Anyone else that dreads this time of year?

I can’t be the only one.  I simply can’t be. (see what I did there?)

Anyway, unless you’ve been living on a deserted island with a volleyball named Wilson (am I legally allowed to reference that here? Oh well.) you are fully aware it’s an election year.

The “media” is slinging their version of the “truth” (damn that was physically painful to write) and each campaign is slinging their version of “Why you should NOT vote for the other guy – so naturally you have to vote for me.”

WTF?  When did this become our political reality (okay those two words combined aren’t exactly an everyday occurrence)???

Commericials. Websites being slammed with ads for the prospective candidates.  All that I can deal with.  The one thing that tends to make me miserable during this time of the year (besides the obvious direction our country seems to be heading) is the difference in my workplace – more specifically my co-workers.

It will usually start around September or so.  That’s when my normally “normal” co-workers stop discussing Big Brother (insert another Reality show here) and start on Politics.

The funny thing is that they almost NEVER have an actual opinion.  They are simply puking up the stuff they hear on whichever radio, website, tv channel or God Forbid – Facebook page they’ve been paying attention to.

Now granted it’s normal for me to get emails from otherwise very intelligent co-workers and associates regarding the latest BS chain email or stupid urban legend that’s trying to take hold.  I used to take the time to explain why the information they were passing along was false, but that was a failing proposition.  It sometimes tended to make these people actually try to defend their position – and that is DEFINITELY not valuable use of my time.  In fact, drinking myself into oblivion would be a much better use of my time – again – I digress.  As of late I simply find the link to Snopes or another reputable source which points out exactly WHY the “hot topic” of the hour is total bullshit.

My strategy seemed to have worked.  The frequency of those emails have been cut drastically.  Do I think I actually educated these people?

Hell no. They simple took my off their forwarding list for email.  Is anyone actually that optimistic?

So for those of you who have this same issue…if you want to try another strategy – besides wearing earphones all day, pretending to be mute, or maybe yelling “Ralph Nader for President!!” I’ve come up with an almost foolproof plan.

As they vigorously regurgitate the garbage that seeped into their brain, simply respond with:

“What’s their voting record on this subject?”

The blank look they give you is worth it.  I swear.  The trick is to SAY THIS, then immediately put them on ignore.  Only the really persistent ones will go check their favorite “news” site (the truly original might actually hit up Google – odds are against it though) and report back.

The same response normally works wonders.

See you after the dust settles in late November.

And good luck.