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> Reports of vigilante activity in rural Oregon have multiplied as first responders struggle to keep up with the wildfire emergency, and baseless rumors that “a
by jussij 6y ago
> Reports of vigilante activity in rural Oregon have multiplied as first responders struggle to keep up with the wildfire emergency, and baseless rumors that “antifa” arsonists are to blame spread rapidly on social media.
It is amazing to read how people are so quick to accept conspiracy theories as the cause of these fires, yet they fight tooth an nail to deny the real cause, man made climate change and global warming.
Here in Australia, last year we too suffered mouths of horrendous bush fire/wildfire destruction and sure enough we had the exact same 'the arsonist did it' conspiracy response.
https://www.vox.com/2020/1/9/21058332/australia-fires-arson-lightning-explained https://www.vox.com/2020/1/9/21058332/australia-fires-arson-...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-11/australias-fires-reveal-arson-not-a-major-cause/11855022 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-11/australias-fires-reve...
- 082349872349872 6y agoGiven a saner stateside society, I'd be tempted to photoshop extracts from Goebbels' Sportpalast speech[1] over the top of Trump on a Tank graphics and attempt to circulate them in ill-regulated militia[2] circles, but Poe's law[3] almost certainly guarantees they would be taken at face value, with, as has already been demonstrated, fatal consequences. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24409361 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24409361 [2] are yanks aware of the symbolism of skull motifs in the "are we the baddies?" sketch? cough Punisher cough [3] I investigated some FB-circulated Donbass memes for a US colleague. Of the set, I only found one in the wild on RUnet, and even it had a comment along the lines of "who made this, a primary schooler?"