Conspiracy Theory Nation
I begin today by doing something I don't believe I've ever done before. Perhaps this will prove to be uninformed, since I have no real way of knowing if someone else has previously said this (or something very similar). I could just be repeating it without realizing it's not my own original thought, I will fully admit. But in watching the immediate responses to the crash of a commercial jet and a military helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington D.C., I fear I may have stumbled upon a basic natural law (at least, in this country, at this particular time). Call it "Weigant's First Law of Finger-Pointing," I suppose. Here it is:
There is no tragedy that is so awful that it cannot be made much worse by politics.
Perhaps I was already thinking along these lines, after having just written about the disruption President Donald Trump brought this week to the medical system of this country, with his ill-conceived blanket freeze on government payments. This only served to remind me of the disgraceful and bizarre politicization of all the COVID-19 responses which happened during his first term in office.
Or perhaps it was just reading all the trending memes online immediately after the accident. I was prepared to dismiss most (if not all) of these as just social media noise -- blathering into the void in a bid for attention -- but then Trump gave a little presser today and repeated pretty much all the conspiracy theories the rightwingers had been pushing online. This raised the idiocy to levels which cannot be ignored, given that he has the biggest microphone in the world.
Last night, within an hour or two of the horrific accident above the Potomac, both left and right had already teed up their own divergent conspiracy theories -- not so much to explain what happened as to pin all the blame on their political opponents. There were no voices of reason saying: "We should wait until we get some information about what exactly caused this accident," instead there was a chorus on the right and one on the left with ready-made explanations as to why the accident happened. The blame was squarely placed on the other team, in both cases.
The righties, right out of the gate, blamed everything on "D.E.I." -- which in this case was just shorthand for sheer bigotry. As with attacking "critical race theory" before it, rather than a detailed opposition to a lefty educational trend, attacking "D.E.I." has now morphed into the concept that any woman or minority hired for any job is obviously unqualified for that job, and (the flip side to that) that any White male in the same job was obviously the most qualified candidate. As you can see, this is nothing more than racism and/or sexism -- judging someone (before any facts are actually known) solely based on their race or sex. If a woman or a person of color was involved, well, there's your explanation for why things went wrong. They were obviously a "D.E.I. hire," and thus unqualified for the job.
Those on the left pinned all the blame on Trump, since he has been on a firing spree since he entered office. The head of the F.A.A. was fired because he had annoyed Elon Musk... plus Trump fired the head of the T.S.A. (which had nothing to do with the accident, but whatever)... and fired everyone on the Aviation Security Advisory Committee... and fired 100 (or was it 300? or 400?) air traffic controllers!... and sent a letter to all the others to encourage them to quit!... it's all Trump's fault!
As I said, these were unfiltered and uninformed people venting on the internet. Which I reacted to by mightily wishing everyone would just calm down as responsible people tried to figure out what really did go so wrong. This morning, two things emerged which might be important in this effort: one air traffic controller was in charge of both the plane and the helicopter, despite this normally being a job for two air traffic controllers. The tower was shorthanded, in other words. Also, the inbound plane was directed to switch runways right before it made its final approach. Both of these may have contributed to the accident.
But none of this has stopped the blame game. Trump at first appeared to offer words of consolation, and then once he had read the text his aides prepared, immediately jumped to blaming Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and D.E.I. for the accident. While doing so, he blatantly lied -- he claimed that D.E.I. had taken over the hiring of air traffic controllers during Obama and Biden's terms, but that in his first term he had fixed this problem. He did no such thing -- the hiring policies remained the same under Trump as they had been under Obama, which Biden then continued. But Trump believes he had previously fixed the problem, so that's all that matters to him.
Buttigieg quickly fired back on social media, pointing out that there were zero fatal air accidents on his watch:
Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.
President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.
Which, of course, elevated the conspiracy theories on both sides.
Now, I am not saying that there isn't merit to either side's basic point, because I don't have any information right now. The investigation of what went wrong is going to take some time, and in the meanwhile, the media can be expected to offer up scoop after scoop (like the ones this morning about being short-staffed and the change in runway) as they tease information out of those involved in the investigation.
Eventually, blame will be assigned, but it should be assigned intelligently -- based on facts and data, not on knee-jerk reactions. But in the meantime, politics has exacerbated the tragedy with conspiracy theories and premature finger-pointing. Did the hiring practices result in unqualified people either in the tower or in the two cockpits? We don't know yet (but probably not). Did the firings (the ones that actually did happen and are relevant) contribute to the fact that the tower was short-staffed, or is this an ongoing problem that has nothing to do with who is currently leading the agencies involved? We simply don't know yet.
One thing that is certain is that this frenzy of finger-pointing is not exactly helping the situation at all. It is, in fact, making it all a whole lot worse than it already is, especially for those directly involved. Which is why I end with my newly-coined natural law, and a plea to everyone:
There is no tragedy that is so awful that it cannot be made much worse by politics.
Don't contribute to it. Let the families bury their dead in peace. And don't jump to conclusions, no matter how they may fit in with your own political views. Let's hear what the actual facts were before assigning any blame at all. It is the decent thing to do.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
I believe it will turn out to be an ISIS sleeper cell. You (possibly) heard it here first. :)
You're right on principle, of course.
But this kind of nonsense - politicizing a fatal accident the moment it happens, with no facts actually yet known about the causes - never used to happen, in my memory. I agree the left went for the blame-Trump idea just as quickly as the right went for the blame-the-left idea.
But before Trump's rise to power, and the earlier rise of the culturally-aggrieved GOP starting in the Clinton years, neither side would have tried to pull cr** like this.
Buttigieg's comment does take an anti-Trump angle, but from a common-sense, the way-it-used-to-be perspective: "Trump should be leading, not lying".
He's the president and the nation's leader. In times of tragedy, he should rise above politics. Yes, we know he never will. But the initial sin is his, not his opposition's.
We The People knew that was who he was, and nearly half of us voted for him, which is more than we can say about Pete Buttigieg.
Caddy,
Oh hell yeah! A bleeping great novel for anybody even halfway interested in JFK. Good recommendation!
Yea, it was a helluva ride...
They made a movie of it, but the novel was so intricate and in depth, ANY movie could not do it justice...
I would put 11-22-63 in my TOP FIVE READS...
Last night, within an hour or two of the horrific accident above the Potomac, both left and right had already teed up their own divergent conspiracy theories -- not so much to explain what happened as to pin all the blame on their political opponents. There were no voices of reason saying: "We should wait until we get some information about what exactly caused this accident," instead there was a chorus on the right and one on the left with ready-made explanations as to why the accident happened. The blame was squarely placed on the other team, in both cases.
I am gratified to see that you point the finger at BOTH sides...
Could this be the beginnings of a thaw in the Cold Civil War???
One could certainly hope so... :D
The head of the F.A.A. was fired because he had annoyed Elon Musk..
Not factually accurate...
The head of the FAA quit... He was not fired..
Don't contribute to it. Let the families bury their dead in peace. And don't jump to conclusions, no matter how they may fit in with your own political views. Let's hear what the actual facts were before assigning any blame at all. It is the decent thing to do.
Again, this is very heartening to see this...
I am going to archive this and refer everyone to it the next time there is a mass shooting..
All in all, this was a well-reasoned and rational commentary without ANY semblance of PTDS and Trump/America hate..
I hope we see more of these...
@JMCT
But this kind of nonsense - politicizing a fatal accident the moment it happens, with no facts actually yet known about the causes - never used to happen, in my memory.
Your memory is quite faulty there, son...
This ALWAYS happens from Democrats when there is a mass shooting..
Hysterical Democrats start screaming hysterically about how guns are evil and all guns should be banned etc etc etc...
It happens like clockwork every time we have a mass shooting..
But before Trump's rise to power, and the earlier rise of the culturally-aggrieved GOP starting in the Clinton years, neither side would have tried to pull cr** like this.
Again, not factually accurate... This "crap" happens EVERY TIME there is a mass shooting..
He's the president and the nation's leader. In times of tragedy, he should rise above politics. Yes, we know he never will. But the initial sin is his, not his opposition's.
Name me ONE TIME that when there was a Democrat POTUS and a mass shooting that said Democrat President EVER "rose above politics"..
You can't because it has never happened..
The ONLY time a Democrat POTUS "rose above politics" during the aftermath of a mass casualty incident was when the incident was DEMOCRAT'S fault...
That's the ONLY time we see Democrats wanting to "rise above politics" and wait for the facts to come out.. :eyeroll:
Your own comment, JMCT, proves that what I said is dead on ballz accurate...
JL,
We The People knew that was who he was, and nearly half of us voted for him, which is more than we can say about Pete Buttigieg.
Yep, yep, yep...
michale
4
Yup, like a lot of Steven King books there’s no way a movie could do it justice (e.g. The Stand).
What do you think about Tom Clancy?
As you can see, this is nothing more than racism and/or sexism -- judging someone (before any facts are actually known) solely based on their race or sex. If a woman or a person of color was involved, well, there's your explanation for why things went wrong. They were obviously a "D.E.I. hire," and thus unqualified for the job.
It's distraction... the right-wing knee jerk reaction writ-large to blame anyone for anything under the label "DEI hire," and they are like trained monkeys throwing the same poo all over the cage... lather, rinse, repeat.
That "DEI hire" label they bandy about is exactly what I meant a few commentaries back when I posted:
The Righties project all the anger, frustration and economic distress and insecurity of the middle class and poor uneducated whites by scapegoating the "others" for it and give them hope that they'll benefit if only they'll "build that wall" or have "mass deportations now."
If you think Trump cares about people, you've not been paying attention. Trump has greatly expanded the list of people to look down on while he and the grifters laugh all the way to the bank.
*
False equivalency. Mass shootings are not "accidents" wherein we have "no facts actually yet known about the causes." Mass shootings are intentional murder wherein anyone with even a scintilla of gray matter already knows quite a lot regarding the causes of the multiple murders.