Wivanny

This one isn't really too long, as such, but I felt it deserved a better archiving than Facebook has to offer...

I was listening to a pod-cast of the Dave Gorman Show and a listener had written into the show with a story I feel I must share. 

This listener's dad was a claims investigator for an insurance company. At some point he had to go to a woman's house to discuss her accident. The woman introduced herself as (and I'm doing this phonetically )"Wivanny". 

He commented that Wivanny was an unusual name, and asked where it came from, Wivanny explained that while her mum was pregnant, she had read a novel, and that Wivanny had been the name of the heroin. 

When he came to write her details, he asked how "Wivanny" was spelled, and she replied...

(highlight to read)

"Y.V.O.N.N.E. "

Best. Story. Ever.

Time to leave the Westborough Baptist Church to its own devices.

Over the years I've shared many a story or opinion about the Wesborough Baptist Church; this will be the last one. 

For those who don't recognise the name, you may know them as the "God Hates Fags"[1] people; the asshats who protest the funerals of everyone from soldiers to school-shooting victims, spreading their own version of hate-based Christianity, claiming that God allows (or even causes) such deaths in order to punish innocent people for the crimes of being in an army that also allows homosexuals to serve, or attending a pre-school which upholds the constitutional principles surrounding the separation of church and state. 

In it's heyday, the church had only a couple of dozen members, nowadays it has fewer, yet we report on their activities as though they have some kind of relevance to the world. I put it to you that in doing so, we give them one. 

They hold these protests, in the most upsetting places possible, in order to gain attention for their cause; when we give them the attention, we make it worth their while. In condemning them, we give them exactly what they want, and make it more likely that they'll do it again. 

So please, if you see a story about them in future, ignore it, rather than sharing it; even by mocking them, you help keep them going. 

[1] As an asside, one has to wonder if the mainstream media would be as quick to share unedited quotes and images of their vile placards if the group were primarily racist rather than homophobic... Somehow I can't see any of the major news sites referring to the "God Hates Niggers" Church; if the media must continue to feed these evil little trolls, I wish they would do so with a little more courtesy to our brothers and sisters in the LGBT community. 

Yes, I really do think you should fact check!

A couple of posts ago, I told people how to fact check an image before sharing it on facebook.

While it was mostly well received, someone has recently referred to it (during a much wider explanation of my character flaws down to 10 decimal places) as me arrogantly telling people to do a lot of work, before posting something which is, after all, for my benefit.

I want to address this here.

First of all, unless said image is posted on my wall, it isn't "For my benefit" - It's for the "benefit" of your entire list - looking quickly down my freinds, that means 100-500 people... let's say 300 people for arguments sake.

Secondly, I don't think that misinformation (especially scary misinformation) benefits anyone.

My detractors original point, I believe, is basically

"Someone is trying to help you - fact check it yourself instead of expecting them to do it, you arrogant sod."

Now I disagree with this, but can kind-of see their point... if  the image had been sent only to me; but as I've pointed out it's been sent to hundreds of people.so now thier objection becomes

"Do you seriously expect one person to fact check before hitting 'send' when 300 people could so easily fact check it for themselves when they recieve it? How arrogant!".

So yes, I do expect one person to spend 60 seconds on a simple task, rather than see 300 people perform the exact same task... but I'm not sure that's arrogant. To the contrary, I think expecting 300 people to do what you could not be bothered to do yourself is pretty much the dictionary definition of arrogant!

Now, sometimes you'll drop the ball on this, I know I do... sometimes confirmation bias is too tempting, or a story too much fun, and we get carried away; I'm not about to pretend this will never happen, or even that I will never do it myself - but I don't think that's an excuse to not at least try to remember.

And there are exceptions; sometimes its a warning that seems important, and we aren't in a position to check right now (maybe using your phone for instance) - maybe a good policy there would be to mention that it's un-checked when posting it?

Just a though.