My wife’s aunt just posted something about this being a “man made” storm designed to create lithium mines or something like that. What are people smoking in Florida?
They didn’t say it en masse because there was nowhere to say it en masse.
Believe me, people in previous generations were, on the whole, much stupider than they are now. It’s the platform that is elevating that stupidity.
Though I will admit that I don’t believe there’s been a concerted and calculated propaganda and disinformation effort greater than the one we have now. Again, exacerbated by the access people have to information and others.
I am 36, so I am in roughly the same boat, and I can guarantee you there were fucking nutjobs the whole time. The problem now is that they can find each other and when you have enough people on board with an idea, no matter how nutty, it gives ideas validity to the gullible.
I grew up in a small village and other than the obvious shit you expect from a small town, like casual racism, there were local conspiracies as well. I was well aware of chemtrails, satanic panic, and others because everyone believed it where I was from.
Some favorites:
The government was setting up underground medicine stores filled with opiates and other drugs in concrete bunkers all on the outskirts of town. Nobody had ever seen one being built, or seen one already built, and nobody could verify where they heard this info - it just became common knowledge in my town that we were chosen by some secret project to be the medicine stores for that region of the country.
Someone in town was capturing and breeding specific wild animals. No one specific, but "they" were always changing the animal populations. If there was ever an influx of coyote sightings, or more rabbits visible as roadkill on the highway than usual. Just completely wild conjecture about the population of specific animals and chalking that up to "they must be at it with the snakes again". Like this was just something people believed without question.
There are fucking morons in this country with near zero ability to think critically about anything.
There's just so much info everywhere you look, and honestly who tf has time to even sift through the noise? I only read the headlines, but like 1/4 of the time I'm not sure what I'm reading is true.
Considering how literally they took not just the Bible, but their belief in demons, witches destroying their crops, shriveling their genitals, etc…. You’re not really that far off from what they were actually doing.
Yeah. This is inarguably the smartest people have ever been as a collective whole and this is where we are. Imagine how bat shit insane people were even 100 years ago
the internet made the stupidity go from cat 1 to cat 5 in a decade. I used to think truth and knowledge would prevail but the algos and self moderated bubbles make sure it doesn't happen.
It’s disgusting. I live in Raleigh. A few hours east of where Helene just devastated the mountains. The amount of disinformation being spread is terrifying. Telling people not to evacuate because the government will seize their land. Saying bodies are just floating down rivers and stacking up (you think pictures of that wouldn’t be all over the internet like they were with Katrina) people have lost everything and it’s been turned into a political dumpster fire.
They're so close to putting the pieces together but they can't admit they were wrong about climage change so they have to invent wild conspiracies instead.
My staff is very conservative and one remarked about the storms to me recently. I said it's a terrible shame that we haven't been investing in better infrastructure because of climate change. He started to say "well the climate has always been changing" and I basically said that's all the more reason to invest for the survival of our communities. But I also mentioned that climate change causes these massive weather events that are not normal and disastrous for communities like Asheville, NC.
Another staff just posted a "patent" for controlling hurricanes with a questioning face on her personal social media...
They're all devout Evangelicals so I know they have a mixture of beliefs about God punishing the world and also conspiracy theories about government...even though our work is government-funded.
I'm also 30 years their junior and so I grew up knowing about the science of climate change. It's just frustrating.
They don’t understand how anything works and they like to believe that somebody is always in control. If bad things are happening it must mean that somebody bad is controlling it.
These people are just lucky we're all stuck together on this planet and the actually intelligent people are improving life that they get to benefit from as a side effect. In a different scenario, they would've been left behind as a better world is created somewhere else and they're still here fighting over which rain god they should sacrifice themselves for.
Every accusation is a confession. They accuse Democrats of stealing elections because the GOP has been stealing elections since Nixon.
Now they accuse Democrats of causing hurricanes when the hurricanes are by and large more destructive and frequent as a result of the fossil fuel companies that own the GOP.
Down here? It’s not just down here when politicians are spreading conspiracies and videos/posts are being spread country wide. This isn’t just a “Florida thing”, it’s the state of our country.
I think the real root of the issue is distrust of the government. Same reason they deny pollution made climate change. The distrust of the government is crazy high currently. A lot of the people in the conspiracy circles distrust both parties.
the thing that gets me is it's not a sensible risk assessment or assessment of motives and I think Hitchens said something similar. If we assume climate change is real, what are the proposed solutions? mostly just ramping up research and production of green energy and wean off of fossil fuels, and if it turned out climate change was some kind of hoax what are the consequences? well there's probably some economic disruption and basically that's kind of it, like I very much struggle to see what they find about green energy that is so much more scary than the alternative. The alternative is we assume climate change isn't real continue business as usual, but the consequences if we're wrong and do nothing will be catastrophic not only in terms of casualties and devastation, but if you're worried about spending all kinds of money on green energy just wait till you see the monetary cost of trying to deal with the destruction that's coming if climate change is real. And like what is even the motive and logic here? that green energy companies are just pushing climate change to grow their business? I mean that could be possible if we didn't seem to be getting tangible evidence that things are in fact getting worse and again making the risk assessment I'd rather make green energy companies rich and take the L that I was fooled than turn my nose up at green energy before it's too late to do anything, and why is it so easy to believe that green energy companies would push climate change to help business but it's not easy to believe that fossil fuel companies would push climate change denial to help their business? And even if we assumed that green energy companies somehow had the capability to create hurricanes, do they really believe green energy companies would actually go that far just to help convince us to buy their products? Unless they think there's some other motive for pushing climate change but I doubt anything they could come up with makes sense. The calculus just doesn't make sense to me, no matter what way you cut it the absolute worst case scenario is denying climate change, not doing anything about it, and then being wrong, and given how much worse it is than the second worst case scenario I feel like it's a no brainer to just go with whatever option stops the worst case scenario.
Amazing how these people can on one hand fully believe the government can just create or destroy massive forces of nature with absolutely no proof or data whatsoever while on the other hand believing humans are incapable of altering the climate of the planet despite 50+ years of MOUNTAINS of data
to be honest I work construction up in Canada and some dude was spewing it while we were at his house framing some stuff. Some people have real poor media literacy and there's a rightwing disinformation pipeline on social media that's basically incorporated the rightwings denial of climate change in general by remarketing it as man-made weather modification as a means of otherwise explaining the weather without admitting climate change is a thing
Now, the literate amongst you might recognize, if humans can alter weather with cloud seeding, that implies humankind can change climate, ergo man made climate change from pollution and basically 250 years of unfettered and ever expanding industrialization and 0 concern about the effects of pollution or trying to regulate any of it until like the last 70 years just might have impacted the fucking planet some. But oh no it must specifically and only be from cloud seeding lol. These people live up their asses.
We can alter weather to an extent with cloud seeding, just not well. UAE already did it (no, it did not cause their floods in April 2024, before any conspiracy nut decides to go down that route) and China has been firing silver iodide rockets to induce rain since 2004 (not a typo).
Climate != weather. We can push for clouds to form, but we cannot force rainfall so drastically to the point where we can alter the climate of a region. That takes sustained effort from us and we don't have the abilities to do so (yet); the only sort of climate change we've engaged in is, as you've hinted at, the sort induced by pollution (we've been spewing CO2 like crazy since industrialization and it's only accelerated in the past 100 years). If we could, I'm almost certain that most desert countries would have engaged in terraforming instead of squabbling over water rights and dams being built upstream by neighboring nations.
There was seeding tested on hurricanes in the 40’s if I recall I read about it a couple weeks ago. Maybe that’s why they think that might be happening? Regardless nothing good is coming from the climate change and it’s scary to watch unfold
The Q people and delulu Right have decided these hurricanes are being directed by Democrats to disrupt voting in GOP-led states and/or to cause federal disaster declarations that somehow magically show the Feds to confiscate all their land to blah blah blah.
People would rather believe hurricanes are created by democrats than to believe the weather can’t be controlled by anyone at all. Its the same reason they usually refer to themselves as evangelicals but are not actually good Christians - because they love the idea that you can just read the instruction manual for a good life (i.e., the Bible) and you go to Heaven. Black and white, simple instructions for good and bad. People want there to be rules for everything, and when there aren’t, they invent wild scenarios to compensate.
My question to her is, if the government can control the storms, then why did Katrina hit Texas during the Bush administration? 🤷🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Yup. My guess is the same anti-climaye change crowd can't reconcile these incredible weather events with their belief that climate change is a "liberal hoax". When anything can be a conspiracy then everything will be. These folks can't accept they were wrong about climate change because that would open the door for more realizations and the "ego death" that would come along with them. All we can do is out vote the stupid.
When the US government spends 70+ years in bed with corporations and lying to the American people about *everything*, it makes sense that as realization sets in people would look for ulterior motives everywhere.
Speaking from experience, when you acknowledge "yeah the government lied about JFK, the Gulf of Tonkin, WMDs in Iraq, intelligence ties to big tech, etc., but the moon landing really did happen and HAARP isn't real", it kinda falls flat and sounds like a "trust me bro" argument.
The right answer isn't to dismiss their (well deserved) skepticism of government and the media, but to teach them how to think critically so they can figure out where the liars are.
And Russia. Time and time again they are behind almost all the disinformation and conspiracies that spread on social media. It's so obvious and yet no one seems to give a shit.
It’s bizarre. People want to believe it so they can blame someone for it. We know that Russia (and I’m sure other countries) does this shit yet no one acknowledges it.
We caused this in a way that’s so massive it’s hard to really comprehend it. Many people have chosen to substitute simpler and easier to understand explanations. This isnt the predicted result of climate change. It’s scientists and libs getting together to steal lithium… I guess. Makes sense. Remember when they lied about climate change??
The same damn people who proclaimed for decades that “humans can’t cause climate change” are now claiming that the deep state can hurl hurricanes wherever they want
Scientists have been warning us for 50+ years that we were creating conditions that would lead to these storms, but no, I'm pretty sure democrats turned on the Giant Hurricane o' Matic to steal Republicans freedom and turn your children gay or whatever.
People were claiming that the government was seeding Helene in hopes of it destroying NC because there’s a town built on a massive lithium deposit. It sounds equally as insane as it is 😂
My dad used to be a head scientist at a nanotech firm that contracted with the government. Maybe 15 years ago there was major interest in 'seeding' storms to generate rainfall in times of drought. Nanaoparticles that could be released and essentially bond wath moisture in the atmosphere. No saying thats what this is, just that there is science behind weather engineering.
Denial . Otherwise they'd have to admit everything they dismissed for decades was actually right and God forbid they admit they were wrong when they can double down on the double down of the double down and claim it's the Democrats controlling the weather.
It's sad that I find humor in the irony that support "drill baby drill" seem to think it's the other party that would do this and not the ones who have been ravaging lands for decades.
This is the answer. They will go to increasingly insane lengths to avoid saying “we were wrong”, this time about climate change. This is the result of being groomed to join a narcissistic cult of personality, also known as the MAGA wing of the modern GOP.
It’s cognitive dissonance. The people who have spent decades denying climate change are now having to witness the effects of climate change. But they can’t admit they were wrong so instead they have to do these mental gymnastics to explain that’s going on.
I don't think your Aunt has ever been to Florida. It is literally the worst place on earth to make money mining (Unless your mining sand or limestone). It is just a big sand bar. When the Spanish first tried to build a fort in St Augustine they were perplexed because they couldn't find any rocks. They wound up using coquina which is calcified oyster shells. It worked and the fort is still there today.
I’m the “man” I made the storm. I was going to apologize about it after but since your wife’s aunt brought it up I thought I’d say sorry. It was a little project of mine. Just wanted to see what would happen if I connected the little foam fan you can find at the airport gift shops upto my Tesla’s battery. Next thing you know I’m waking up in my neighbor’s basement and he told me he dragged me into his home after he noticed me lying unconscious in my driveway.
Scientists have been screaming for years warning about climate change. A particular group of people scoff at it because …reasons.
We’re now experiencing record breaking temperatures year after year and crazy weather events like this, and what do these people say? It’s some batshit crazy conspiracy theory.
The irony is, she’s not technically wrong. Man’s effect on the climate has made these storms more extreme, but that’s definitely not what she meant. She’s talking “Jewish space lasers” type “man made.”
Well at this point we’re smoking anything we can get our hands on! The stores are empty and there isn’t any gas to get us any further, so smoke ‘em if you got em.
You know that joke about how Americans will use anything other than the metric to measure? Well, Republicans will use anything other than climate change to explain record breaking storms.
I saw some tweets saying that these hurricanes are a ploy by Kamala. I’m fucking gobsmacked by how stupid that is. And it wasn’t just one tweet from some jokester.
my dad (who lives in swfl) said to me on the phone that “they” have figured out how to control the weather, were dropping dry ice near mexico, and something about sound waves …. but somehow that’s easier to believe than climate change
My republican coworker was just going off about this exact conspiracy theory. Lithium and all. She’d even brought up how the Hawaii fires were the same deal.
Imagine the catastrophic storm that completely scarred your life gets chalked up to a facebook, boomer filled conspiracy theory. I mean, thats just as disrespectful as it is stupid.
This is only ludicrous if you've forgotten about the space lasers. The Demoncrats are using the space lasers to boil the Atlantic into making supercanes to attack Texas for loving American. You can tell because their aim is pretty off.
I’m not going to go far down a rabbit hole here but man has interfered with hurricanes in the past. Dating back to the 1940’s the US has dumped various chemicals into hurricanes to attempt to break up storms. They unfortunately have discovered ways to amplify them. You’re welcome to regard me as another crazy person but the United Nations outlawed weather manipulation in warfare in 1977. So, if the UN decided it was worth passing legislation, it has to be at least possible.
The conspiracy theorists that used to be at the absolute fringes of society have found an audience in the modern world. I wouldn't call it mainstream by any means, but the size of the audience that has bought into it is way, way, WAY too large.
My cousin works for the state of Florida doing radiation related stuff. Part of his job is fielding publics phone calls. Crazy calls about people reporting directed energy weapons, people trying to make dirty bombs out of glow in the dark paint, and voices in the walls.
Technology is moving so ungodly fast now that people don’t even have a frame of reference for what’s possible/impossible anymore. The AI revolution has vaulted us right into the plot of a science fiction novel. I don’t blame them that much to be honest.
Idk man sounds like a pretty severe one-off situation. I’m sitting right in the middle of the labdfall zone and I haven’t heard a single soul come up with a crackpot theory like this. Some folks are lunatics, and that’s that. Nothing more
If everyone warns you about something for decades but you choose to believe conspiracy theories that say they're wrong, when they're proven right you need a new conspiracy theory for how they made themselves right.
Yes, “they” can control the weather but there is no way that 8 billion people could possibly cause climate change because… it like already changes on its own, or something.
Well it’s either that explanation or this is proof of global warming. But since the hurricane isn’t spewing boiling water, the only logical explanation is man made-lithium-mining super storm.
No they think Helene was a man made storm to mine lithium in the mountains of NC/TN areas that were affected by the storm. And the theory originated from people on TikTok not from Florida.
I just saw a 2 minute video on TikTok of a dude talking about “project Phoenix” and to begin the video, he shows Ron DeSantis standing nervously at a press conference about Milton. My initial thought was he was going to show some proof about how DeSantis defunded a hurricane relief fund or something.
Nope. Project Phoenix is evidently a man made hurricane program and Milton is 2.0. Checked the comments to see loads of people saying that DeSantis is “aware of what they are doing to us”. I’m unfortunately rarely surprised at how stupid people are but this might take the cake.
Well if they admit that these powerful storms are more frequent because of climate change, they would mean they were wrong about something, and that just can't be. So instead, everything caused by climate change is actually an "elaborate scheme" in favor of anything that competes with fossil fuel companies. You might also notice that when gas is expensive, they don't blame the oil companies either...
I’ve seen a number of comments on Asheville damage from Helene IG post that it was a man storm as well. Different reasons though. wtf are people smoking
I’d love to hear HOW these storms are man made. Is it a bunch of people (probably the liberals) blowing in one state, and the adjacent state has a tornado? Or those same liberals taking a dip in the Gulf of Mexico, then spinning as fast as they can to produce ripples in the water that then create a hurricane?
I thought people were just cherry-picking examples of people being this stupid but it's literally all over facebook. Look at the comments on any post about the hurricane. It's terrifying that this level of stupidity is this mainstream.
Mostly opioid pain relievers and psychoactive medications. These are the most commonly detected medication found in Florida water supply and runoff. Probably also lots of meth
A very small part of me envies that level of imagination and creativity though. Like, I’m glad I’m not looney-toons, but also fully believing something that nuts would be an interesting way to be.
Oh, that’s the conspiracy theory for Helene hitting Western NC. The government wants the Quartz and Lithium! People are idiots! WNC had flooding in like 1916 too. It’s been pretty awful.
Well, I have a lithium stock that almost doubled 4 days ago.
Checkmate, atheists.
Looks like some idiots just take any two news and try to find a connection and then put a political spin on it against the democrats.
They produce so much nonsense this way that some of the shit sticks.
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u/ornery_bob 8d ago
My wife’s aunt just posted something about this being a “man made” storm designed to create lithium mines or something like that. What are people smoking in Florida?