Incendiary Viral Crap

I have a BIG pet peeve that someone in my family has been irritating even more recently. This pet peeve involves these incendiary, viral emails. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones meant to piss you off so much about some hot button political or religious issue that you just HAVE to send it to everyone you know. From here on out, I'm calling them IVCs -- short for INCENDIARY VIRAL CRAP.

This relative has sent me a few of these in the past few weeks. The latest caused me to write this post.

The IVC in question has a subject of "The New Dollar -- Don't Accept These". I knew just looking at the subject I WAS going to be pissed but not because of the warning or advice inside the IVC. I opened it and yes, it made FALSE claims about how the new U.S. dollar coin does NOT feature "In God We Trust".

Now, as I usually do with IVCs, I headed straight to SNOPES.COM (which I've advised this person to do on NUMEROUS occasions) to find out the truth. AND AS USUAL, the email was complete BS. "In God We Trust" IS STILL FEATURED on the coin. It's just on the side of the coin now so it's not as predominant.

You know, the Internet can help us enlighten ourselves and be this great expanse of knowledge for our benefit. OR it can be a vehicle for hatemongering, ill-informed word vomit that drags us into the pit of idiocracy.

I mean really people, don't we have much more to worry about than what is printed on our money? And I know the arguments, "This country was founded on God.", "Our forefathers meant for it to be that way", "The majority of our country is Christian, so shouldn't it represent the majority because majority rules?" HOW ABOUT THIS? I think our money should say, "Cash rules everything around me" because it's appropriate for every American, including myself. We can't live without it, we can't survive without it. Don't even try to fool yourself for one moment by thinking otherwise. Even if you live simply, there's always someone to pay for the shelter you reside in, the clothes on your back or even the materials used to make them or the car you drive to work, etc.

So if you're looking for truth, how about telling it like it is? Say it with me, CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME. I guess it's just easier for people to just forward the email instead of questioning its ligitimacy and finding the truth.

Whew. Did I just contribute to the flame? Probably and for that I apologize.

NOTE: Isn't lovely that Ann Coulter comes up as a link in the Free Dictionary's definition page of hatemonger?

ANOTHER NOTE: The argument about "our forefathers wanted it that way" is incorrect. In 1956, Congress changed the motto to "In God We Trust". The original motto, "E Pluribus Unum" is Latin for "Out of many, one".