Right-Wing Media Is Saying the Wildfire Smoke Is Good, Actually
Right-Wing Media Is Saying the Wildfire Smoke Is Good, Actually
Conservatives are doing everything they can to convince Americans the hazardous air quality has nothing to do with climate change
Ok, I can get sort of disagreeing the wildfires are from climate change - that's a couple of logical steps you have to make. But "It's not causing anyone to cough" is plainly ludicrous. It was making me cough when I went outside.
"It doesn't smell bad"? Maybe they have COVID and lost their sense of smell altogether? It certainly smelled bad to me. And if you thought it smelled great - wow. I just don't ever want to be around you if you like those sorts of smells. I can't see it actually working with anyone who's ever been in wildfire smoke before - like you don't need science or education or anything to notice if it makes you cough, or tell something doesn't smell great.
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.
I especially don't get this "dying to trigger the libs". Interesting tactic I have to say. I am not compelled to try and trigger anyone - are they all trolls now or something? I have more interesting things to do than to cut off my nose to piss someone else off.
I think there is a lot of pride to be conservative coming into play here. Hard to explain, but I sometimes see this in my family. They proudly present their ignorance to show off their conservativism, hold it in front of them like a banner. When I inquire a bit deeper their views are often a bit more reasonable, it just feels like average boomers wanting to be cool by flaunting their ignorance, as weird as this sounds.
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.
The Right uses fear and intimidation to keep their base in line. They brainwash their children into believing as they do that an absolute authority exists and someone will tell them who that is and that to succeed in life all they have to do is follow a proscription.
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.
Yeah, there's a "Trudeau started the wildfires as an excuse for carbon taxes" narrative that is insanely popular among the Canadian right wing.
I've even seen some "15 Minute Cities" theorists claiming the fires are being lit in order to "drive people into the liberal cities so the government can control them".
It's just entirely divorced from reality.
Some 15 minute cities critics really make me laugh when they fail to realise the area they live in is already a "15 minute city" with a school, grocery store and library a stone's throw away, no car or bicycle needed
They are basically living out "Don't Look Up".
Think of all the jobs the wildfires will create!
Right wingers and being wrong, how surprising
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.
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.
But that’s the thing, the people refusing to take precautions have health issues and use science when it keeps them alive! Like, which is it?????
I'm 38 with good breathing but I have multiple sclerosis. Wildfires make it so I'm unable to move my legs or do much of anything. It's real and some people are idiots.
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.
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?
I can't find the article anymore because it was back in 2020 when I read it but a woman claimed her father injested bleach after seeing Trump's press conference and died from it. The only articles I find now are upticks in poisonings. Maybe it was debunked since then?
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.
I don’t get this weird need to be contrary to everything, doesn’t it get exhausting?
Not for the rich oil tycoons. But yeah, for the brain washed masses it must be exhausting. But I think that only furthers their rage and obstinence. They'ed rather that than admin they've been fooled or used.
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.
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)
The world is burning down around us and these clowns would sooner burn with it than admit there's anything wrong...
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 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.
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.
It doesn't help that there was a landfill fire nearby right when the wildfire smoke was blowing in. Or that VA was trying to keep it quiet so everyone would just blame the Canada situation for the air being so bad.
#NotTheOnion
Eh, right-wing media says a lot of things. This is definitely one of their takes of all time.
What's that saying, where's there's smoke there's liar?
canadian govt really needs a more active forest service - letting it get out of hand like this is a bit ridiculous.
Canada has an absolutely massive forest service as well as an insanely large forestry industry overall. They're better equipped to deal with this sort of thing than pretty much anyone else in the world. Once you reach this magnitude of crown fire there's really very little you can do.
They'll spend millions of dollars dumping water from choppers and planes, pushing in firebreaks that won't hold it - there's really nothing left to do at this stage but get out of the way. You can't hose a crown fire out, people on the ground are just risking their lives.
Firebreaks are ineffective because this thing is causing spotfires miles and miles ahead of the front.
Are we ready to take climate change seriously? If not, this is your life every summer from now on.
Signed, a wildland firefighter and forest worker from Australia.
Yes, the reason people are losing it this year is because the winds are going opposite their usual direction so the smoke is going South. These fires happen every year but this year is much worse due to a dry winter.
In Alberta, where I am, there have been cuts to fire service, in some cases on idealogical grounds, which is frustrating. The fires people are worked up about are on the other side of the country but just pointing out this is nation wide and much worse than previous years (earlier, more, etc).
I've heard that the fires down under are pretty bad too. my condolences.
It's a rock and a hard place situation. One of the reasons the fires are so bad now is that for many years much effort was put into preventing fires. It allows a lot of fuel to build up, so that when the fire finally gets too big to handle it's got a huge reserve to burn through. We may have to endure a few years of huge fires to get back down to the usual background level.
Also, low precipitation in the winter leading to drier conditions.
Yeah, Canada needs to get this under control. I sat in traffic for an hour this week to get to the beach and then when I got there... the air was full of smoke! What a waste. US politicians need to take a hardline on the Canadians here.
Of course, everything bad is actually good. Not long until we hear that cancer is actually good for the body.....
It'll be something like:
"Metastatsize in moderation" or "Tumor responsibly"
Well, there were already some of them promoting testicles tanning, so go figure
These people just have an all encompassing need to be contrarian. But if they wanna go and frolick in the aqi 500 air be my guest.
Yes... I like it when problems are somewhat self-correcting. If only it were even more so... can we get them to think anthrax is good for them?
anthrax is good! because, because........
We had absurd amounts of smoke on the east coast of Australia a few years ago. It hung around for weeks. I think it effected lots of micronations in the Pacific and even reached parts of South America.
Anyone saying "this is fine" is off their rocker. It's literally particles in the air clogging lungs.
Wasn't really too long ago that smoking cigarettes was marketed as good for you.
Anyone remember when COVID was "good for you"? How did that turn out for them?
pretty much anything that isn't 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen is bad for you.
Edit: at normal room temperature and 1 atmosphere of pressureIf you go deep-sea diving that mix will kill you too.
Why not tell them that KCN is actually an extremely healthy mineral and get rid of this Problem once for all!..
You just buy a big slab of meat, put it on a coat hanger on the patio, free smoked meat!
It's been fun watching the Facists tear themselves apart after their coup failed. I hope we have many more Pride Month presents!