this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2024
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Storms Helene and Milton have triggered rise of misinformation stoked by Trump and fellow Republicans

Meteorologists tracking the advance of Hurricane Milton have been targeted by a deluge of conspiracy theories that they were controlling the weather, abuse and even death threats, amid what they say is an unprecedented surge in misinformation as two major hurricanes have hit the US.

A series of falsehoods and threats have swirled in the two weeks since Hurricane Helene tore through six states causing several hundred deaths, followed by Milton crashing into Florida on Wednesday.

The extent of the misinformation, which has been stoked by Donald Trump and his followers, has been such that it has stymied the ability to help hurricane-hit communities, according to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).


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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (5 children)

Does anyone want to summarize the misinformation they're referring to? I'm slightly curious but not enough to dig into what the crazy half of the country is up to today. I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling a lack of enthusiasm to read their bullshit directly.

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[–] [email protected] 137 points 5 days ago

Everything is a conspiracy when you don't know how anything works.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Doesn't the Noah's Ark story involve some sort of bad weather?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

that's the one about when the good, honest people of the world had to survive the liberal weather machine created by NOAA, right?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

NOAA's Ark or Noah's HAARP?

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Death threats to meteorologists - as one does.

Does anyone but me think that's simply insane?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago

I thought I was past being shocked by things like this, but it still shocked me,

We are experiencing a bizarre confluence of terrible things. Large numbers of people have checked out from reality, which is bad. Meanwhile, more and more people are willing to resort to extreme violence toward anyone who disagrees with them, which is worse. The combination is incredibly destructive.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I see the Kremlin has been hard at work, spreading chaos just before the election, the same way they do every time.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The Kremlin may have had to work hard in 2015-2016, but I bet they don't need to work so hard now that MAGA has become self-sustaining. No doubt they're doing their bit, but these days they have more help than ever from inside the USA.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 5 days ago (6 children)

What's going to happen if (when?) a meteorologist actually gets murdered over this?

If I were a meteorologist, I would refuse to go on the air after that. Could you blame any of them for wanting to preserve their own lies? Which will inevitably lead to more people getting killed in weather events.

This is so fucked up.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 5 days ago (2 children)

It's anti-vaxx all over again. I knew these people were insane and stupid, but still, "anti-meteorology" wasn't on my bingo card.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Except worse, because I know some meteorologists from my time working in local TV. Doctors get into medicine much of the time because they want to help people. In my experience, meteorologists get into it because they think the weather is really fucking cool and they love telling people about it. That's a much smaller incentive to keep doing what you do when your life could be in danger. At that point, and again I'm just speaking for me, meteorology would become a hobby.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This has already played out exactly as you’re predicting: The Weatherman Who Tried to Bring Climate Science to a Red State

In 2021, Chris Gloninger, a television weatherman in Boston with a passion for climate science, was approached with an intriguing prospect. Would he consider a job as chief meteorologist at a television station in Des Moines?

It was a smaller market, and talk of global warming would be challenging in a politically conservative state. But research from 2020 showed that most Iowans were interested in news about climate change, and the state was a leader in wind energy. Mr. Gloninger’s weather forecasts could be a breakthrough.

He quit after death threats.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago

And that's just threats. If/when one gets murdered, it won't matter if it's a red state or a blue state. They'll all consider their lives at risk. In an occupation that, unless you're a storm chaser, is not one where the person doing it thinks is going to be an issue.

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[–] [email protected] 253 points 5 days ago (2 children)

This is what you get when you systematically sabotage and gut the educational system: Crazy idiots.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 days ago (11 children)

Nah. That's bullshit. You don't have to be a high school graduate to discern fact from fiction here. The issue is much deeper and broader. Anything the government does, the Democrat government does, is bad because they're out for you. You need to dig deeper in to why these people are falling prey to the brainwashing of the far right extremism and conspiracy theories. A lot of these people are very well educated. Fear of the unknown is far more powerful than a college degree. I'm not knowledgable enough on the subject but I'm sure a handful of books have been written about how people fell for Hitler's regime.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (5 children)

You need to dig deeper in to why these people are falling prey to the brainwashing of the far right extremism and conspiracy theories

Why is it my job to try harder to understand them rather than their job to stop being such buffoons?

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[–] [email protected] 172 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (5 children)

Killing education is definitely a big part of it, but controlling every news source in huge areas and pumping outright lies and disinformation 24/7 can eventually break down anyone living in that environment.

These people desperately cling to hierarchy. Bad people go to jail, good people don't.

These people never hear about Trump being bad, and only see him slip though the law effortlessly.

All they see is Trump being innocent and not getting in trouble at all, ever, for anything. Half of all politics and nearly all Media hide or obfuscate Trump's insanity and incompetence.

So many voters see a president everyone they know and talk to adores, getting dragged by Democrats to no effect.

"If he was guilty he'd be in Jail, but since he's not in jail Democrats must be liars and everything Republicans say about him is true."

Easy, thoughtless conclusions that reinforce their worldview and solidify them as supremely correct.

Now, they'll certainly move the goalposts once he is in Jail, because they will also never admit they were wrong about anything because if they're wrong about Trump, they're wrong about their entire worldview and that's something they are not mentally able to do.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Yet they're the same group that will accuse Russia, China and a whole bunch of other countries of lying to their citizens and controlling them with propaganda.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

There's a long history of Americans and other Westerners thinking it's all those other countries that do propaganda. Meanwhile, the less propaganda you see, the more effectively the propaganda is working on you. Americans are some of the most propagandized people in the world.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

It's sad how true this rings.

And I'm not sure how much other people understand about how thick the bubble is that they've been submerged into.

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 5 days ago (3 children)

If you live in the south east and you are repeating conspiracy theories about the hurricane. May you rot in hell.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 5 days ago (2 children)

If you ~~live in the south east and you~~ are repeating conspiracy theories ~~about the hurricane~~. May you rot in hell.

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