When I saw this headline in the NYT I thought it must be a spoof:
Meteorologists Face Harassment and Death Threats Amid Hurricane Disinformation
Many of the falsehoods about the hurricanes have been spread by conservatives and supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, including a former Trump administration official and a Republican congresswoman.
Of all the conspiracy theories and disinformation that have circulated, meteorologists say one falsehood that has especially gotten out of hand is the claim that the government is creating or controlling the storms. Forecasters have been harassed for either failing to promote these claims or for disseminating accurate information that counters them.
But wait, there's more:
Emergency workers have also been targeted with abuse. In the aftermath of Helene, Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel received a significant amount of harassment, including false claims that the agency was stealing donations and diverting disaster aid to Ukraine. Calls were made for residents to form militias to defend against those workers, who also faced antisemitic and misogynistic threats.
This isn't even worthy of a headline or its own article, it appears. I have to admit I'm starting to wonder whether electoral democracy can still work. But I can't think of an alternative.
UPDATE: I cannot believe this:
2 comments:
Apparently, a lot of mentally disturbed people have too much free time on their hands.
Remember those buttons/stickers that read, "Reality is for people who can't handle drugs"? I'd say that "Conspiracy theories and collective insanity are for people who can't handle reality."
People explain the tremendous amount of insanity and cruelty in the U.S. by saying what a "young country" we are. Well, so is Canada. There goes that excuse. I'd say we're in the late stages of an empire that was founded on genocide of natives and enslavement of Africans, an empire that could never bring itself once and for all to face its own reality. Even Reconstruction was dismantled after our family's internecine war.
Why would all the mentally ill people, haters, racists and bigots want to suddenly face reality? Dig down deeper into the denial and hatred. Such people are prisoners of their own device because they only know one approach to reality: denial and hatred. They don't even know they HAVE a problem with reality; they don't know what reality is, and the mass media (including the NY Times) isn't doing anything to disabuse them of their blindness because those media outlets have it too.
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." --Abraham Maslow
When these folks buy a big ticket item, like a car or a house, do they accept whatever the seller tells them about it, regardless of how outlandish it is?
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