Our Opinion: Lies about Helene could have violent consequences
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene lobbed late-night comedians an easy punch line with her ominous pronouncement that "they" (presumably Democrats?) can control the weather.
Only, Greene wasn't joking when she posted her fractured fairytale on social media.
Same difference with another chestnut from Greene's growing annals of ridiculousness: Jewish space lasers.
It's enough to make you want to laugh ... and then cry.
Because lies have consequences. You wouldn't believe what some people will believe.
A man was arrested Saturday in western North Carolina for allegedly threatening FEMA relief workers.
Authorities say William Jacob Parsons was armed with an AR-style rifle and a handgun and said he was going to "go mess up some FEMA personnel."
Rutherford County Sheriff's Office Capt. Jamie Keever described those words as a "vague threat."
They don't sound so vague to us.
Neither did they sound vague to FEMA, which temporarily reduced door-to-to visits by relief workers.
Nor are they unexpected.
Like the muck, debris and destruction that massive flooding dumped on the high country, misinformation has swept the state and the country, breeding fear, ignorance and mistrust. And hindering relief efforts.
Those false allegations range from the absurd to the incendiary and their progenitors include the Republican nominee for president.
Early on, Donald Trump blurted — and has repeated — that the government was withholding recovery aid from Republican areas even as Republican governors and other elected officials were contradicting him. Trump also falsely said that FEMA was running low on storm-relief funds because the money was going instead to immigrants.
Then there's Mark Robinson, the scandal-ridden Republican nominee for governor, who criticized the state's relief efforts based on fact-free allegations.
Among the other toxic falsehoods was a viral lie that the federal government was plotting to seize storm-ravaged local land and confiscating relief supplies.
"This is happening in the middle of an election, where candidates are using people's misery to sow chaos for their own political objectives and it's wrong," said Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.
Some Republicans have expressed similar frustrations.
"It's been harmful," Chuck Edwards, who represents the Asheville region in Congress, told The Hill earlier this week. "Not just unhelpful, it's been harmful.
"Just by the delay in our response in dealing with folks that really needed help, while we were having to fill all the calls and quash the rumor that was out there," he added. "In addition to the fact that there were people out there that believed that if they were to send goods to western North Carolina, that they might not make it to their intended point."Edwards would not mention any names, probably out of a reluctance of offending fellow Republicans, but we already know who's muddying the truth.
Which brings us back to Parsons, who was arrested while sitting in a vehicle outside of a storm-relief site in the hard-hit Chimney Rock area. He was freed on a $10,000 secured bond.
His wasn't the only threat they've received, a FEMA spokesperson said, noting several days of intimidation and harassment.
Thankfully, by Monday, FEMA said a statement that the potential danger "was more limited than initially reported and mitigated by law enforcement."
Relief teams resumed normal operations.
Of course, any delay in relief efforts only makes the task harder and more challenging as colder weather approaches, but threats must be taken seriously.
You may remember Edgar Madisson Welch, the 28-year-old father of two from Salisbury, who in 2016 walked into a pizzeria in northwest Washington and fired an AR-15-style rifle.
Welch had driven for six hours to the nation's capital because he had read on Facebook and Twitter that the restaurant, called Comet Ping Pong, was a front for a child sex-slave ring led by Hillary Clinton.
Welch was charged with four counts, including felony assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a gun without a license outside a home or business.
He was sentenced to four years in prison by a U.S. District Court judge named Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Suddenly, space lasers and weather-controlling Democrats aren't so funny anymore, are they?
Executive Editorial Page Editor
