Big Lies Lead to Bad Outcomes
From Escondido to Point Loma and San Ysidro, the War on Truth is Omnipresent
Some people think an uninhabitable world is just a myth.
That’s the essence of the result of a world wide conference on climate change in Dubai.
Local oilman and conference chair Sultan al-Jaber quickly marched –lest anybody object– through a concluding agreement including a sentence calling for "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner."
Delegates fought day and night for acknowledgement that reversing the damage already done to the planet and preventing a not-in-the-distant future global catastrophe could only be achieved by aggressively winding down the use of fuels that release carbon into the atmosphere. The namby-pamby language released at the end will do little more than serve as a marker for the term “transitioning.”
The US energy sector is the place where everybody gets to lie. Republicans say recovering more oil and natural gas is essential for economic prosperity. Democrats don’t say this country produces more of these fuels at record levels than any other country on Earth. Oil companies actively promote an imaginary solution to carbon pollution while not bothering to mention such a system would raise energy prices and/or balloon the deficit.
In Escondido, the city council (tonight!) is likely to approve a resolution objecting to the “removal or repurposing of any travel lanes for purposes of accommodating state or NCTD Climate Goals.” Biker and bus riders should be prepared to bow down and worship at the altar of automotive supremacy.
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Some people think mass internment is the solution to all the humans they see living on the street. They’re saying the quiet part out loud, now having bought into the disproven notion that drug use or mental health issues is what drives homelessness.
Former Mayor and Supervisorial candidate Kevin Faulconer has endorsed a plan (Sunbreak Ranch) for a massive facility where unhoused people could be kept from public view. The amount of money required to keep the “ranch” operating would drain funding from the rest of homeless outreach programs. And finding a suitable location would necessarily involve utilizing uninhabitable property.
If you think Faulconer’s endorsement is stupid, check out Mayoral candidate Larry Turner (endorsed by Sunbreak Ranch booster Bill Walton):
“We must decouple affordable housing from our homelessness crisis.”
But wait! I can top that one:
Wow. So, if homeless humans are given a place to put up a tent they will somehow denigrate or even destroy a 361-acre (formerly the Naval Training Center) location. Gather up the ugliest things imagined about unhoused humans and you’ll have the basis for the list of grievances circulated by Point Loma’s NIMBYs.
If you believe that moral failings or mental illness cause people to live on the streets, a falsehood repeated so often that it should qualify as part of a neo-fascist platform, then it’s easy to see those folks as the “other.”
You might have even heard that Presidential candidate Trump is promising internment camps for BOTH unhoused humans and immigrants awaiting mass deportations. So I guess it’s becoming a fad: get people to believe a big lie so they won’t mind concentration camps.
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Some people think we have open borders.
We don’t. Haven't since the 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan capitalized anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish sentiment to obtain passage of immigrant restrictions.
And the local spin on that falsehood is that somehow 50,000 people (asylum seekers) are wandering around San Diego freeloading off the public. The number in question refers to those questioned and vetted by federal authorities and allowed to stay in the country pending a court hearing. No mention ever gets made of the thousands of would-be migrants turned away at the border, or the fact that most of them released leave to be assisted by family members in other parts of the country.
Now the (oft debunked) rumor-du-jour in right wing circles is the claim by Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb of federal benefits bestowed upon migrants upon entering the country.
Via Media Matters:
“When these folks come across, and they’re processed, they’re being given a cell phone; a plane ticket to wherever they want to go in this country, so probably to a community near you; and a $5,000 Visa card,” Lamb said.
“So while this Christmas season you’re struggling to keep your lights on, while you’re struggling to pay your rent, put Christmas presents under the tree for your kids, we have our government giving people who came into this country illegally $5,000 gift cards,” he continued. “That’s the truth, folks.”
It isn’t, but that didn’t stop Lamb from repeating his comments nearly verbatim the following day on Fox & Friends First.
Long time extremists like Sebastian Ghorka used this claim to push the “great replacement theory” on NewsMax:
“How are we going to stay in power?” Gorka said, imitating a liberal. “Oh you're brown. Oh, you're black. Here's $5,000. We're going to amnesty you because you're brown and you're black. You're gonna vote for us, right?”
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And, while we’re on the subject of ‘some people’, here are three thoughts from the fringes likely to be showing up soon in people’s lives, via a crazy uncle or whomever during the holidays:
Some people are thinking that internet company Etsy is actually a front for an international pedophile ring. This conspiracy theory has already spread on mainstream platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Via Media Matters:
On December 10, a QAnon-promoting account on X, @NiQole1776, posted that it had discovered pizza-related products selling on Etsy for thousands of dollars, and the account suggested that these products were suspicious, writing, “Don’t let them gaslight you anymore.”
The post, which is the earliest post that Media Matters found of the conspiracy theory, earned at least 2.5 million views, according to X’s metrics.
You might remember this vile thinking was about WayFair a couple of years back. The Trump Justice Department even investigated, finding nothing.
Some people are thinking bad things about country/pop star Taylor Swift, apparently because she’s been encouraging her fans to register and vote.
Charlie Kirk, founder and president of Turning Point USA, has used his podcast to rant about how Swift is “ugly,” appeals to only “women and gays,” and her pleas for electoral participation will “destroy the country.” San Diego’s Awaken Church, by the way, has participated in events organized by Kir’s organization.
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Finally, some people think that America will only be great again if non-Christians are slaughtered.
Trump dinner guest Nick Fuentes, who is at least honest about his antisemitic-white nationalist-Christian fascist ideas, took to the interwaves this week to say when his America First movement takes power all non-Christians will be executed:
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Wednesday’s a Good Day to Pick on Elon Musk
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Pedestrians, already dying at record levels, now face Elon Musk’s Cybertruck Via NBC News
Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety — a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization — said the Cybertruck poses a variety of threats to pedestrians.
According to Tesla’s website, the Cybertruck Cyberbeast model clocks in at 6,843 pounds, and can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds. For comparison, the 2023 Ford F-150 starts at slightly more than 4,000 pounds, and can go from 0-60 mph in about 5.5 seconds.
Brooks said the Cybertruck’s extreme acceleration capabilities, combined with its weight, means that drivers will have less time to react to pedestrians, and collisions with them will be deadlier.
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Tesla recalls nearly all vehicles sold in US to fix system that monitors drivers using Autopilot Via the Associated Press
NHTSA has dispatched investigators to 35 Tesla crashes since 2016 in which the agency suspects the vehicles were running on an automated system. At least 17 people have been killed.
The investigations are part of a larger probe by the NHTSA into multiple instances of Teslas using Autopilot crashing into emergency vehicles. NHTSA has become more aggressive in pursuing safety problems with Teslas, including a recall of Full Self Driving software.
In May, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose department includes NHTSA, said Tesla shouldn’t be calling the system Autopilot because it can’t drive itself.
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Elon Musk allows controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on X Via NPR.
Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday announced his decision to allow Alex Jones back on the platform.
Jones generated controversy for spreading false, wild conspiracies, claiming that a "New World Order" was sacrificing children on a California compound; that the U.S. government had "weather weapons" that triggered catastrophes like major floods; and that FBI Director Robert Mueller was a demon.
Shortly after being formally reinstated on X, Jones and Musk joined Vivek Ramaswamy, Laura Loomer (a self-described "proud Islamophobe" who has been banned from some platforms) and others in a live chat on Sunday.
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