A group of anti-government extremists who showed up in western North Carolina promising to provide disaster relief after Hurricane Helene is now threatening to destroy cell-phone towers and sabotage military vehicles.The group, Veterans on Patrol, attracted attention by setting up a disaster relief ...
  • BougieBirdie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    48·
    19 days ago

    Over the past three weeks, members of the group, which falsely claims that Helene was caused by a “weather weapon,” have been making conspiracy-driven claims that the U.S. military is attempting to kill U.S. citizens with “directed energy weapons.”

    I’m directing some energy at them right now, let’s see if they can pick up on it.

    You want to pour sugar in tanks, like whatever. I’m not sure North Carolina has a legitimate need for armoured vehicles and the military industrial complex is pretty whack. But they also want to destabilize the cellular and electrical infrastructure which would be essential to provide relief for hurricane victims.

    Doxxing elected officials and threatening the police is a bold choice. Usually these nutcases are making allies with the police.

    By golly, this almost seems like it could be terrorism.

    • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
      3·
      19 days ago

      Why are we worried about doxxing elected officials? Shouldn’t they self-doxx as a matter of principle?

      • BougieBirdie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        3·
        18 days ago

        I think there’s a difference between saying, “This is my name and I work here for the city,” and, “This is the home address of my opponent whom I’m sharing lies about and threatening violence towards”

        Especially when you consider that it’s not just the officials, but their families who are exposed too

        • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
          2·
          18 days ago

          I naturally draw a distinction between city employees and elected officials.

          I’m sort of the school of thought that transparency of who they are and conflicts of interest should be a given. Release of tax returns, etc.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
        3·
        18 days ago

        No, that’s a terrible idea.

        If nothing else, the neighbors’ of elected officials would be subjected to all sorts of nonsense they hadn’t signed up for.

      • superkret
        31·
        19 days ago

        Their home addresses don’t need to be public knowledge.

    • buttfarts@lemy.lol
      3·
      18 days ago

      I am leaning into the whole “Democrats have god-like power over the weather” conspiracy because it pleases me to use that as a reason for voting Kamala. Why vote against the team with the hurricane machine? They are obviously much stronger.