People I work with are infinitely suspicious of the wildfires. They say shit like, “Hmm, isn’t it odd they all started around the same time?”
Yes, Jeffrey, that’s how wildfires work. Entire biomes burn to the ground if the conditions are hot and dry for long enough.
I can get sort of disagreeing the wildfires are from climate change
Eh, no. Wild fires would also occur without climate change, but anybody denying that climate change isn't making wild fires (and a hundred other things) worse is not making a "couple of logical steps", they're denying science.
You don't need a high level of education to know you shouldn't inject bleach into your system to kill COVID-19, and yet people died listening to Trump's suggestion.
"people died listening to Trump’s suggestion" is undoubtedly true, but are there any documented cases of someone actually injecting bleach, much less that leading to their death?
Injecting, don't think so. But ERs in the states that villify any lifestyle other than theirs saw a drastic uptick people drinking bleach. Also never forget Ivermectin.
“This doesn’t kill anybody, it doesn’t make anybody cough, this is not a health event,” he added, contradicting public health experts and basic common sense. “This has got nothing to do with climate. This is wildfire smoke. This is natural. This is not because of climate change. This is not because of fossil fuels.”
Seriously, we should start making laws that put rich powerful assholes in jail when they start spouting obvious lies that make the world a worse place.
I mean, to me (in the DC area, so not nearly as bad as it was further north) it just smelled like a campfire outside to me. It wasn't a particularly offensive smell.
But I could FEEL that the air quality was bad every time I took a breath, and I don't have any kinds of respiratory issues.
Ok, if you were further away it could have smelled different. Up here in NY it smelled like burning trash and plastic and chemicals. It was horrible. I was referring to people who live in the same small town as I do, so they had to smell the same thing.
To be clear I'm not downplaying how terrible it must have smelled in more heavily effected areas; I didn't mean to come across as doing so.
I don’t get this weird need to be contrary to everything, doesn’t it get exhausting?
They're not just doing it to do it
well that's part of it, but it's mainly "if we accept that climate change is real, then it's us who are at fault for it; as such we need to discredit and downplay it and anything resulting from it"
like they have a vested interest in saying that it's not a big deal, it's a conscious choice that they're making; they're not being stupid (or at least not in choosing to deny this)
It comes from the same place as the deeply held but mutually exclusive beliefs that the government is both totally stupid and incompetent but also so capable and efficient that they are somehow carrying out massive conspiracies on the entire citizenry.
Right wingers and being wrong, how surprising
I've also been seeing so many comments on news posts about the fire talking about how they are intentional fires.
I don't understand how these people are allowed to spread such misinformation 😔
I kind of gave up trying to convince my family that this isn't healthy, especially my high risk family members. I don't get why they just don't seem to care, especially the ones with major health problems.
I don't know why it's so hard to understand that breathing particulate matter into your lungs isn't a good thing... A child should be able to understand this. My 10 and 12 year old INSTINCTIVELY understood this... they pulled their shirts up over their nose on their own when we woke up and went outside on the first bad day.
Same ... it's clear that attempting to convince my own family is just as effective as speaking to a charcuterie board. Want to breathe the smoke? Fine, go ham. I'm fresh out of pity for the science deniers.
I've been coughing a lot, while working outside the last few days. I'm in Ohio, and it doesn't look particularly dusty or smoky, but my lungs can sure feel it.
It's been fun watching the Facists tear themselves apart after their coup failed. I hope we have many more Pride Month presents!
They are basically living out "Don't Look Up".
I think its disingenuous to say that right wing media is saying this. Most right wing media I've seen does not deny that the smoke is dangerous. While some people have claimed that there is little to no health risk, as far as I'm aware no one has tried to describe it as "a good thing". The article you linked has no purpose but to spread baseless hate and negativity, much like most right wing media.
I'd say it's inaccurate to claim right wing media in general is claiming it's a good thing, but as for anyone claiming such, well, there's an example in the article
Greg Kelly on Newsmax blamed them on “our woke friends to the north,” before describing the smoke as “manageable,” “not an unpleasant odor,” and “a beautiful, interesting aura.”
I read the article, this is not an example of a claim that its's a good thing. Sure its a laughable attempt to downplay how serious it is, but he in no way claimed it was overall a good thing. Manageable means it is negative but not significant, he isn't praising wildfires and begging for more of them.
This is going to be the worst year for forest fires in Canada, ever. They're downplaying the implication of this because they're the ones who keep making laws to keep industrial polluters safe.
Let's be real. A lot of these people don't actually believe anything that comes out of their mouth, but if they think it'll trigger a liberal they're down with it.
The documentary Behind the Curve explores this idea a bit. It follows die hard flat earthers around their daily lives to get to know them a bit more.
There's a running theme throughout the movie that these people weren't very happy with their lives prior to becoming flat earthers. Joining the "movement" gave them instant friends and a sense of direction. There's subtle hints now and again that most don't actually believe the Earth is flat, but they feel like "coming out" would ruin their reputation with their new community.
I get the sense that a lot of right wingers feel the same.
and the reason we don't hear much about flat earth any more is because most of them moved on... to QAnon.
"Hey look I proved the Earth was round with a relatively long lage, a semi-proffessional camera and a jury rigged gimbal."
"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
Perfect description. Thanks for sharing.
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