Popular scare tactics: forwarded emails
Forwarded emails are not as popular as they used to be. But every now and then, someone receives something they agree with, or something that concerns them (most often), and forwards it along to a handful of faithful forwardees.
If this sounds like you, STOP.
Or at least check first to see if you can find evidence that what is said in the email is true. A lot of what you read online is fact; most is opinion. Some is true, some is false, some wavers between the two. Others may be true opinion but based on false backgrounds.
That was the case with an email I received today. Twice, from opposite sides of the world.
Entitled: Fwd: FW: Yom Hashoah or alternatively FW: Very important for everyone to know!
This week, the UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it “offended” the Moslem population which claims it never occurred. This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it. It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved andhumiliated with the German and Russia peoples looking the other way! Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be “a myth,” it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world. Please send this e-mail to 10 people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain. It will only take you a minute to pass this along – Thanks!
If I hadn’t already heard of this curriculum removal in major news sources, this email should be suspicious. It was not hard to Google its first two lines before replying to the person who sent it to me (and the person who sent it to them).
Thanks, but the premise of the email is false.
What happened:
According to a study, “Teachers are dropping controversial subjects such as the Holocaust and the Crusades from history lessons because they do not want to cause offence to children from certain races or religions, a report claims. A lack of factual knowledge among some teachers, particularly in primary schools, is also leading to “shallow” lessons on emotive and difficult subjects, according to the study by the Historical Association.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article1600686.ece
What your email reported:
> This week, the UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum
> because it “offended” the Moslem population which claims it never
> occurred.Not the same. The forwarded email is over-reacting (and xenophobic). Yes, the issue of English education may be noteworthy, but it does not necessarily relate to Muslims, and is not as serious as the email reports.
Besides, the email fails to distinguish the Holocaust and the Second World War and so makes some far-off claims. See the discussion of this email at: http://forum.physorg.com/index.php?showtopic=14139&st=0&#entry200276
It is also important to be aware that these emails get edited along the way. Similar content is pulled together from different forwards, context is changed, countries are changed from US to Canada to Australia, and in this case, the second version I received had been neatened into paragraphs.
In many cases, the first place to check if you receive a possibly-bogus email is Snopes.com. But if that fails, do the research yourself, or just don’t pass it on.
PS: it seems Snopes does have an article on this email, which is much better than my response and goes into those components of the email that are true and those that are false in detail.
Thanks.
I think this email is a very good thing – even if it may have been factually exaggerated as for the size of the region in which this policy was implemented.
-I’m happy about it for several reasons. The fact it circulated so fast shows that people care – they hold the holocaust important to remember and pass on.
-If one department cancelled Holocaust studies (and Snopes confirms this), then it sets the standard for others to do the same, in order to avoid clashes in classrooms. It’s the convenient thing to do, in the face of our current social reality and in a politically-correct society like England.
-However most of us agree that it is important that the Holocaust be taught and remembered, especially in a world where genocide has repeated itself more than once since WWII, is still occuring today, and is ignored by most of the world (see unwatch.com and other human rights organizations).
- Only an international uproar can stop school systems in the west from doing what is convenient – to skip over or skim through an uncomfortable historical period. And these emails – and blogs – are doing just that.
As for the claims of the email being xenophobic: it is certainly not easy to talk about issues such as the holocaust; Yes, it sounds xenophobic. But not talking about it is exactly what we want to avoid.
Comment by Shai — 18 April, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
Shai- we already knew that Jewish people cared about the Holocaust, and they were in essence the only ones passing this along. But people care more when they’re told things that get their back up, and fabrications tend to.
Popular thought of late has not cared about truth. But at least in many cases, I still do.
Comment by Joel — 18 April, 2007 @ 5:34 pm