- No matter how dissociated from reality something a politician says is, there are people who will believe it.
- People who think everything (such as Hurricanes) must happen for a reason are debating between God’s wrath and Deep State weather control;
- The founder of Politifact reflects on the failure of fact-checking.
Slate, Jim Newell, 8 Oct 2024: This Does Not Bode Well for the Election, subtitled “The hurricane conspiracy theories spread by Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Marjorie Taylor Greene are really bad, even beyond their obvious danger.”
Summarizing the situation since Helene, and the conspiracy theories that followed…
The grandaddy of all the conspiracy theories going around, though, would have to be one most eagerly promoted by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. According to Greene, an undefined “they”—who, if we’re being generous, is meant to be the Democrats, the deep state, or the “establishment”—“can control the weather.” In other words, “they” are actively working to crush communities with historic storms.
Despite backlash from basically every possible corner, she continues, still, to push this idea that the government can enhance and steer hurricanes on a path that does the most destruction to red America, ostensibly to create a mess in swing states that can’t be restored in time for voting. I’ve covered Congress for a while, so I don’t say this lightly: I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a member say something this disassociated with reality. But there are people who will believe it.
Last lines: The MAGA politicians know that whatever crazy thing they say, some people will believe it, and their support for Trump will be reinforced. Even though:
Officials at the federal, state, and local levels trying to manage recovery efforts, Democrat and Republican, are at their wits’ end with the overwhelming amount of misinformation that’s impeding their recovery work. They have emphasized that, actually, they’re impressed with the assistance the federal government has offered so far. Unfortunately, that sobriety—from officials actually on the ground—doesn’t extend to certain commanding heights of the Republican Party.
It is not possible to control the weather, let alone hurricanes, and why would “they” want to? If you believe they would, then you’ll believe anything.
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Partly this is due to, among many people, a deeply superstitious, animistic, view of the world: everything happens for a reason.
Right Wing Watch, Peter Montgomery, 9 Oct 2024: MAGA Divided: Are Hurricanes God’s Wrath or Deep State Weather Weapon?
As millions of Americans deal with the devastating floods brought by Hurricane Helene, and Floridians prepare for the potentially catastrophic Hurricane Milton, far-right activists are disputing whether the storms are an instrument of God’s wrath or a deep state weather weapon. Scientists have long warned that climate change and warming sea water temperatures will bring increasingly powerful and destructive storms, but that explanation doesn’t seem to hold much water for the “climate change is a hoax” crowd.
On Tuesday, the MAGA prayer warriors at Intercessors for America posted a questionon IFA’s Facebook page: “Is there a biblical reason for the storms we are seeing?” IFA wrote that while it may or may not be the cause of the storms, “it is well worth us asking God, how have we offended you?”
With examples of speculation involving “God’s fury and wrath,” “EVIL government reasons,” and “evil people who are being influenced by demonic spirits.”
Nope people, you’re wrong. You’re borderline insane: you have a shaky grasp of how the real world works.
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From the founder of PolitiFact. Well, we already know facts and reason will not change a person’s mind.
The Atlantic, Bill Adair, 9 Oct 2024: What I Didn’t Understand About Political Lying, subtitled “When I founded PolitiFact, I thought fact-checking would make politicians more truthful. We need to think bigger.”
For American politicians, this is a golden age of lying. Social media allows them to spread mendacity with speed and efficiency, while supporters amplify any falsehood that serves their cause. When I launched PolitiFact in 2007, I thought we were going to raise the cost of lying. I didn’t expect to change people’s votes just by calling out candidates, but I was hopeful that our journalism would at least nudge them to be more truthful.
I was wrong. More than 15 years of fact-checking has done little or nothing to stem the flow of lies. I underestimated the strength of the partisan media on both sides, particularly conservative outlets, which relentlessly smeared our work. (A typical insult: “The fact-checkers are basically just a P.R. arm of the Democrats at this point.”) PolitiFact and other media organizations published thousands of checks, but as time went on, Republican representatives and voters alike ignored our journalism more and more, or dismissed it. Democrats sometimes did too, of course, but they were more often mindful of our work and occasionally issued corrections when they were caught in a falsehood.
Reality has a liberal bias; Democrats are more honest. We’ve known that, too. Adair has this new book out: Beyond the Big Lie: The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy.
I may check this one out. I’m curious about his explanation for why, as the subtitle says, Republicans do it more.
Brief passages from this essay/extract:
The decision to lie can be reduced to something like a point system: If I tell this lie, will I score enough support and attention from my voters, my party leaders, and my corner of the media to outweigh any negative consequences?
…
Anthony Fauci was often caught in the crossfire. Roger Marshall, a Republican senator from Kansas, once suggested that the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would not give people access to his financial statements when, in fact, they were available to anyone who requested them. Republican politicians repeatedly—and falsely—accused Fauci of lying and even used his face in fundraising appeals. … In the old days, “if someone would say something outlandish, they would be shamed,” Fauci said. That deterrent has disappeared. “There is no shame in lying now.”
And some hints about how to fix the problem, ending this excerpt.
If politicians lie because they believe they’ll score more points than they’ll lose, we have to change the calculus. Tech and media companies need to create incentives for truth-telling and deterrents for lying. Platforms of all kinds could charge higher ad rates to candidates who have the worst records among fact-checkers. Television networks could take away candidates’ talking time during debates if they’re caught lying.
But these reforms will demand more than just benign corporate intervention. They’ll need broad, sustained public support. Voters may not be willing to place truthfulness over partisan preference in every case. But more will have to start caring about lies, even when their candidate is the culprit.
