Oh boy, I can already hear the conspiracy theorists creeping out of the woodwork. This week’s cover story (see page 10) is about cloud seeding, and if you didn’t know, spraying stuff out of airplanes is like catnip for idiots.
Take whoever keeps responding to the Sun‘s Twitter posts, warning us about all the chemtrails, man! The anonymous poster has shared incoherent gems like, “Vandenberg Air Force Base flies chemicals over the central coast during the hours when we are all asleep,” which he says is at the order of “The Democratic Party,” which wants to “heat and dry out conservative land.”
The Sun blocked this person’s Twitter handle, but they came back with another called “1 Amendment.” That one got blocked too, but then the same comments came from an account called “Blockingisillegal.”
First of all, no media organization is required to give anyone a platform to spew pseudoscience conspiracy nonsense, but it’s not like you’d know that in the era that brought us President Donald Trump.
Trump’s favorite news channel, Fox News, has been a mouthpiece for anti-climate change pseudoscience for years, and ever since The Donald ascended to power, he’s taken the network on a ride with him to conspiracy land.
Studies and surveys have shown that Fox viewers are less likely to know the facts about given subjects in the news. It could be on any issue, from Sean Hannity‘s legal relationship with Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Coen, or of the FBI‘s several cases against Cohen.
This kind of disconnect from reality is a huge problem for a democracy, but it’s even worse for those drinking the Kool-Aid. Like whoever thought it was a good idea for Trump to rant on Fox & Friends on April 28 to the point that he confirmed that Cohen was his lawyer regarding hushed porn star Stormy Daniels. Or whichever Republican leaked questions from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to Trump, perfectly illustrating how extensive Mueller’s case of obstruction of justice is against the president.
That type of thinking trickles down to the local level as well.
Take a look at the race for the Santa Barbara County auditor-controller—Chief Investment Officer Jennifer Christensen came at Assistant Auditor Betsy Schaffer hard with some harsh allegations. She pulled Schaffer’s ex-husband and his business into the mix, saying there was a conflict of interest because the company contracts with the county, and posited that Schaffer is the product of a corrupt auditor-controller’s office run by current auditor Theo Fallati and former auditor Bob Geis.
I hope whoever’s idea it was on Christensen’s side to come at Betsy that hard knows: If you talk that much shit, you better hope some of it sticks. Otherwise you’re just playing cutthroat politics, making a longtime county accountant cry.
But Geis did clap back at Christensen, formally challenging her credentials to the county’s elections office. His petition was dismissed, but what a sassy race this is shaping into.
I’m sure both candidates will be fine, they’ve got endorsements from the county’s supervisors! North County conservatives Peter Adam and Steve Lavagnino are behind Christensen, and the lefty South County supes Joan Hartmann, Janet Wolf, and Das Williams are with Schaffer.
Hmmm, I think I see a pattern here. What the hell are they spraying on us?
The Canary makes it rain every week. Send your thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 3-10, 2018.