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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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Everything is a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works.
-Conservatives hate FEMA and want it dismantled.
-Conservatives hate the National Weather Service and want it dismantled.
-Conservatives hate climate science and want it to be silenced.
-Conservatives now also hate meteorologists.
How 'bout we compromise. Let conservative states be opted out of all of these things by default. Bundle these services into an opt-in government program called “Obama and Hillary’s Woke Weather Service”. They can opt in by calling 1-800-4 Pelosi. If all this stuff is just woke liberal propaganda, then they shouldn’t mind this at all. They should be thrilled.
Let them find out about storms and let them deal with those storms without all of our woke liberal interference. Let them pray and let their God sort them out. In this way, they get everything they are demanding so they can stop whining like a bunch of little bitches all the time. When they have disasters, we can save some of our hard-earned money and just toss them a roll of paper towels like their dear leader likes to do.
Honestly it would be funny to see Biden do some of this. He only has a few months left and can do whatever because of the supreme court. He could just go on TV an be like: “You know what? The conspiracies are true. We’re gonna turn off the doppler radars in southern states. No more flying. No more weather forecast. We’re going to ban farm laborers to come harvest your crops. The unpredicted weather is gonna ruin the crops anyways. We’re going to stop FEMA from giving aid in your republican states. Communism is unacceptable. We’re gonna ban fossil fuel in the south because that drives the weather crazy. No more cars. Enjoy the 1800s. Bye”
can do whatever because of the supreme court
No he can’t, because he’s biden/democrat. The supreme court made it particularly clear that they get to be the arbiters of what is allowed. They are going to allow everything if the president is republican, and deny everything otherwise.
He can just murder the Supreme Court first. He’s effectively supreme dictator.
I work at a meteorological institute in Europe and we also get phonecalls from angry imbeciles insulting the meteorologists.
My passion for science and curiosity peaked when I got the job. Now I realise everything is a pipe dream if we do not revolutionise education into something that makes more decent philosophers of us all.
The system, no matter how good its education, will never be able to turn everybody into “decent philosophers”. Some people just aren’t smart, no matter how good education might get. Some just are gullible. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be as well-educated as they can possibly be, but people and their capabilities just are a spectrum and always will be. And even if today’s dumbest people will be as smart as today’s “decent philosophers” by tomorrow, today’s “decent philosophers” will still outsmart them, which is an issue if there are manipulative people with hidden agendas among them. Which they will be.
This isn’t an education issue, it’s an information and misinformation issue. Giving anybody, including malicious actors, their own, personal channel to spread whatever information they want, regardless of its quality or truth, has turned out to be a terrible idea. The Internet kind of comes with the idea to give everyone access to all of humanity’s information without taking into account that there should be a certain responsibility attached to the question of the creation of that information or that there should be a separation of concerns between people who spread information and people who have other interests than just informing people in the best way possible.
Fortunately I completely disagree.
“Imagine going back to the year 1600. Even then, Western Europe was one of the more educated parts of the planet, but back then about 20% of the population could read and write. And I suspect if you went back there and you asked someone who was capable of reading and writing—say a member of the clergy—and you said: “What percentage of the population is even capable of it?” They might have said: “If you have an incredible education system, maybe 50%.” You fast-forward 400 years to today, and we know that that prediction would have been wildly pessimistic; that nearly 100% of the population can be literate. But what similar blinders we have on today? If I were to ask you: “What percentage of the population is capable of understanding quantum physics? Or what percentage of the population is capable of contributing to medical research?” You might say maybe 5 or 10%, or with a really good education system maybe 15 or 20%. But what if the answer is a 100%? What could that mean for the rate at which human society could progress? What would that mean for the human condition? But that is just one aspect of the types of blinders we have on today, that in 400 years will hopefully seem silly.” —Salman Khan, Harvard Class Day 2014
I love it.
Yeah, that’s a much better point of view. I’ll just make that my own. Ignore what I said before.
Wow, unexpected response. Have an excellent day fellow “philosopher” ;)
This is what you get when you systematically sabotage and gut the educational system: Crazy idiots.
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.
The gutting of the educational system is part of the far right extremism you’re describing: This is a systematic effort.
Being educated does not make you immune from propaganda (especially if your education was not quality in the first place) but giving everyone a quality education that teaches, among other things, critical thinking, absolutely does make people more resistant to disinformation.
From my experience, it seems to me that 99.9% of people commenting on the internet lack critical thinking. Looking at Reddit in particular, it’s the comments that are the most outlandish or “popular” and often having little or nothing to do with the story they’re commenting on that are risen to the top. No one cares about the actual news. They’re engaged with headlines and chit chat. If the story takes a turn, if it no longer “supports their narrative”, they turn tail and move on to the next thing to fume over.
We’re generally focused on the maga crowd in the context of this story but the truth is that we are all subject to and fooled by misleading content. And when you, as an actual intelligent person with actual critical thinking skills, or just someone who read the article, tries to call attention to the fact that a headline is misleading or outright wrong, you get downvoted. So, why is that the case?
Also, fwiw, I have a shitty education, I’m not very smart, but I believe I have better critical thinking skills than the majority of people.
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?
Because if you just keep calling them buffoons without giving a flying fuck about them, you are responsible for the divide. If you believe you’re the more intelligent person, if you believe you are right, you have an obligation to listen to them and help them out of their mess. We have all been brainwashed for generations by corporate and government interests. None of us have a clear mind. We should all be working together and embracing each other in spite of our differences to rise up against our oppressors. Frankly, your question sounds just as stupid as they do. You can answer for yourself why you may or may not be interested being a helpful empathetic soul.
You seem to be under the impression that empathy and rationality will break through the divide and reach them. Why? My experiences over the last decade tell me that isn’t remotely true. You make it sound like a noble goal, and maybe it is, but I don’t think it’s practical or realistic in any sense of those words.
They’ve abandoned reality in favor of delusion. You can’t reach someone in that state of mind because they immediately label you as an other and stop listening. Call that judgment elitist if you like but I don’t think it changes the truthfulness of the statement.
Most everyone has abandoned reality in favor of delusion. That’s the point. Everyone sees the world from their own perspective, or the perspective of their bubble or tribe or religion.
“The algorithm” mostly shows me left-leaning news. Aside from major news orgs like AP, any other source of information is pushing a narrative. They’re twisting the words of presidents, former presidents, other news persons, etc. to make it seem a certain way. Video clips are cut short or taken out of context. Headlines are grossly misleading. A minor inconsequential event or statement is flipped on social media to be today’s trending topic - which may very well sway an election. The entire world is flooded with lies targeting everyone, regardless of your politics.
Pushing people away because you disagree with them, or because you think they’re “crazy”, only fortifies the establishment of their beliefs among others. You’re putting them in a corner where they can crowd together and commiserate about being called crazy while they point at you and eye you up as the enemy.
People are afraid. They’re struggling to get by. They’re desperate for someone to listen to them and provide salvation.
We all need to recognize we’re being manipulated. Everyone is susceptible to mistruths, regardless of your education. We need to be more curious and empathetic and accept we may be wrong about something and that our perspective is not the only perspective that matters.
