazes me how many people are willing to just read and hit FORWARD as instructed. Don't people know how to think for themselves anymore? (she said in her best Crotchety Old Andy Rooney Voice) I can't help thinking, if somebody walked up to these folks and whispered a rumor in their ear and then told them to tell everyone they know, would they simply repeat it without verifying?

Who needs a damn computer virus to get in address books when you've got Email Zombies!

-Bitchy and Knowing It