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Fallout from Hurricane Katrina
While eating my lunch, I popped on the Christian Broadcasting Network to see what kind of craziness Pat Robertson would have to say about the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. More than anything, he seemed kind of perversely excited, practically screaming out “This is real suffering!”
Yeah, the kind that he and his alien overlords feed off of, probably. Pat Robertson doesn’t seem to be the only one feeding off this though. Conspiracy message boards and the like seem to be over-flowing with rumors of HAARP and man-made natural disasters to divert attention from the War in Iraq and Bush’s falling approval rating and BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH….
And you know what? It’s all bullshit. While people in New Orleans are wading through toxic sewage water past their chest, the information levels on the internet are rising as well and some people are getting washed away in the muck. The big difference of course is that conspiracy theorists aren’t having their homes and lives literally washed away by the shit they’re spewing.
But don’t get me wrong: theorizing is great. Unplugging yourself from mass media is a tremendous step. And critical thinking is an absolute necessity. But you’ve got to actually use it for it to be any good. So let’s do a simple test, multiple choice. You tell me which is more likely:
- Some super-secret government cabal engineered a hurricane for inexplicable political purposes
- A hurricane occured during - gasp! - hurricane season
COME ON! This is a no brainer! It’s number one, obviously! But seriously, this type of questioning is rapidly becoming completely useless to me, and I’m going to have build a levee against it here. Asking questions is an absolutely essential part of life. But you’ve gotta watch where they’re taking you. And there’s a point with all this stuff where it pays to stop worrying about what’s true, or what’s remotely possible, and start thinking about what’s actually useful. Is thinking crazy stuff about the government controlling the weather useful? Or does it put you into some kind of whacked out Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God mindset where God has been substitute with Government?
Are the questions you’re asking and the things you’re thinking turning you into a victim? Are you handing somebody else your power, thoughts and feelings without them even doing anything? What about the real victims here - the people who lost homes, lives, loved ones? I know that everybody hates the compassion argument, and I’m not here to hit anyone with the moralizing stick. But wait, yes I am. Just for a minute? Are you feeding off somebody else’s hurt either consciously or unconsciously, and does that fit into whatever your own moral system is? I guess what I’m trying to say though, ultimately, is that when it comes down to the wire, theories and ideologies and even questions aren’t worth a shit. People are. When things get bad, does it really help that you’re taking the opportunity to prove how “right” your ideas are? Doesn’t seem like it to me. If you want to focus your mental and emotional energy somewhere during all this, focus it where it can really do some good: on people, not ideas.
August 31st, 2005 at 1:28 pm
excellent post, and right on! i’ve felt the same way of late. it’s like, the only important concern about katrina right now is ‘oh my god, those people!’
i can’t even look at the usual conspiracy sites of late. all this crap about scalar hurricanes and weather control and how new orleans is a model for the end of civilization makes me want to fuckin’ PUKE.
PEOPLE ARE FLOATING THE CORPSES OF THEIR LOVED ONES DOWN THE STREET AND YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT HAARP!
Jesus! have some dignity, people!!!
August 31st, 2005 at 1:36 pm
Another thing that annoys me is that the news stations are saying it’s the “sequel to the tsunami” and hey, guess what assholes - this isn’t a fucking movie that we’re watching. This isn’t fucking Scream 2.
This whole movie-mentality is precisely why people seem so fucking devoid of compassion about the whole thing. They think it’s just another bit of entertainment, and they wonder if the plot twists couldn’t have been done a little differently, or if the director might have done this scene a little bit better.
Shit, you know what I just realized? Conspiracy theory is the fan-fiction of real life!
And second of all, the tsunami killed what 200,000+ people and devastated entire nations? It’s an insult to those people to say that 200,000+ dead brown-skinned people equals 110 (last I heard) dead white people. In any event, both are tragic. There’s no need to play a numbers game to prove who wins.
August 31st, 2005 at 1:51 pm
I think it was Guy Debord who wroite about the idea of the SOciety of the Sepctacle, where reality is so mediated that everything becomes just another form of spectacle
Like ancient Rome where they used to flood the arenas and have POWs reenact historical naval battles, killing 1000s at a time
I’m not into conspiracy theory so no comment on that but I have been somewhat disheartened to see that in the sites I frequent, every single piece of info that comes out is being IMMEDIATELY filtered through the R/D filter
I swear to god, over on freerepublic there is much speculation about how much of the NO catastrophe can be blamed on liberals and democrats and erstwhile Kerry Voters… “That’s 1000 less liberals to worry about now, LOL, now if Louisiana had stronger family values then all of those democratic voters wouldn’t be looting,” etc… I suppose because poor urban blacks are the ones who couldn’t afford to evacuate before it happened, these idiots are crowing about who they would be shooting if they were there, plus many photos of Ann Coulter posing w. guns
Meanwhile over on Kos the discussion rages, isn’t it Bush’s fault, global warming, inadeqaute National Guard troops, blah blah blah
A lot of people it seem slike anything that happens is just more grist for the mill. The first question they ask is not “How can I help” but “How can this be spun to damage the Democrats (or the Republicans)”
DIsgusting. I sometimes wonder if these people assume heaven will be segragated as well, along party lines?
Thank GOD I’m a libertarian.
August 31st, 2005 at 1:51 pm
Who needs to fuckin theorise? the reality is bad enough.
August 31st, 2005 at 2:03 pm
I’m just sick over the whole thing. What a stupid fucking waste. Of course no one has any empathy for bodies on tv. That’s what we’re trained to do. They’re afraid to talk about how bad it is, because it will make them all look like the fucking idiots they are.
August 31st, 2005 at 2:14 pm
Another thing I’m finding really confusing is how conspiracy theorists on the one hand talk about how the media overplays disasters so as to condition us for whatever ends. And now they are saying that the media is underplaying how bad it really is, because “they” don’t want us to know.
WHICH ONE IS IT? IT CAN’T BE BOTH!
August 31st, 2005 at 2:28 pm
It’s all well and good to proselytise about who’s right and wrong and we can sit here beating our chest for the next week, but if you want to affect outcome, do something! Send some money to the Red Cross, gather with a group of friends and organise fund raisers. These people need help and they need it now! Are you in the South? Can you offer a family a place to stay? Cut through the media hype and go to the “horse’s mouth” Times Picayune online, they have switched all their energies over to the online version and are acting as a clearinghouse to locate loved ones and support their city. Don’t waste another ounce of energy on those who celebrate misfortune.
sorry but there are far more dead than 110, and most of them are poor African Americans working minimum wage jobs, but the numbers don’t even fucking matter, its about compassion not ideology.
Jeff officials plead for ‘necessities of life’
11:40 a.m.
The normally unflappable Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Walter Maestri broke into tears as he broadcast a call to help for anyone who could offer food or water to officials at the parish’s emergency operations center in Marrero.
Maestri said anyone who can help with the necessities of life for workers at the center can call (504) 349-5360.
Maestri said the water situation is so dire that like many people in the parish and the area, they are trapped in the center.
Sorry for the rant. But this is for real, despite the fact that the media have made it into a circus.
August 31st, 2005 at 2:33 pm
Who’s proselytizing? Aren’t we sending the same message, Gina?
August 31st, 2005 at 6:00 pm
yeah, definitely not a good showing by the conspiricists on this one. personally, i’m pissed off at any jackass who roots on the hurricanes and floods. any jackass who seriously imagines they’re able to divine the equalizing power of mother earth in this kind of catastrophe is as much of a brain-dead moron as falwell and robertson.
August 31st, 2005 at 6:48 pm
i might be a dick on this…. but is it really a catastrophe?
what i mean…. i was watching some PBS docmentary where James Earl Jones was pretty much the voice of God telling us how the Earth was created… everytime there was some big thing like the surface of the earth being covered in lava, or huge asteroids hitting earth etc, they were calling it a catastrophe… yet there wasnt even any “life” on earth at that point supposedly… so im like, how the hell was it a catastrophe??? if it wasnt for that shit, none of us would be here (supposedly) so isnt it a fucking miracle????
bt thats not exactly Katrina….. but i feel a similar way, whenever the Earth itself decides to do something like Katrina…. i mean catasrophic loss of human life i suppose… and all the sffering really does suck…. but shit, who the hell are we to tell the earth what to do.??? or judge it for that matter…. i mean, arent we the idiots who built New Orleans below sea level? arent we the silly ones who obsess over ocean front property?
its all pretty stupid for me to say though, i live on a friggin island and one really really big wave could end it all….. but i dont care. in fact, i hope that if my life comes to a early end, its the earth that takes me out…. rather than one of these dumbass so called humans…..
one
human?
August 31st, 2005 at 6:50 pm
That reminds me of something else somebody on the news said. They called it the biggest natural disaster in American history. That seems like a pretty freaking astounding claim to make…
August 31st, 2005 at 9:06 pm
um, in a planet of 6 billion, shitloads of people die ALL THE FUCKING TIME!
this is not even close to a catastrophe. 100,000+ people will kick the bucket today, just like any other day, and that’s a very conservative estimate.
but NOW gina wants me to donate to the fucking red cross cos some homeless guy’s corpse is floating down the street? where were you last fucking week when the very same guy was dying from fucking malnutrition? did you give a fuck then? no. you give a fuck when it’s an EVENT on TV!
“oh this is no time for politics people, this is an EVENT!” and what about when the event is over? yeah that’s right, back to business as fucking usual.
new orleans is drowning in crocodile tears
100,000+ people every fucking day. one day it’ll be you. deal with it.
and don’t tell me how much i can help ease the suffering of the living. i could’ve done that last week too, but didn’t.
and if i hear one more high-minded denouncement of “looting” i’m going to fucking explode. like, it’s ok to steal our lives, to steal the whole planet and fuck everything up for everyone, but steal a tv? gasp! the horror!
life is tragic, events are stupid
August 31st, 2005 at 11:03 pm
white people “find” things
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/pho...s_ts_afp/050830071810_shxwaoma_photo1
black people “loot” things
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/480/ladm10208301530
September 1st, 2005 at 12:15 am
HOLY SHIT! That’s nothing short of amazing
September 2nd, 2005 at 1:20 pm
[…] ages On
Over at Noble Realms, one of my readers posted a link to my piece on not getting carried away with hurricane conspiracy theories. There […]
September 3rd, 2005 at 4:08 am
yeah, i’ll cop to it. this shit excites me.
September 22nd, 2005 at 5:32 am
Pat Robertson the Extremist
Pat Robinson, the most extreme Christian priest, has recently wished for the assassination a leader on his own television channel. This is not the first time he expressed extreme viewpoints. Earlier he had prayed for the death of Supreme Court judges t…