Can We Talk About the Weather?
Forecasters are getting death threats.
"Can we talk about the weather?" is something you might ask when a conversation gets too heated or uncomfortable. Or you might turn to the weather channel when you get tired of politics or culture war news. But these days, even the weather can be controversial.
A sitting member of Congress and a key advisor to a major party presidential candidate have contributed to the false belief that Democrats can control the weather and used this technology to create hurricane Helene and aim it toward majority Trump voting districts. Additionally, misinformation has led to death threats against FEMA workers aiding those in need after hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done," Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X. In a later post, she added, "Ask your government if the weather is manipulated or controlled. Did you ever give permission to them to do it? Are you paying for it? Of course you are.”
The conspiracy wasn't new. In January, Laura Loomer, a key advisor to Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, suggested that former Secretary of State Nikki Haley and her "friends in the defense industry and military industrial complex" manipulated the weather in Iowa ahead of the Iowa caucus in order to decrease turnout.
There has also been much misinformation regarding the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) and its recovery efforts. So much misinformation, in fact, that FEMA created a webpage to debunk the rumors. Elected leaders, including many Republicans, have also gotten involved in rumor debunking.
Chuck Edwards, a Republican congressman representing North Carolina's 11th district, issued a press release, writing in part, "we have also seen an uptick in untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts across our mountains."
"I encourage you to remember that everything you see on Facebook, X, or any other social media platform is not always fact. Please make sure you are fact checking what you read online with a reputable source," Edwards added.
Misinformation harms relief efforts and hurts those in need. Yesterday, a man with an assault rifle was arrested for threatening to harm FEMA workers. So now these workers will be accompanied by law enforcement, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced, and must attend to their own safety as they aid others.
Even meteorologists are facing death threats.
“I’ve never seen a storm garner so much misinformation, we have just been putting out fires of wrong information everywhere,” Katie Nickolaou, a meteorologist in Michigan who has received death threats, told The Guardian.
“I have had a bunch of people saying I created and steered the hurricane, there are people assuming we control the weather. I have had to point out that a hurricane has the energy of 10,000 nuclear bombs and we can’t hope to control that. But it’s taken a turn to more violent rhetoric, especially with people saying those who created Milton should be killed," she added.
Do you know someone who contributed to the spread of weather misinformation? This might be a good time to point out the harm that is caused by the spread of misinformation.
Events
American Values Coalition is co-hosting two upcoming events.
On Nov. 1, we’ll be in Phoenix for the “Cultivating Christlike Disagreement” conference for pastors and ministry leaders. Sign up here.
Next, we’ll be at Wheaton College on Nov. 18 for a seminar with Elizabeth Neumann and Caleb Campbell on “Election 2024, Polarization, and Peacemaking: What’s Next?” Go here for more information.
What Else We're Reading
The Atlantic: “Rumors on X Are Becoming the Right’s New Reality”
The amplification of emotionally manipulative chatter is a familiar issue on social media. What’s more disconcerting is that Republican political elites—with Musk now among them—are openly legitimizing what the X rumor mill churns out when it serves their objectives. X’s owner has claimed that FEMA is “actively blocking citizens” who are trying to help flood victims in North Carolina, and that it “used up its budget ferrying illegals into the country instead of saving American lives.” J. D. Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, elevated rumors of pet-eating Haitians to national attention on social media for days; Donald Trump did the same in a presidential debate. Influential public figures and political elites—people who, especially in times of crisis, should be acting as voices of reason—are using baseless, often paranoid allegations for partisan advantage.
Forbes: “How Hurricane Helene Deepfakes Flooding Social Media Hurt Real People”
Repeated exposure to fake content can erode public trust in legitimate news and information sources. When people repeatedly encounter false images, they begin to question all media, including accurate and necessary disaster updates.
Further, fake images can be a trojan horse for cyberattacks, often being shared in conjunction with phishing links or scam fundraising campaigns. Unsuspecting individuals are lured into contributing funds or providing personal details to malicious actors under the guise of helping those affected by disasters.
The repeated exposure to fake content during disasters creates an emotional whiplash. People experience initial shock or sadness when they see images of devastation or distress, but when those images are debunked, it leads to feelings of betrayal, confusion or anger. This cycle can quickly wear down our ability to engage emotionally with real crises.
Study: “Inside the funhouse mirror factory: How social media distorts perceptions of norms”
Abstract
The current paper explains how modern technology interacts with human psychology to create a funhouse mirror version of social norms. We argue that norms generated on social media often tend to be more extreme than offline norms which can create false perceptions of norms–known as pluralistic ignorance. We integrate research from political science, psychology, and cognitive science to explain how online environments become saturated with false norms, who is misrepresented online, what happens when online norms deviate from offline norms, where people are affected online, and why expressions are more extreme online. We provide a framework for understanding and correcting for the distortions in our perceptions of social norms that are created by social media platforms. We argue the funhouse mirror nature of social media can be pernicious for individuals and society by increasing pluralistic ignorance and false polarization.
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