If you can email it with an innocent "I tried to find out more about it, and it turns out it's really not true, thought you'd like to know" then go for it. If you can't maintain that placid tone, maybe let it pass. It's much easier when it's family/social....coworkers, you actually have to interact with on a regular basis.

Has your coworker adopted this belief as a result of logical argumentation and carefully weighing all evidence pro and con?

I rather doubt it.

So why do you think vulgar facts will change his mind?

It's like arguing with people who think that the Mossad blew up the World Trade Center in order to turn the American people against the Islamic world.

But I think Miko's advice addresses the issue of maintaining harmonious workplace relationships better.

I don't think you have to think stuff like this will change people's mind. What it does do is shut them up, or at least shut them up around you. Which can be merciful.

"I don't think you have to think stuff like this will change people's mind. What it does do is shut them up, or at least shut them up around you. Which can be merciful." O HELL YES.

I used to travel a lot and cab and limo drivers listen too way to much talk radio and love to talk this shit. Confronting the bullshit my not change their mind but it generally gets them to stop telling you their bullshit.

Well, my earlier reply got eaten.

I only respond in the office when my coworker is loud about something. If they mention something more than once, I've already looked it up and I'll say "yeah I checked on that and I don't think your source has it all down". If they really want to know, they'll say so. Otherwise they pipe down, which was really my goal. I don't worry about changing peoples' minds, just maybe making them think.

There's value in not letting something go unchallenged, but that's going to totally depend on the dynamics of the office. I'll spar with my office mates, but I say nothing if my boss comes in and spouts off about something.

Miko's advice is sound.

And here is some light entertainment for you...

At work I have a permanent bookmark to Snopes because Pauline, one of the secretaries, persists on sending outraged emails round the office about e.g. bonsai kittens, painted cats, etc. (Yes, it is still 2001 in the world of Pauline.)

Pauline then refused to believe that Cindy the Poodle was real.

It's almost like they read The Onion and believe the headlines like, "Obama to Take White Guns and Give them to Black People".

Here's a deeper question: What do you do if someone way higher up than you in the organization sends something around you don't agree with or maybe want to be able to have a second opinion about?

I can't say what and I can't say who it was, and there definitely wasn't a "call to action" as in, "If you don't do this, we'll fire you" but it still makes me feel a little uneasy because they do have ways of checking up on some stuff like that.

(Also? Becoming less and less in love with working in Manhattan real estate because some of it feels more and more like working for The Man.)

I get stuff like this all the time at work and everytime I hit reply all and say you have been snoped and send the link which dispproves the rumor. I keep telling them to quit sending me this crap (I don't care if they all think I am a bitch because I have no time for this) yet they persist. Yesterday the big rumor was that a gang intiation was going to happen at a walmart, no one knew which one, where 3 men and 3 women or just 3 men or just 3 wonen were going to be shot. It ended up going all over the city because the local news organizations had to keep going on tv saying it was untrue. Idiots.

I think I know Pauline's long-lost cousin ...

Certain members of my family used to send that kind of crap all the time. I replied with Snopes links and told people to not believe everything they read on the internet. That seems to have stopped it.

I've trained most everyone to not send me forwards as well. As for the higher ups sending stuff, it's going to depend on how cultish or in agreement the place is. At one small place the owner would expound for hours on the intricacies of the government healthcare system and many other things. Everybody just tried to avoid him. This was in the days before email was common in the workplace, so I didn't have the joys of the top dog sending out crap until..

I worked for Columbia/HCA, and Rick Scott was the hottest thing around. He'd send email to his lieutenants, and they'd get forwarded down, trickle-down style. Lemme tell you, he was a twit in email. I'm more coherent when I talk to myself. What I really hated were the postcards we were sent to sign and forward to our representatives. It was totally up to the individual, but the C-level execs at the local hospitals and district offices made sure we got the damned things. The attitude at the hospital I worked at was that Corporate could tell us what to do at work, not anywhere else, so most were tossed in the trash.

At this same place I ran into some really unexpected racist stuff. I was working with Cubans mainly (first generation) and they didn't like black people, and they thought it was ok for mixed couples to marry, but not have kids. We got into some surprised discussions, but there were never any repercussions. Boss lady was a real class act.

Last private workplace had owners who were vested (and sometimes invested) in local politics. On one particular election, they made sure we were "informed" about whatever it was, even to the point of taking a straw poll in a company wide meeting. I refused to participate and just sat there. I said nothing and otherwise made myself as unobtrusive as I could. I avoided all office discussions of politics after that. They even offered to drive people to the polling places. I declined.

Now I work for the state and while we're on the job, we're not supposed to put on displays or get into discussions or otherwise indicate our politics. But people are people and good lord, how else are you going to get to know someone? The lady I mentioned earlier only got heated up one time, saying "I know you're an Obama-bot and you watch CNN because of what you say and what you do!" and flounced out the door. No idea what brought that on, but we still get along.

Boss man is young and knows everything about his taxes paying for lazy welfare layabouts and support the troops and let's roll and whatever. I just grunt and walk away.

I'd guess it's easy enough to google around and get the second opinion you're after, TrishaLynn. If there's a 'discussion' about it at work, stay as silent as you can or say, "yeah, I don't ask and I don't answer the question on how I vote. People who know me know how I'm going to vote. People who don't know me are usually trying to start a fight". It's an obnoxious line, but damned effective.

If they get all defensive and start with "But don't you think XYZ?" I'd revert to the gentle art of self defense: "It's my policy not to answer attack questions".

And if it's that hostile a place, maybe you don't want to be there. People shouldn't use their power like that, but they do.

And if it's not, feel free to ignore, I'll stop ranting now.

The sad thing is, around here, gangs seem to take their clues FROM urban legends. That "don't flash your lights at someone when theirs are off at night since they'll shoot you" thing?
Yeah, happened here last summer. Maybe half a mile from my house.

Yesterday the big rumor was that a gang intiation was going to happen at a walmart, no one knew which one, where 3 men and 3 women or just 3 men or just 3 wonen were going to be shot.

Yeah, he was talking about this one, too. Needless to say I'm glad to be home from my Long Work Trip With Paranoid Dude.

snopes, snopes, snopes, snopes.

Like deborah, I reply-all with the snopes links. Sometimes without comment. Whether it has caused people to look things up before forwarding or just to drop me from their panic list I don't know. Or care.

There are plenty of actual, real things to get worked up over. No need to make up crazy shit.

Yesterday the big rumor was that a gang intiation was going to happen at a walmart, no one knew which one, where 3 men and 3 women or just 3 men or just 3 wonen were going to be shot.

Got this one in a text in Portland last night. This guy's got legs!