Far-right rages about Ohio environmental disaster on social media
“What is going on and where is your President?”
New to the world of environmental advocacy, far-right voices from Sean Hannity to Dan Bongino, Matt Walsh, and Glenn Beck have taken to social media to highlight the ongoing disaster occurring in East Palestine, Ohio.
For those unaware, on February 3rd, a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in a small community on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, causing potentially major environmental concerns. Here’s a good explainer from the NYT on what happened. While coverage and commentary of the event were initially cautious and slow to take off nationally, it has turned into a frenzy on the Right, as pundits and personalities look for any openings to attack the Biden administration.
According to CrowdTangle, out of the top-performing 25 Facebook posts about the disaster, more than half of them come from far-right sources:
Coincidentally, these are the same accounts that were proudly defending Americans’ rights to inhale cancer causing gas fumes less than a month ago. Now, they seek to exploit an environmental catastrophe to score quick political points and spread conspiracy theories. Specifically, many of the posts seek to damage Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg:
This is a real crisis, and corporations, regulators, bureaucrats, and political figures alike should be held accountable for mitigating its impact and preventing future disasters. Journalist Judd Legum published an excellent newsletter on this dynamic this week, clearly laying out that the solutions needed are actually commonsense government regulations that industry - and their allies on the Right - have fought against for years.
Read more from Legum’s post here:
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