The devastation created by the wildfire disaster in California also spurred a new round of falsehoods and groundless attacks on Democratic officials from MAGA world – but none of the noise has anything to do with the real point, according to a Washington Post columnist.
“There’s no real question that climate change contributed to what’s happening in Los Angeles,” Philip Bump wrote in an op-ed published Thursday. He went on to dissect for readers a handful of myths circulating in right-wing circles surrounding the wildfires that he said are an attempt “to keep the realities of climate change from spreading.”
“The result by this point is that any declaration that the various examples of climate-change-linked disasters as being climate-change-linked is seen as a left-wing talking point,” Bump wrote. “So the right, across its mouthpiece television channels and social media bubble, lines up for partisan warfare.”
Take for example Donald Trump Jr.’s claim that the Los Angeles Fire Department was set back because of its donation three years ago of a small amount of surplus gear to Ukraine, Bump wrote dispelling the claim. Or tech billionaire Elon Musk’s telling his followers on his X platform that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives were “prioritized” by the LAFD “over saving lives and homes.”
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“None of this has anything to do with the point,” Bump said. “But this is a political fight, not a debate over resources and systems."
He wrote that President elect-Donald Trump and his allies simply “cherry-pick” issues that are “unrelated to the struggle to contain the flames and present them as the real reasons that houses are burning down, particularly if those unrelated things serve as indictments of other perceived elements of left-wing politics.”
He concluded his piece Thursday by reminding readers of the stark reality that the fires have resulted in at least five deaths.
