Yeah, yeah, anybody can post anything they want on here. I am not arguing that point. Actually, I am exercising it. It is a pet peeve of mine... people posting disinformation, passing on things that are implied to be true but aren't.
If a person is posting something represented to be fact, I feel that they are obligated to verify what they state is actually truthful, preferably with a link to reliable sources. I don't care if it is humor or politics.
In this day and age of information overload, there is no excuse beyond laziness for not doing so with all of the Internet resources available to people. If you have time to hang out on this site, you have time to do a quick and simple search on snopes or wiki that takes less than a minute to get a clue regarding validity.
If nothing else, a simple disclaimer like, "I don't know if this is true, but I find it interesting/ funny." will suffice.
It really irritates me that people are either too gullible, too lazy, or just want to barf out things that they want to hear at the expense of sharing valid knowledge with others. It is fast food information, make that disinformation, dissemination.
You couldn't get by in junior high on a composition by purporting unsupported positions as fact without valid references. There is this show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? Well, unless a person takes a minute and a half to check out the validity of what they say, probably not in some case IMO 
Copy & paste to friend: (Click inside box; Ctrl + C to copy; Ctrl + V to paste)
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read more blogs!
Blogs by Wordsofwit:
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| Check Your Sources Before Posting Disinformation - RANT |
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40DWM
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Jul 13 @ 10:35PM
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well.....dammit....gotta admit, it does seem plausible......(egg on face) 
WIKI....[It termed the story "an Arizona myth."]
Looking at this article, most 'darwin awards', are really, REALLY good fiction....darn...
I want to see, the junior high composition, that makes the rounds like these, or sounds as good.
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Strega
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Jul 13 @ 10:40PM
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Bruce, people who are going to check out the facts already do, those who post mass e-mailings are not going to. Yes it is irritating sometimes, mostly in the political blogs because those facts really should be checked as it is defamation of character in many cases when the truth is stretched beyond recognition just because someone does not like the other party. Most times people will believe it because it is what they want to hear. . In humor I take it with a grain of salt anyway so it does not bother me that much.
I believe in freedom of speech but with that comes the responsibility for what you say. If I published an article in the Village Voice or the NY Times with as many half truths and lies as I see people posting online, there would have to be a public apology in the paper, I would lose my job and my reputation would be in the gutter. Maybe we should start holding the internet to the same standards as we would the news media. (Well most news media anyway, there are some who did not get the memo that the news is supposed to be fact not fiction)
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sugarnspice005
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Jul 13 @ 10:49PM
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I used to cut and past, in fact a lot of my first blogs were cut and paste, mostly humor stuff.
I've learned to check snope and wiki to verify something before posting content in a blog. 
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Wordsofwit
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Jul 13 @ 10:49PM
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I want to see, the junior high composition, that makes the rounds like these, or sounds as good.
Actually, this spring (I blogged a bit about it) I did assessments for the state of Texas on seventh grade compositions for the statewide TAKS tests. I read about 10,000 of them. IMO a significant number of those kids write better than a lot of people on here  In school you can't get by, by being lazy. On here  ... hence my blog.
my reputation would be in the gutter.
What I cannot fathom is how people can embarrass themselves by passing bullshit and get defensive, pissed off at others for pointing it out with lame crap like, "It was a good story whether it is true or not."
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StraddleMyNose
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Jul 14 @ 8:52AM
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Like CNN does.... 
Hell, they even cherry pick "their news" with what goes with their political agenda..... 
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somnium
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Jul 14 @ 8:57AM
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I have no link to back this up but... I think the governments are using the WWW to dummy down the world's citizens! Just say'n! 
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RevDocLove
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Jul 14 @ 10:03AM
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Do you feel better now Grouch?
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