I've been bothered all day about something, and I'll like to ask for some feedback. I have a distant relative whom I've never met who lives in another state. We used to communicate frequently by e-mail, but for the past several years, our contact has consisted just about exclusively of her forwarding me those chain-type e-mails that people tell you to forward to everyone you know. Now, this relative sends me EVERYTHING, including inconsistent (both vulgar jokes and religious poetry) and contradictory (buy gasoline from Such-and-Such because their oil doesn't come from the Middle East; don't buy gasoline from Such-and-Such because the leader of the country from which their oil does come hates America) messages. She sends e-mail rumors that, far more often than not, are false. I used to respond to them with a link to the relevant Snopes entry and a gentle warning about the consequences of spreading false information. It didn't help, though, so now I usually just don't respond.
This morning, though, I found an e-mail from her urging people to boycott a particular fast food chain. The point of the message was that the chain should be boycotted because a teenage boy was allowed to keep his job at one of their stores after having sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl when the girl spent the night at his family's house. Now, this message had no details whatsoever about this incident--no location, no names (according to the message, the courts were involved, so it wasn't something that could be considered confidential), nothing. It so happens, though, that my brother is employed at this chain. His wife is partially disabled, so his income and continued employment are very important to them. I got angry because spreading this kind of encouragement to boycott his place of employment could affect his continuing to HAVE employment, so I responded, not very courteously. I told her, "because I know my brother and I don't know the person who sent [my relative] the e-mail, the person who originated it, the originator's friend [mother of assaulted girl], the friend's daughter, the friend's friend [mother of assailant], the friend's friend's son, or the location where this took place, I think I will continue to support my brother's continued employment."
I just got two more forwarded e-mails from her, so I don't think I offended her enought to stop her writing to me. I wonder if I should have just ignored it like I usually do instead of snapping off like that.
Thoughts?
