159
submitted 3 weeks ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Far-right trolls spout baseless theory that storm is a ‘simulation’ as Republicans jump on conspiracy train

As Hurricane Milton ripped across Florida, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, trolls and politicians alike spawned misinformation about the storm, questioning government preparations and calling it a “simulation” designed to hurt the Republican state.

Disinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding Milton began long before the storm even made landfall. Since last week, Donald Trump has been spreading lies about the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, accusing the Federal Emergency Management Agency of “abandoning” North Carolina residents in what is a hotly contested state in the November presidential election.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), an extremism and disinformation watchdog organization, told the Guardian that hostile actors are known for using manipulated images and propaganda posts to undermine western democracies in times of crisis.

top 4 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 35 points 3 weeks ago

The absolutely breathtakingly idiotic shit conservatives will happily believe never fails to boggle the mind.

How the fuck these people even manage to function in day-to-day life is completely beyond me.

[-] Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Clearly, day-to-day life is organised such that people who believe absolute bullshit can cope with it. This might be because the human world is built on bullshit, such as the concepts of:

  • humans being superior to other species ("so I'm a winner")
  • constant economic growth being possible ("so we can keep winning")
  • the world remaining roughly as it is in a way that suits humans ("so winning will go on forever")
  • able-bodied people being more important than disabled people ("winners contrast with losers, and I'm not a loser")
  • also, various forms of difference being disgusting (there's a lot on the theme of "winners contrast with losers, and I'm not a loser")
  • the possibility of some kind of immutable 'strength' vs a lesser 'weakness', ignoring the fact that all living beings die, so neither strength or weakness make an objective long-term difference ("my winningness is part of my strength that will not leave me, losers are gross and should be dominated and treated like shit")

Society is literally purposefully organised to entrench privilege in a way that maximises the ability for some to oppress others. That's why you have people who say they 'care about children' while children on their street are abused, or go without food. Humans visibly put more effort (as a group, some individuals are different) into pretending and rationalising rather than actually improving things. They can even rationalise the killing of children in various, pathetic, ways.

All these, and more, are ideological positions that give false and meaning to human existence. If there were a button that slammed objective reality into everyones' brains, even if it would kill 90%+ of the population from the sheer terror of the realisation that humans are not important, I would not hesitate to press it.

[-] Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

It's always Russians and Republicans working against Americans. Misinformation is their first language.

[-] Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 weeks ago

Russpublicans

this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
159 points (98.8% liked)

News

23305 readers
2293 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS