Speaking of the Eclipse....
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https://www.wired.com/story/solar-eclipse-conspiracies/
The rare astronomical event has proved incredibly fertile ground for conspiracists to express their wildest fantasies, and they have theorized about everything from the end of the world, to the secret deployment of balloons to poison the population, to occult rituals and even the imposition of martial law to usher in a “new world order.”
Far-right trolls and extremists in particular have been using the total solar eclipse to push their belief that a group of “elites” is using the event as cover to impose new controls on the population. The theory has been promoted by figures including disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Sandy Hook shooting conspiracist Alex Jones, who in recent weeks has posted numerous videos and comments about it on his X account, racking up millions of views.
“Major Events Surrounding The April 8th Solar Eclipse,” Jones wrote. “Masonic rituals planned worldwide to usher in New World Order.”
Authorities along the path of the eclipse in the US have issued warnings about loss of cell coverage and electrical outages. Additionally, some towns have already declared an emergency, and National Guard troops have been put on standby. This has made the conspiracists only more convinced, even though the preparations in these towns have often been centered around the huge influx of tourists expected to congregate on April 8. For those deep in conspiracy land, the context doesn’t matter.
“I think [it’s] another test,” one user of the far-right message board known as The Donald wrote this week. “See how many follow orders and how close they are to declare martial law without a fight.”
On Telegram, one well-known conspiracy influencer known as the Health Ranger, who has 75,000 subscribers, wrote that the eclipse “sure would be the perfect cover story if our terrorist government wanted to take down the power grid and cause mass chaos while blocking all citizen communications. Kinda convenient if you want to declare martial law and unleash a dictatorship before Trump can win in November.”
Many conspiracists have also focused on other coincidental events happening on April 8, all of which add to the supposedly portentous nature of the day.
There are dozens of examples being shared online, but among the most quoted involve the fact that the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will be firing up the Large Hadron Collider on that day for the first time in two years. Many online are linking the celestial event to the restart of the device that, more than a decade ago, found the Higgs boson, which many misleadingly label the “God particle.”
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Total eclipses are seen every 18 months on some part of the globe.
https://www.space.com/25644-total-solar-eclipses-frequency-explained.html
How is it then that only when eclipses are to be seen somewhere in North America that the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse hearld the event? Ridiculous superstition still governs the minds of many.
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Why?
The only concerns here seem to be from a few municipalities in Ontario that are concerned about the number of visitors that will be converging on their urban landscapes needing hotel rooms and infrastructure amenities to view the event. That, and the usual warnings and about safe viewing of the event.
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If you read other Tweets by that guy it looks as though he may be a tad on the deranged side of things.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Speaking of the Eclipse....:
If you read other Tweets by that guy it looks as though he may be a tad on the deranged side of things.
Yeah, he’s just a little bit on the… Other side of things. But the video he posted is that from FEMA.
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@George-K said in Speaking of the Eclipse....:
Yeah, he’s just a little bit on the… Other side of things. But the video he posted is that from FEMA.
I guess FEMA are concerned that a bunch of people who've never left the city before are going to converge in some place without 24-hour broadband and be totally clueless as to how to distinguish between their ass and hole in the ground when it goes dark for four minutes. It's also worth remembering, some of them may have voted for Margorie Taylor Greene or even AOC.
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I really don't understand...
https://news.yahoo.com/gov-sanders-declares-state-emergency-171229725.html
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency on Friday ahead of the solar eclipse, according to a news release.
Sanders said in the release that she released funds from the Response and Recovery Fund to help commercial carriers transport essentials to customers in the state during the eclipse.
The essential items listed in the order include groceries, pharmacy items, medical equipment, goods, commodities, fuel, poultry, livestock and feed.
The release said the decision was made out of caution due to the expected increase of visitors to Arkansas “potentially causing hardships.”
“We want to make sure Arkansans and all visitors have an enjoyable experience and come back again and again,” Sanders said in a statement.
The order will allocate $100,000 from the fund to address program and administrative costs and will be managed by the director of the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management..
The state emergency will remain in effect until April 10.
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@George-K said in Speaking of the Eclipse....:
I really don't understand...
"The order will allocate $100,000 from the fund to address program and administrative costs"
Does that clarify things any?
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Speaking of the Eclipse....:
"The order will allocate $100,000 from the fund to address program and administrative costs"
To quote a friend..."Or, that's what they would have you believe."
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@George-K said in Speaking of the Eclipse....:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Speaking of the Eclipse....:
"The order will allocate $100,000 from the fund to address program and administrative costs"
To quote a friend..."Or, that's what they would have you believe."
A non-cynic might say that having money available to deal with issues associated with a potential influx of tens of thousands of people might not be such a bad idea.
Does anybody know any non-cynics?