It's Late, But Not Too Late to Rant

[howeird]

One of Facebook's "features" is the ability to create, and make viral, petitions about the hot topic of your choice.

I have a minor objection to that, because Internet petitions don't do any good. They carry no weight with anyone or any organization which counts.

But my main rant is that too many of the petitions I have seen are based on things misinterpreted, misquoted or taken out of context, and are usually reporting the grievance 4th-hand. The person creating the petition never read the source material on which it is based.

Whenever I see a petition which looks like something I might want to support, I will follow the trail down to the source material and  read it all for myself. It's called due diligence. It's called basic research. It's something anyone with a high school education ought to do by instinct. Nine times out of ten, the source material does not justify the petition. If the misquote is flagrant enough, I'll post a comment to the petition's page with the correct quote. If the source material does justify the rant, I'll send email to the appropriate congresscritter, publisher, or whatever. I won't sign or "like" the petition because that's as useless as spitting into the wind.