Trumpers Now Refusing FEMA Help, Death-Threating Meteorologists. As One Does.
OK, but the FBI plot to get Trump was Crossfire HURRICANE. Makes ya think, doesn't it?
The MAGA-inspired disinformation keeps coming, with crazy people now threatening meteorologists to try to get them to “tell the truth” about how the US government, or maybe (((An Even More Powerful Conspiracy))) is controlling the weather, according to reporting from Rolling Stone. What’s more, a radio talk show host took a call from a person who said that his father, a Trump supporter in western North Carolina, has refused to ask for any disaster assistance from FEMA because the father fears the government would then seize what’s left of his home and property, just like the lies spread all over Twitter say. Thanks a lot for amplifying the crazy, Elon Musk!
Rolling Stone reported Thursday that as Hurricane Milton approached Florida, several meteorologists had told its reporters that they not only had to take time out of their on-air forecasts to debunk disinformation about Hurricanes Helene and Milton, but that some of them have chosen to continue working even as they’ve received threats from conspiracy believers who are just sure the storms are part of a sinister plot to steal the coming election.
Matthew Cappucci, a DC-based meteorologist, told the magazine in a phone interview that “People are just so far gone, it’s honestly making me lose all faith in humanity. […] Seemingly overnight, ideas that once would have been ridiculed as very fringe, outlandish viewpoints are suddenly becoming mainstream and it’s making my job much more difficult.”
Cappucci and other meteorologists told Rolling Stone that while they’re hearing from a lot of conspiracy theory weirdos, the main one is the idea that the government itself is doing weather control, since that has infected all the damp brains on the internet.
“I’ve been doing this for 46 years and it’s never been like this,” says Alabama meteorologist James Spann. He says he’s been “inundated” with misinformation and threatening messages like “Stop lying about the government controlling the weather or else.”
Cappuci said he’s worn out from lack of sleep and that the messages keep coming, accusing him personally of participating in the weather modification plot, or at least covering it up. But like any pawn of the global Bilderberg Illuminati New World Order World Crime League plot, he accuses the brave truth-tellers telling him he’s going to die for his crimes of being unhinged.
“Ignorance is becoming socially acceptable. Forty or 50 years ago, if I told you I thought the moon was pretend, people would have laughed at me. Now, people are bonding over these incredibly fringe viewpoints.”
“An average hurricane’s life cycle burns through the energy of roughly 10,000 nuclear bombs,” says Cappucci, “The idea that we can even influence something like that, never mind direct it, is just so outlandish that it’s almost, sadly, funny.”
And then there’s the always pervasive scourge of plain old mansplaining, which is less exotic but far more widespread in our stupid stupid phallocracy.
Meteorologist Katie Nickolaou went viral after correcting a male commenter who tried to claim a category five hurricane can turn into a category six, at which point it becomes a tornado.
“Those are different storms with different processes,” clarified Nickolaou. “Though hurricanes can produce tornadoes, it doesn’t affect the overall categorical rating.”
Undeterred, he pushed back, insisting that “anything above a category five would be a tornado,” which is untrue. “I’m going to go scream into an abyss now,” Nickolaou tweeted in response. She tells me her tweet “struck a chord” with meteorologists and people tired of the misinformation.
As Nickolau went on to explain, there’s no Category Six, and definitely not a hurricane that goes to eleven, although some scientists think maybe Cat Six is needed to describe ever-stronger storms driven by a warming planet. The counter-argument makes sense to me, though: Category Five already means “near total devastation,” and a higher number would not only be vulgar, but might lead people to downplay the danger of a Cat Four or Five storm, causing them to not evacuate to save their stupid turkey-brained lives.
Here’s a thing, too: While all the meteorologists quoted in the Rolling Stone piece said there’s far too much acceptance of fact-free conspiracy theories on social media, and speculated about how internet anonymity can add to that, none actually named Trump or Elon Musk, as far as I can tell. Could be they just didn’t want to invite more flying monkeys to perch outside their doors.
Our second example of rampant brain worms comes from MSNBC, which aired this sad story on Morning Joe Thursday morning.
Here’s the poop, also from MSNBC’s website:
A man identifying himself only as Anthony called into Sirius XM’s “Dan Abrams Show” this week to share the story of his father-in-law, whose property near Ashville, North Carolina, was badly damaged by Helene. Despite the destruction, Anthony said his father-in-law is unwilling to accept assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“He has refused all FEMA help because he’s a hardcore Trumper,” Anthony told Abrams. “He literally believes that if he accepts anything from FEMA, they’re going to take his house.”
Now, you can certainly be a little skeptical of anyone calling in to a live radio show, so we will caution that the story may at some point be debunked, or possibly verified by some ace reporter who can actually go dig around some. But it doesn’t sound especially different from other stories of people who go down the Fox News / MAGA / QAnon rabbit sewer and never speak to their families again.
Poor Anthony said he and others have tried to talk sense into his father-in-law, and sent him FEMA information and fact checks, but of course those are all Not Of The Body, and anathema.
“He doesn’t believe it. He thinks it’s all — he just believes Trump. ... It’s a cult. He’s a cult member. I’m sorry to say it. He’s a cult member and he’s my father-in-law and it sucks.”
We wish Anthony all the luck possible, and that his dad will return to reality at some point. But considering the madness of the fever swamps, maybe Anthony would do well not to become too public, because these people are fucking terrifying.
[Rolling Stone / MSNBC]
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You don't have to send death threats to a weatherman to see which way the wind blows.
One of the reasons I believe Andrew's story is this feels like a similar track to the stepfather of one of my close friends, who lost the plot and went deep into a rabbithole in the MAGA cult.
And make no mistake it's a death cult.
And wow, they even went after James Spann, just holy shit.
My jaw dropped at the chud "correcting" the actual meteorologist about "hurricane goes to 6 then turns into tornado." What the actual fuck?!
This is part of President Klan Robe's legacy, as it is for the rightwing media human centipede. This is the fruit of "both sides" and the lack of factchecking...all in the service of tax cuts (and the accessory of ethnic cleansing plus disappearance of vulnerable minorities). All a foul package where we have to keep refighting the Enlightenment every year.