Yesterday I received an email on the topic of the 2008 election that was strangely familiar. And there was a reason for the familiarity: I had seen it four years before, forwarded to my email box by the same person. The reality is that this message is a complete hoax, and the fact that it is regurgitated after multiple elections (first being the 2000 election) and forwarded throughout the internet shows that gullible people are easily fooled because it comports with their established ideology.
First of all, here’s the email:
THIS WILL CURDLE YOUR BLOOD & BREAK YOUR HEART
Interesting Statistic
Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out facts of 2008 Presidential election:Number of States won by:
Democrats: 19
Republicans: 29Square miles of land won by:
Democrats: 580,000
Republicans: 2,427,000Population of counties won by:
Democrats: 127 million
Republicans: 143 millionMurder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Democrats: 13.2
Republicans: 2.1Professor Olson adds:
“In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won by Republicans was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare.
Professor Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.
Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom
Anyone not blinded by ideology would quickly see these so-called “facts of [the] 2008 Presidential election” are suspicious, starting with the number of states and square miles of land won. Has it really been that long since the election that people actually think McCain won 10 more states than Obama? Talk about short-term memory.
It only took me 2 seconds — literally — to search Google to find out that this email is a long-discredited hoax. FactCheck.org completely dismantles the widely forwarded message in its current 2008 manifestation. Starting by pointing out that Professor Olson has denied being the source of these “facts” since 2000, FactCheck then addresses the stats:
- President-elect Barack Obama actually carried 28 states (and the District of Columbia), not 20 as claimed in the message. Sen. John McCain carried only 22 states, not 30.The murder rate for counties carried by Obama was 6.56 per 100,000 inhabitants, less than half the rate claimed in the message. The rate for counties carried by McCain was 3.60 per 100,000, much higher than claimed in the message.
- The total area of states won by Obama is actually 1,483,702 square miles, significantly more than the 580,000 stated by the e-mail. McCain’s states have an area of 2,310,315 square miles, not the 2,427,000 claimed.
- The population of counties carried by Obama is just under 183 million, not the 127 million claimed. McCain carried counties with a total population of just under 119 million, far fewer than claimed in this message.
- The murder rate for counties carried by Obama was 6.56 per 100,000 inhabitants, less than half the rate claimed in the message. The rate for counties carried by McCain was 3.60 per 100,000, much higher than [the 2.1] claimed in the message.
As you can see, the stats are not just slightly wrong, they’re way off. But I doubt this will stop dishonest people from using it again, because in the world of right wing America ideology trumps reality every time.
