Depending on the relative, how close you are to them, and if they know your political views/thoughts that's in the 'maybe' column of life. I have a general 3 strikes rule about this crap no matter who it is, be it friend or relative.
If they DON'T know your views, 1) send them a so-polite-its-sickening email stating your views and that you don't wish to recieve any more of their political emails, since you don't share the same interestes. 2) if the abuse continues send everything they send you back to them and then send them another email stating that you will ban them from sending you any more email if the political emails continue, since again you don't share the same p.o.v. as they do but you still wish to keep in contact since they are family and you do love them (supposedly). 3)they are out, block them with a final email stating that this will be the last time they will hear from you via email till they decide to straighten up and act like a freakin adult instead of a 2 yr old with a political bat.
If they DO know your p.o.v., 1)send one polite email stating that you don't share the same interests, so please stop, otherwise you will ban them via email and won't talk to them via email til they grow up 2)if it continues, ban them with final email tell them to piss off but in the politest way possible. I like killing people with kindness, piss'em off even more than being buligerent(sp?).
This is excellent advice and probably means that you're a much more mature and responsible person than I am, since all I want to do is find an equally inflammatory piece advocating the opposite position and forward it back to them. *grin*
I want to stay on good terms with this particular relative, and I don't think banning is warranted, especially since it may be that she genuinely thought I'd appreciate it.
My usual response to this sort of thing is to ignore and delete, but that doesn't really fix the problem, does it...
I would deluge them with as much counterpoint political spam as possible, inundating them to the point of their ISP screaming bloody murder, at which point they would call me up and shriek "What are you DOING?!" ...
And I would say, sweetly and with much malice aforethought, "But I thought you WANTED to enter into a political discussion, especially since you sent me that hilarious political parody message."
And they would say, "What parody?"
And I would say, "The message that was about ______."
And they would say, "That wasn't a parody! That's how we really feel!"
And I would say, in my coldest, chilliest, most Vera Charles like voice ... "Pity."
This was actually my first reaction -- I mean, the deluging them with counter-spam thing. All presented in the nicest possible way, of course. I'm so passive-aggressive. Of course, I gave myself awhile to think about it, so now the "passive" is winning.
Speaking as one of the aforementioned "relatives" -- I urgently add that I'm not guilty -- I have a slightly different view than those expressed. I'm glad to hear from relatives and glad to hear they are passionate about something. Doesn't mean I have to agree. It may mean that my view of the world is changed in some way. After all, that person(s) may share, or be married to, some percentage of the "jeanne's" (and Gil's, thank you Mom and Dad) that shape my personality. Some part of his or her view may have meaning for me.
Respond. Tell them how you feel about the issue. But don't stop the communication of ideas because you *think* you disagree.
Aunt Di (the blastest technology says the database is off line and I can't create an ID)
Egad! I just want to make sure you DO know it's not you I'm talking about here!
I've been thinking about what you're saying here. It's not that I have a problem with having a political dialogue with one's relatives. Actually, that seems like a good thing. And I don't mind being sent links or forwards by people who know what I'm into -- "Hey, I know you live in Alaska so here's something I thought you might be interested in", that kind of thing. The thing is, to me, simply forwarding something political to someone when you're not sure of their political beliefs isn't really opening a dialogue. It's proselytizing. And like with any proselytizing, you'll probably get some people who agree with you, and some people who might be swayed one way or another, and some who will be annoyed or upset (as I was by what I got in the email the other day).
I guess I'm kind of torn here, because I do get what you're saying, about respecting others' right to feel strongly about something. I guess it just doesn't outweigh the amount of annoyance that I experience to find something in my inbox that is offensive to me, forwarded to me by someone who obviously either doesn't know my political leanings or doesn't care.
Wow, I guess I'm just lucky all I get are stupid chain letters or sentimental tales from my mom now, looking at what you put up with.
Fortunately, my family's never been passionate about politics (short of when ma mere went on a crusade to expand the school district beyond the town limits-- and won), but I think the idea to just politely call or write them back asking them to just not to add you to this list when they feel motivated to do so is a good one.
It won't work, but at least you'll have told them.
I KNOW! I AM SO SICK of these "error" messages! This thing's starting to turn into MySpace with it's problems. I think they're throwing too many things into it at once with this Jabber, sponsored accounts, and voice post features.
Yeah, and now their reply link in the email notifications doesn't work either...
I think you're exactly right about the cause of the problem. I've seen this happen time and again with other sites -- they start out being a fairly basic site that does one thing well (in LJ's case, blogging), and then they start trying to add a bunch of other functionality and end up getting bloated and slow and frequently breaking. Same thing happens with software too. *looks pointedly at Photoshop*
Accursed Photoshop! *strokes lovingly so as not to upset it*
I notice the emails only go wonky on Yahoo mail so far... Hotmail holds up well. I really want to know what they're trying to accomplish with it... Its YouToolate and MySpacedout to try and glut it out. Next thing you know they'll give us 50K icons... *wrings hands*
Seriously. They really need to bump the icons to 60 k. I could have a BLAST with that.
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If they DON'T know your views,
1) send them a so-polite-its-sickening email stating your views and that you don't wish to recieve any more of their political emails, since you don't share the same interestes.
2) if the abuse continues send everything they send you back to them and then send them another email stating that you will ban them from sending you any more email if the political emails continue, since again you don't share the same p.o.v. as they do but you still wish to keep in contact since they are family and you do love them (supposedly).
3)they are out, block them with a final email stating that this will be the last time they will hear from you via email till they decide to straighten up and act like a freakin adult instead of a 2 yr old with a political bat.
If they DO know your p.o.v.,
1)send one polite email stating that you don't share the same interests, so please stop, otherwise you will ban them via email and won't talk to them via email til they grow up
2)if it continues, ban them with final email tell them to piss off but in the politest way possible. I like killing people with kindness, piss'em off even more than being buligerent(sp?).
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I want to stay on good terms with this particular relative, and I don't think banning is warranted, especially since it may be that she genuinely thought I'd appreciate it.
My usual response to this sort of thing is to ignore and delete, but that doesn't really fix the problem, does it...
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And I would say, sweetly and with much malice aforethought, "But I thought you WANTED to enter into a political discussion, especially since you sent me that hilarious political parody message."
And they would say, "What parody?"
And I would say, "The message that was about ______."
And they would say, "That wasn't a parody! That's how we really feel!"
And I would say, in my coldest, chilliest, most Vera Charles like voice ... "Pity."
And hang up on them.
THEN I'd block all of their mail.
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This was actually my first reaction -- I mean, the deluging them with counter-spam thing. All presented in the nicest possible way, of course. I'm so passive-aggressive. Of course, I gave myself awhile to think about it, so now the "passive" is winning.
Relatives
(Anonymous) 2006-11-26 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)Respond. Tell them how you feel about the issue. But don't stop the communication of ideas because you *think* you disagree.
Aunt Di (the blastest technology says the database is off line and I can't create an ID)
Re: Relatives
I've been thinking about what you're saying here. It's not that I have a problem with having a political dialogue with one's relatives. Actually, that seems like a good thing. And I don't mind being sent links or forwards by people who know what I'm into -- "Hey, I know you live in Alaska so here's something I thought you might be interested in", that kind of thing. The thing is, to me, simply forwarding something political to someone when you're not sure of their political beliefs isn't really opening a dialogue. It's proselytizing. And like with any proselytizing, you'll probably get some people who agree with you, and some people who might be swayed one way or another, and some who will be annoyed or upset (as I was by what I got in the email the other day).
I guess I'm kind of torn here, because I do get what you're saying, about respecting others' right to feel strongly about something. I guess it just doesn't outweigh the amount of annoyance that I experience to find something in my inbox that is offensive to me, forwarded to me by someone who obviously either doesn't know my political leanings or doesn't care.
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Fortunately, my family's never been passionate about politics (short of when ma mere went on a crusade to expand the school district beyond the town limits-- and won), but I think the idea to just politely call or write them back asking them to just not to add you to this list when they feel motivated to do so is a good one.
It won't work, but at least you'll have told them.
*looks at email*
Aw, jeez, maaaa! *deletes*
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EDIT: What is up with these database errors? I'm having to try two and three times to post every comment.
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I think you're exactly right about the cause of the problem. I've seen this happen time and again with other sites -- they start out being a fairly basic site that does one thing well (in LJ's case, blogging), and then they start trying to add a bunch of other functionality and end up getting bloated and slow and frequently breaking. Same thing happens with software too. *looks pointedly at Photoshop*
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*strokes lovingly so as not to upset it*
I notice the emails only go wonky on Yahoo mail so far... Hotmail holds up well.
I really want to know what they're trying to accomplish with it...
Its YouToolate and MySpacedout to try and glut it out.
Next thing you know they'll give us 50K icons... *wrings hands*
Seriously. They really need to bump the icons to 60 k. I could have a BLAST with that.