this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025
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Summary

As California battles its worst wildfire, consuming 28,000 acres and killing five, MAGA figures, including Trump and Elon Musk, blame DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) initiatives instead of climate change.

Trump attacked Gov. Gavin Newsom over false claims about water policies, while right-wing media targeted Kristin Crowley, LA's first LGBTQ fire chief, for prioritizing DEI.

Musk amplified conspiracy theories, and MAGA commentators linked DEI to the state's firefighting challenges.

Critics dismissed these claims, citing unprecedented fire strain, climate change, and misinformation.

top 45 comments
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[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 13 points 5 hours ago

LA destroyed by woke firestorms.

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago

Blaming this on that is something a terrorist does.

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 9 points 6 hours ago

If those trees had been white, they wouldn't have burned.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 6 points 5 hours ago (2 children)
[–] phx@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

If you don't want Mexican firefighters send them to Canada and I'll buy them a beer to greet their arrival. They've come up several times now to help with our wildfire season and are damn hard workers.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 2 points 4 hours ago

That's sick. I have the inner child in me that loved firefighters.

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

We hot! (ง ื▿ ื)ว

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 26 points 8 hours ago

That's quite the stretch but I also didn't expect a brain worm to be nominated for secretary of health

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 25 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

while right-wing media targeted Kristin Crowley, LA's first LGBTQ fire chief, for prioritizing DEI

"Chief Crowley, people are trapped because others abandoned their cars on the highway! How can we get through to them if the roads are blocked??"

"Give me a moment, damnit! I'm checking our response team ratios. We should probably let Eyeless Joe drive the truck, that feels a lot more inclusive."

What on earth do these people think is happening? And if you believe the fire departments are incompetent due to diversity, volunteer to fill out the ranks. Think of it as an unpaid internship, you know how much they love watching people suffer for free.

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 29 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

They're taking advantage of the tragedy to tie negative emotions to their political boogieman of the month. They're all aware of what they're doing, they're all in on it

[–] asteriskeverything@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago

Literally every fucking time. If it wasn't DEI it would be Newsom or whatever else he can use to his benefit.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 9 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I get that part from the side of the people spinning the narrative. It's the ones believing and repeating it that truly confound me. Like, spend 3 seconds imagining how DEI propagates fires and then ask why the people you elected would say something that stupid.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

They support their team and don't give a flying fuck about honesty, factual reality, or fair play. End of.

[–] Pilferjinx@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

An alarming amount of people don't go beyond first thoughts. They don't follow through with executive functions.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 96 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Conservative Playbook:

  1. Find something. Anything. Literally anything. Doesn't matter if it's real or not.

  2. Whine and complain.

  3. Convince the other absolute dumbest members of society that the people they also don't like are the root cause of the thing, whatever it is, real or not.

  4. Gain control through these fear/ignorance tactics.

  5. Do absolutely, positively nothing, at all, for the average American while in power.

  6. Rinse and repeat.

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 30 points 11 hours ago

I would change step 5: Do things that make life actively worse for the average American while in power. Convince the morons that it was somehow the other parties fault.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 10 points 9 hours ago

Canada is at step 4.5: push the incumbent non-conservative out of office so that can be used in election attack ads later: "cool hair guy ran away."

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 8 points 11 hours ago

Fear centers engaged. Brain disabled.

[–] Ekybio@lemmy.world 155 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

There is no bad thing in the world that the right-wing can't and won't blame on a group of people they hate for simply existing.

[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 34 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

That's very Nazi-esque of them.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

… and not very cash money of them.

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 38 points 13 hours ago

Including all the many, many wonderful things they will say are bad

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 61 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Hey, WIRED and the rest of the corporate news excuse for journalism, look at this. This? This is bullshit. Don’t report on it.

Specifically don’t repeat it uncritically. Especially in the headline.

This is your first and only warning of this pathetic and incompetent administration.

[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 19 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Tell em, dude.

It's been driving me nuts watching these corporate news clowns keep repeating/amplifying this kind of bullshit.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 9 hours ago

Corporate news isn't about reporting. It's about clicks. They will always be biased to clickbaity, sensationalist shit.

It isn't fixable without changing the system within which the media operates.

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago

Already seen some of this shit being thrown weekend here on Lemmy (and heavily downvoted, thankfully). Idiocy that the reason for the fire damage was because the fire chief was a lesbian.

Last I checked, sexual orientation doesn't impact organizational skills, expertise, out knowledge. And I doubt she got to that position purely out of sympathy/political correctness, despite what the bigots claim.

[–] MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world 34 points 13 hours ago

I blame MAGA for being morons.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 23 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

This is just gossipy stuff for a distraction, who cares?

[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 26 points 12 hours ago

Because when a white man hosting CNN implies that non-white people are less capable just by virtue of being non-white men it's not only incredibly racist it's appalling and deserves punishment. Adults can handle some bullshit but every child who hears that they are less intelligent, less capable, more lazy or whatever the latest white supremacist argument is, they internalize that shit. I fully believed women were inferior to men in intellect and less deserving of many things because that's what I grew up hearing at home, from my father, to his 2 daughters. I still feel undeserving of my job. I can't wait for him to die painfully so the conservatives lose a vote. There's no fixing him, and now his son parrots the same talking points. He has never worked a job in his life, yet moans about immigrants in the country.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 19 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I heard CANADIANS were fighting the fires!

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

We have to keep in practice in the off season.

[–] HEXN3T@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 13 hours ago

It's true. Diversity, equality, and inclusion gives conservatives the same right to a voice as anyone else, which is why climate change is doing us all in.

[–] KazuyaDarklight@lemmy.world 14 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] BrundleFly2077@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

Thank you. I try to do this myself as much as I can and it’s nice to scroll down and find someone’s taken the time. Seriously, does everyone commenting have a Wired subscription? /s

This sort of thing just massively highlights for me how much discourse happens purely around a headline while the actual article goes unread.

[–] PedroMaldonado@lemmy.world 13 points 13 hours ago

Sure. Because a drought and hurricane force winds had nothing to do with it. Fucking willfully ignorant, mean, shitty, asshats. Goddammit. Its just gonna get worse and worse, isnt it?

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 6 points 12 hours ago

I think I am going to stop using the term MAGA and just call them what they are idiots. So the title will read for me, “Idiots are Blaming DEI for the California Wildfires“

[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 7 points 12 hours ago

I blame DEI for making the fragile minded folks associated with maga have such terrible distressing thoughts about not being the single group of people who matter. Reality bubbles are such delicate things after all.

[–] akesi_seli@lemmy.world 5 points 12 hours ago

Maybe it will happen in some red state too in the future, to prove them wrong.

[–] xc2215x@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Black skin has nothing to do with this.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago

The fire chief is a lesbian. It's not about skin color this time

[–] not_that_guy05@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

It's not just black skin....