Hurricane recovery officials in N.C. relocated amid report of ‘armed militia… out hunting FEMA.’

  • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    That’s quite the picture, but there’s no snow in NC right now. Also, as crazy as this is, FEMA has a little bit of a reputation that has contributed to this.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        I think I see the source of your confusion and I can help to clear it up!

        See, you start with the conclusion “the government is bad because my pastor told me so and I can’t think for myself” and then you work backwards from there. The justifications don’t have to make any sense because you already started from the conclusion.

        Hope this helps.

      • Delphia@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I mean Katrina was pretty much a balls-up by everyone involved and

        Not saying FEMA was negligent it just showed how woefully under prepared for an actual huge crisis they were. (I believe they did try their best) these idiots just remember FEMA not immediately solving all the problems and arent letting FEMA do it to them! Thats why they probably feel (wrongly) justified.

        *Edited for clarity. *

        • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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          2 days ago

          You’re right, When Katrina hit in 2005, it was a major cock up. The agency was underfunded, and unprepared.
          Famously, a certain scumbag traumatized Mike Meyers by saying George Bush doesn’t care about black people on national TV.

          Obama spent much of this two terms improving FEMA to improve funding and readiness of the agency. Much to the chagrin of the press, who made much ado about FEMA’s ‘zombie outbreak’ plan.

          When COVID hit, I recall all the hoopla around FEMA and how they were utterly unprepared, and that it became clear that the stockpiles and plans that had been created under Obama had been ignored, destroyed, or left to rot under Trump. I remember a common headline was that Trump “‘Ripped up’ Obama’s FEMA playbook.”

          Since then, the agency has been a political vehicle, where democrats wants to fund it to get on top of COVID, and republicans don’t, so they can claim democrats are just as bad as they were at responding to COVID.

          Which is all to say - it’s not the agency, it’s the politics, and moreso than that, it’s the people who are stupid enough to think it’s the agency and not the politics.

          People out in the sticks of Appalachia who are informed by targeted disinfo campaigns don’t give two shits about the victims of Katrina or any of the actual past failures of FEMA. They care about perceived failures of FEMA and what they think FEMA is doing and what it stands for, based on the information bubble the algorithm has picked out for them.

    • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 days ago

      The photo caption mentions that is from a group in Wyoming.
      Presumably the group in NC is still figuring out a social media person.

      • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I’m not giving dailykos a click. I don’t see that caption on the Lemmy post. I’ll take your word for it though.

          • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Good. As much as I’m a huge critic of FEMA, these people going after them are insane and breaking the law.

        • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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          2 days ago

          I mean, sure, hate whatever media outlet you wish.
          You don’t have to believe what they report, and you don’t have to even bother with reading with what they report, but you offered your thoughts without reading the article, not me.

          Best to move on without commenting, or even attempting inferences based on the photo or headline in that circumstance, isn’t it? Otherwise you risk misunderstanding, falling victim to misinformation, or even creating your own misinformation.
          I wonder if anyone read your comment, and skipped the article with the assumption that ‘liberal’ news outlets are manufacturing reports of anti-FEMA sentiment.

          Well, at least if they don’t also read the article, they’ll know why there’s snow in the photo - assuming they read my initial reply comment. At least there’s that!

          • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Ironically the photo is misinformation, or just clickbait. It depicts a group from Wyoming who was opposed to the reintroduction of wolves, not the people hunting FEMA. They grabbed a random scary looking picture and used it for their article.

            • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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              2 days ago

              I’m not sure if I agree about misinformation, but the photo is definitely clickbait. However, highlighting that it’s clickbait, and - as you’ve done - offering context about the real story of the photo (which I didn’t know) is, well, great. It identifies the issue without leaving it up to question as to what the issue is.

              And that’s where you differ from the other commenter. They left things pretty darn vague, and I didn’t like the impression they seemed to be building toward - especially as their comment ended with a statement that I took to mean that they were justifying violence against FEMA workers, right after expressing doubt for the validity of the photo.
              Which is well-placed doubt, but I mean - read the article, which explains things, don’t just assume and make ill-informed comments. When I make a mistake, I just shrug and go “Ah, crap, you’re right” rather than double down and go ‘Well, I’ll never read anything from the publisher anyway[, even though I’ll spend time and effort commenting on it]!’

              • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                What I took from their comments is that they’re alt-right and they’ve been told to hate FEMA, so they hate FEMA. There’s not really any reason to continue talking to someone who only has opinions they’re told to have, and dismisses any other information.

          • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I didn’t say anything like what you represented me to have said, but nice strawman. Left media isn’t manufacturing reports of anti-FEMA sentiment. Right media has been manufacturing anti-FEMA sentiment ever since FEMA botched the Katrina response in 100 different ways. Confusion, blocking relief supplies, illegally seizing legally owned weapons. There are whole webpages dedicated to exposing and defunding FEMA.