Desperate man says hurricane-hit father-in-law refusing FEMA help after falling for Trump lie

Source: Gadflyabout

31 Comments

  1. A desperate man in North Carolina has blamed Donald Trump and right-wing misinformation for his father-in-law’s refusal to accept help from FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Anthony stated that his father-in-law was afraid that FEMA would “take his house” if he accepted assistance from the agency.

    “We’ve sent him … all the FEMA bulletins. We’ve sent him all the stuff from the fact-checkers. He just doesn’t believe it. He thinks it’s all — he just believes Trump”

    This needs to be broadcast as widely as possible. EVERY time some MAGA complains online about FEMA or the “Biden/Harris hurricane failure,” post this: [Desperate man says hurricane-hit father-in-law refusing FEMA help after falling for Trump lie](https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/hurricane-father-in-law-fema-help-trump-b2627440.html). Not because they will change, but so that as many as possible will see the physical and emotional harm that Trump and MAGA are doing.

  2. What a goddamned tragedy. People like this man’s father-in-law are victims many times over. The fact that they are fed a 24/7 diet of propaganda and misinformation makes it virtually impossible for them to discern fact from reality. They are trained to deeply mistrust the ‘establishment’ despite being told as such from many of the most mainstream and ‘established’ media sources in the world.

    The idea that Trump is their guy, that he alone understands and he alone can help them is a fabrication of the right wing propaganda machine, but treated as biblical fact by his followers because of their inability to understand basic truths about society and science.

    Obviously I feel that there should be consequences for the propagators of these lies – but I know there won’t be. Ultimately for all of the damage that Donald Trump has caused in the Western world, he is a tumor, a space where the cancer has spread – but he is not the cancer.

    The cancer is right-wing evangelical conservatism. Starting in the 1980’s with Ronald Reagan and consistently since, the Xians have been at war with reality – they have succeeded far beyond their wildest dreams; with abortion rights now in question across the country (/continent, thanks guys), religious indoctrination becoming normalized in schools and public service, and an absolute condemnation of education to the point where average people no longer are able to recognize truth from fantasy.

    The notion that any number of people actively believe that the government (but specifically the faithless DEMOCRATS) are in control of the weather is mind-bottling, specifically stripping the Republican-controlled house of any of its power (they control the purse,strings… how is the evil democrat hurricane machine even being funded?) not to mention the former president who was Republican, and controlled both houses of congress making not one mention of this capability nor using it to the benefit of the American people.

    It’s just so disheartening, and I do not see the bottom. It truly feels like the collapse of Western Civilization, and we are sitting here watching it unfold in real time.

  3. It’s heartbreaking that misinformation is tearing families apart like this; it’s like a bad reality show where the stakes are real lives.

  4. smallwaterbottle on

    It took a long time understand the headline but I finally got it, “Stupid man is dumb for more than one reason!”

  5. You know there are others. But they may not be speaking out for fear of backlash, or shame and feeling stupid. Let’s just hope the majority are still with us.

  6. clueless_in_ny_or_nj on

    I think there is some irony to this and a lot of projection. In a future Trump presidency, FEMA is no more and disaster relief is privatized. Instead of getting help to rebuild and not worrying about anything else, you will get a loan to rebuild. A large loan. When you can’t pay back that loan, then they private company will take your house.

  7. boxer_dogs_dance on

    Usually online misinformation has personal and interpersonal costs but doesn’t cause the person being fooled to lose significant money (or comes from an unidentified source overseas ).

    Courts have ways to deal with lies that have verifiable monetary damages.

  8. The father in law is responsible for his own actions/decisions and the outcomes are his to own.

  9. Families divided over a RAPIST. People endangering themselves because of a lying RAPIST. What the heck!

  10. theassassintherapist on

    Every time Trump lies, people dies. Whether it’s from ingesting dewormer medicine, or hating on Haiti people, or now FEMA. We need to permanently stop Trump from appearing on national TV for the people’s sake.

  11. Think_Measurement_73 on

    Tell your father-in-law, that even fox news is telling the truth about the money for this disaster. The $750 is for emergency money, because people can’t get to the bank and they are putting FEMA offices in areas, and they can tell him how to get more help. stop listening to trump, he is lying and playing a political game, when others is more concerned about people’s safety. This is when democrats and sensible republicans come together to help a nation in need. It is only trump, vance, and the maga republicans playing games with people’s life’s, this is a time for compassion, not lying.

  12. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. 

    I no longer have any sympathy for people who have self~radicalized themselves to believe this nonsense. Let this dumbass suffer. He’ll blame Biden and Harris the entire time for his own stupidity. Maybe his family who have to put up with him will see the light at least. 

  13. Well, at least he’s sticking to his principles, votes for the party that wants to get rid of the social safety net, and refuses to take advantage of the social safety net.

  14. Play a stupid game, win a stupid prize. The aid is there- you can lead a horse to water, etc. If this dumb fuck wants to sit in a damaged home with no power or supplies, nothing except MAGA to fill his belly and quench his thirst and help clear his land…let him.

  15. Honestly people who ignore warnings should not be allowed to risk the life’s of first responders. Let them go.

  16. unihornnotunicorn on

    My parents live in upstate SC. My mom has been texting all kinds of pics of the destruction/cleanup. She sent me pictures of waves of Chinook’s flying north saying “oh neat, look at these!”. One text later she remarked “still no signs of the federal government though”.

  17. FBstolemyshitposts on

    The GOP has a genius strategy of lying to their base and getting them killed needlessly, therefore ensuring less votes are cast for them. It’s a bold strategy, let’s see how it plays out.

  18. Larrea_tridentata on

    At what point does misinformation like this cross the line and stop being considered “free speech”?

    This is a serious question and honestly needs to be figured out soon (like 8 years ago) by this country because social media has essentially weaponized idiots.

  19. SasparillaTango on

    Misinformation is such cowardly bullshit from these news companies. These are lies with malicious intent.

  20. I’m not sure why this is a problem unless the delusional man has other folks in the same household he’s hurting due to his stupidity.

Leave A Reply