I really wish my MIL would check Snopes before forwarding me cautionary horror stories she got in email. I responded with accurate information and a gentle suggestion that she check Snopes in the future.
Y'know, I'll bet people have had stories like that all through recorded history too. For some reason people would rather promulgate wild-ass tales that appeal to other peoples' sense of wonder, or horror, or some other emotion that gets them stirred up.
I sympathize - my youngest sister was a terrible offender with this sort of thing. I just kept referring her to Snopes, and she finally got the message; now she e-mails me to say, "this friend of mine sent me a stupid urban legend and I pointed him to Snopes, go me!"
So persevere. You never know when an old dog will learn a new trick.
What gets my goat is when someone forwards something like that to me and 173 other people, then I reply with a Snopes reference or some other gentle debunking and they reply back to only me saying something to the effect of, "Oh well."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
So persevere. You never know when an old dog will learn a new trick.
no subject