I have a large percentage of family and friends who are hard-core Conservative Republicans. Among my friends, these people are generally decent hardworking people with whom I have some common interests even though we have nothing in common politically.
One of my friends has a habit of mass-emailing “political humor” and “real man” spam e-mails to folks on his list. Occasionally I actually find these emails funny, but most of the time they’re right-wing memes and pretty offensive to me. Over the past months I received an increasingly large number of these memes, and normally just deleted them. However, today is different.
Today I received another one of these right-wing meme from my friend with this photo (note: this is being passed around email lists so I do not think copyright is an issue.):
Two weeks ago, I would have just deleted the email and moved on. Today is different. After a bit of thought I decided I am going to take a stand. I responded to my friend with this email:
This, and most of the other spam e-mails you send out, is deeply offensive to me. I do not want to block your e-mails as you do sent out useful information on SOLE and military issues. However, I consider that most of what you mass e-mail is border-line racist, or just simply mean and deliberately offensive to people who love our country but have different perspectives than you on how to make life better for every American resident.
Take me off your e-mail list for this type material.
Thank You,
If my friend wants to disassociate with me as a result, I’ve decided I can live with that. I realize this is a small thing, but I need to start somewhere in standing up to the hatefulness and divisiveness that has become a hallmark of the modern Republican party.
Thanks for reading