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Meteorologists Get Death Threats as Hurricane Conspiracy Theories Thrive

It's their job to warn residents about destructive storms — but political polarization has made them targets online.

Cappucci says that he’s noticed an enormous change on social media in the last three months: “Seemingly overnight, ideas that once would have been ridiculed as very fringe, outlandish viewpoints are suddenly becoming mainstream and it’s making my job much more difficult.” Marjorie Taylor Greene has doubled down on claims Democrats control the weather, prompting fellow GOP congressperson Carlos Gimenez to tweet she should “have her head examined.” Meanwhile, the White House is launching a Reddit account to keep the public informed on Helene/Milton response and recovery. “We are mixing these giant events that are catastrophic and devastating with these big emotions and it’s really easy for people to fall into scapegoating and blaming conspiracy theories that provide really simple explanations for these super complicated problems.”

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