It's going to get a little ranty here.
Sorry, not sorry, in advance.

The spread of misinformation, particularly when it's done with the intent to spur fear and wrath, is one of my biggest pet peeves. It comes in a close second to my dislike of people who inconsiderately spread germs to their friends, family members, and co-workers, and even overrides my frustration with misspelled memes.

So, for the sake of truth and justice, here are some of the latest Facebook posts I've seen that are... are you ready??? Blatant untruths. You may have seen them, you may have even shared them. If you have, there's no condemnation... you are a victim. But please, in the future, do a little investigating before you share that "unbelievable" story. Because if it's THAT unbelievable, it's probably...um... unbelievable.

#1.  No Nazi-era submarine has been recovered from the Great Lakes. The photos (Did you know you can research a photo by right-clicking and selecting "search Google for image"?) are from Russia and National Geographic. BTW, Barbara Johnson, shame on you, whoever you are. (http://hoax-alert.leadstories.com/604527-nazi-submarine-discovered-great-lakes.html)

#2. That picture of the 12-week-old fetus you keep sharing to discourage abortion? That's a picture of a handcrafted resin doll which looks very little like a 12-week-old fetus. Just sayin'. (http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/12weekfetus.asp)

#3. Facebook did not remove a picture of "Little Timmy Saluting the Flag" because non-Americans complained. First: If you are SEEING the picture of Little Timmy on Facebook, Facebook didn't remove the picture. Second: This meme was created and shared by a satire group who likes to stir up conservative angst. The same charming individuals who got your panties in a bunch last year by telling you Denali was a Kenyan word for "Black Power." Remember that one? (http://www.snopes.com/little-timmy-facebook-flag/)

#4. Those are not the twins you're looking for. The post that supposedly depicts the conjoined twins separated by Dr. Ben Carson all grown up in their letter jackets, yeah... not them. Sorry. It's even worse when it's a happy story and you get played, isn't it? (http://www.hoax-slayer.net/does-a-circulating-image-depict-now-grown-up-conjoined-twins-separated-by-dr-ben-carson-in-1987/)

I could go on, and on, and on... but it's too depressing.

Be aware... there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of "satire" sites that look and sound like real news sites, and unless you look closely, you can't tell the difference. Apparently, it's gotten so bad Facebook was considering a way to mark certain pages and/or posts as satire.

Case in point: back in December a FB acquaintance shared a post about President Obama refusing to allow soldiers to receive Christmas cards as "the first salvo in the war on Christmas." Now, I think the "war on Christmas" is a load of hooey anyway, but I did a little research just in case. Come to find out that post was generated by a Facebook page called "Fox News the FB Page." It looked real, it seemed real. But it's not real. It's satire. Really well-done satire. And people are responding in raging, mob-mentality style to these artfully photoshopped posts and shock-value headlines.

So... for your future reference, take a minute to check snopes.com or hoax-slayer.com, both sites have been around a long time, back before FB, even, when our hoaxes arrived in our inboxes with all those notifications that we have a long-lost relative in Bosnia who wants to send us the family jewels, for a shipping fee of $49,000 wired directly to said relative.

And here's a link to a list of satire, fake news, parody, and conspiracy theory sites: (I can't even tell you how many of my friends are apparently subscribed to some of these... SMH) https://www.facebook.com/notes/hoaxes-on-fb/list-of-satire-parody-fake-news-conspiracy-theory-sites/1063012267075709

When in doubt, check it out.

Remember back in the days before the Internet?
(Seriously, there was life before the Internet.)

We used to receive these things in the mailbox called "chain letters." Generally they arrived with no return address, promised wealth and blessing and all good things if you complied with the letter's demands, and everything from the pox to crop failure to certain death if you didn't. The demands involved making multiple copies of the letter (this before the days of at-home copiers or scanners) and sending them out within a certain period of time to a number of friends and relations.

And although we have advanced so far technologically that "snail mail" and hand-written copies of anything are practically obsolete, we have NOT, it appears, advanced beyond the puerile need to torment, terrorize, and tick off our friends and family members. Now we have email scams and Facebook hoaxes, and with the advent of Photoshop and all its copycat programs, the ability for any goofball with a computer to create just about any picture of anything and make it look completely real. (Sorry, the tiger is the victim of Photoshop... like most of the models in our fashion magazines.)

Jane Fonda, for those who don't know the story already. http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.asp

And the silly stories NEVER go away.
Think back... in the '90s our email accounts burgeoned with threats of tainted lipstick, the address of a child in England dying of a dread disease who just wanted a postcard sent to his bedside, free Victoria's Secret panties, rumors about atheist Madelyn Murray O'Hair's imminent plan to take over the nation's airwaves, and static-triggered gas station explosions. As we surfed the web for hours on end, our screens were inundated with pop-ups promising us we were the lucky winners of a free laptop and cruises to Mexico... just click.

And click we did. I spent almost a full week extricating our bank account from a selection of subscriptions and various products my DH inadvertently signed up for. He's an optimist. He really believed that free laptop gimmick was true.


And now we have Facebook, Twitter, and social media. And nothing has changed.
Every day I watch my FB friends, sometimes people I have known and respected almost my entire life, fall victim to these sneaky tricks, posting and sharing and reposting things that have long since been proven false or at the very least are so suspicious they're worth a bit more examination. Even when someone comes right out and says, "Hey, that's not true!" the posting and sharing continues unabated.

THIS is false, and foolish, and pointless. You can't protect your FB privacy with a status update.

As Winston Churchill said,
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

 I didn't even include the dozen or more other questionable posts I found JUST TODAY. We're being deluged with lies designed to waste our time, make us resent our country and our government (like anyone needs help with that), pluck our heartstrings, bring us to tears, and make us afraid of everything from robotic mosquitoes to deadly toxic mold in our Capri Sun packages.

Just check stuff out before passing it on.
Bill Cosby and Morgan Freeman will probably thank you.