Since I launched LiePie.com, I've noticed that every lie pie I've ever investigated is posted on dozens if not hundreds of blogs all over the internet. This observation led me to ask myself, "Which comes first: the viral email or the blog post?" Does a viral email circulate prior to being pasted onto a blog, or is a viral email born only after being copied from a blog?

I ran across this today. I think I could spend days talking about it, but I'd like to highlight the section most relevant to the topic at hand:

From the Washington Post:

"What I've come to realize is, the labor of generating an e-mail smear is divided and distributed amongst parties whose identities are secret even to each other," she says. A first group of people published articles that created the basis for the attack. A second group recirculated the claims from those articles without ever having been asked to do so. "No one coordinates the roles," Allen said. Instead the participants swim toward their goal like a school of fish -- moving on their own, but also in unison.

The article in the Washington Post is a very interesting read for those of you who, like me, are flummoxed by viral emails generally, and particularly by their potential to sway our elections with lies.

And what can I say to "Winged Hussar" except--WOW!  Somebody neglected to warm your britches when you were a youngun!  "(C)onsiderable self-education in psychological warfare."  I don't know about you, but folks who openly brag about using psychological warfare to win elections make my blood run cold.   

What standard of behavior should we insist upon at election time?  Just because you CAN steal candy from a baby doesn't mean you should, or that nobody should try to stop you.  Do we just turn our elections over to the PSYOPS folks and stop pretending that everyday people are capable of governing themselves?  I'm mindful of our fallen sons and daughters who paid the ultimate price because they had faith in democracy--they believed in us.  We are "We the People."  How should we then fight?