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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   31394 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 30, 2024

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It seems like the very visible screwup which Trump and his supporters are very visibly addressing would make the actual literal neighboring communities of the affected lean more towards Trump, though.

I dunno, maybe that's because I live in Texas, and Dallasites and Houstonians see each other as Texans, where other states don't have that consciousness. But Trump's coalition(I mean Elon has endorsed Trump and does anyone actually believe there's a single democrat in the Cajun Navy?) visibly rescuing people in your backyard seems like it should sway some votes.

It seems like the very visible screwup which Trump and his supporters are very visibly addressing would make the actual literal neighboring communities of the affected lean more towards Trump, though.

Except that the official story is that this is a lie by the vast right wing conspiracy, and the government is actually doing the rescuing. And people here are perfectly willing to steelman FEMAs actions so they can agree that's so.

What's weird to me is that people are asserting that FEMA is helping but providing exactly zero evidence - except maybe there is some action in Asheville.

Proving that FEMA isn't helping is hard. That's like proving a universal negative.

But proving that FEMA is helping should be easy. The evidence should be all over social media. And yet none of FEMA's defenders seems to be interested in doing that.

Ergo, FEMA probably isn't doing much of anything useful.

Did you even bother looking? Here's the governor of NC stating that FEMA has provided $27M and organized shelter for 1,400 people. Here's FEMA's own press release column, complete with photographic evidence.

You are in a bubble. As long as you're only looking for tweets that flatter your existing story, guess what you're going to find?

Those numbers are comically low. $27 million? I’m probably in a bubble but everything being posted in defense of FEMA here is such faint praise that I’m now almost certain the bubble is right on this one.

Oh, only now?

I am struggling to be charitable here. You asked for evidence that FEMA was doing anything useful. I was able to provide that with five minutes on Google. Now you want to complain about the numbers. Fine. But you have to actually contribute something.

What would it take to change your mind?

Replying since it's a direct question even though it's an old thread.

I recognize that perhaps I am not contributing to this conversation with data. My argument is that no one really is. And evidence of things being accomplished is easier to prove than the lack of things being accomplished.

You did find evidence of aid being delivered, however slight, so I will recognize that you have made greater contributions than I have.

If I contribute to the thread in the current week, I will spend some time researching before typing.

What would it take to change your mind?

That's a good question and I will think about it. Presumably, if the FEMA admins were working overtime that would be a good first step to changing my mind. But apparently they are keeping 9-5 hours and the head of FEMA was seen out shopping at a luxury store in DC. Senior management of FEMA should be, you know, actually in the disaster zone.

I'll try to remain open to the idea that maybe FEMA is not completely useless, but I'm also having a hard time being charitable I guess.

I pointed this out lower in the thread.

RW Person: Makes claim critical of government with some evidence (though often anecdotal)

Government official: That is untrue (doesn’t provide receipts).

Media: RW person debunked and spreading dangerous misinformation.

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