Continuing: Wildfire Conspiracies
July 14, 2021
Efforts continue to blame wildfires on fictitious evildoers.
Emails revealed police continued blaming wildfires last year in Oregon on anti-fascist activists after the FBI knocked down those rumors.
Messages obtained by the watchdog group Property of the People show a Washington sheriff and other law enforcement officials pushed those rumors last summer to pin the blame for those wildfires on Antifa and Black Lives Matter demonstrators, although federal investigators found no evidence that was true, reported The Daily Beast.
“One of the methods Antifa is using to start fire’s, is to take a mason jar with tinder placed inside the jar, put it in brush with the lid open, so the hot sun light will create a slow start which allows them to be out of the area before the smoke appears [sic],” wrote Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer to officials throughout Washington state.
However, that very same day the FBI released a statement debunking those rumors, which were similar to a campaign hatched earlier in 2020 by conservatives in Australia blaming environmentalists for wildfires there.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
July 14, 2021 at 10:23 pm
One of the method’s Antifa is using to start fire’s, is to take billion’s of mason jar’s, burning enormous quantitie’s of coal, oil, natural ga’s, and shale oil in them, then refilling them and doing it again. Antifa’s dirty hippie’s have been doing this since the early 80’s–the 1880’s, and unless US conservatives can stop them and the Chine’se from filling them jar’s again, fire’s will melt cherished statue’s of beloved ex-military slave-owners in uniform.
July 14, 2021 at 10:46 pm
All seriousness aside, Daniel Swain sounds bewildered by this. But it’s perfectly in line with everything we’ve seen from the far right for decades. Too many refuse to accept that climate catastrophe is creating the hot, dry conditions in which fires are far more likely to spread, so whether it’s out of malice, projections triggered by unmanageable fear, or other unconscious delusions, they resort to blaming those they’re compelled to believe are responsible for everything that’s wrong with the world–people who are against fascism.
What a sick country.
July 15, 2021 at 11:28 pm
I’ve been perusing the list of Sinclair Group stations, and they’re pretty effectively covering the red regional* areas. The programming (in many senses of the word) is extensive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group#By_state_and_market
*Even blue Austin has one, reaching the red suburbs and exurbs.
July 16, 2021 at 12:26 am
Yes, when you add IHeart (formerly Clear Channel), Fox, and now the new one, which name I will not utter, plus the relentlessly corporate, brightsiding (so no climate truth) message of all the “major” networks (including NPR), the country is completely awash in the most extreme right wing lies. With little more than the 5 (now 4?) Pacifica stations to counter them (while always under attack) and similar though maybe not quitesuch lopsidedness on the net, and even worse in print*, it’s hard to see any way this country can rescue itself in time to put the needed climate actions and institutions in place before the collapse of nature. It takes a very strong constitution to be progressive living in climate truth these days.
Listen to kpfa.org for progressive views and accurate news.
Clear Channel/ iheart media 855 am, fm radio stations “reach more than 110 million listeners every week, and 245 million every month.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHeartMedia )
Sinclair Broadcast Group is a hard-right corporation that imposes its views on the local television stations it owns.
March 21, 2018 by People’s Action Blog
commondreams[DOT]org/views/2018/03/21/theres-fake-news-your-television-too?utm_term=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=News%20%2526%20Views%20%7C%20We%20Have%20Spent%20%2432%20Million%20Per%20Hour%20on%20War%20Since%202001&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-News%20%2526%20Views%20%7C%20We%20Have%20Spent%20%2432%20Million%20Per%20Hour%20on%20War%20Since%202001-_-There%5Cu2019s%20Fake%20News%20on%20Your%20Television%2C%20Too
*print: a primitive form of communication using colored ink messages on thin wafers of ground-up trees.