Political Spam
Today I got a very interesting type of spam I've never seen before. It was a political advertisement. An anti-GW advertisement.
The message itself was what you'd expect from someone with the spammer mentality. As much as I absolutely despite GW as a president, the message made even me mad - at the person who wrote it. It's filled with a number of incredibly questionable "facts" (I cannot verify many of them). I'd love nothing other than to see GW lose the election, but if he loses because people are voting based on lies, then democrary has failed.
My old high school's motto was "democracy can only work when our country's citizens are educated." That doesn't just mean that the citizens have a high school level (or even college level) background. It means that the voters have to actually know the facts on what they're voting.
I have some friends who are voting pro-GW for the absolutely stupidest fucking reason I can imagine: Kerry seems softer. What the hell does that have to do with how you run a country? These same people call themselves Republicans despite that, if you ask them their opinions on all the major (and a number of minor) issues, they are more often against the usual Republican stances. These friends of mine (who are great people otherwise) are a perfect example of what that high school motto was getting at. They are a detriment to democracy. Their votes, which are based on falsehoods and bogus criteria, dilute the votes of people who are voting based on the truth and criteria that are related to what makes a good president. What could be worse than someone who votes Republican because they think they're Republican, even though they're closer to being a Democrat or Libertarian? What could be worse than voting for any candidate based on their party instead of based on the actual candidate, since even GW doesn't agree with all Republican beliefs. The same is true for other parties and candidates; if you vote for Kerry because he's a Democrat which you think you are, even though you're closer to being a Republican or Libertarian, you're part of the problem.
This spam I received simply infuriates me. Because I know that there are a lot of people who might be pro-GW, and for perfectly valid reasons (even if I don't personally agree with them), who will get this or a similar message and change their opinion.
Leading the people like sheep to get rid of a bad ruler is just as bad as the people being led like sheep to vote for the bad ruler. Either way, the system stops being a democracy.
Damned spammers.