Apparently diversity caused the forest fires
Women, huh? They simply cannot be trusted. Eve ate that apple; Pandora opened that terrible box; and now women are responsible for California’s devastating wildfires. I know this sounds ridiculous to say, but it’s what Elon Musk, one of the brightest minds of his generation – and one of the most powerful people on the planet – says, so it must be true.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, one of the world’s greatest thinkers, fact-checking is now passé. Still, I’m going to be terribly old-fashioned and fact-check myself here. EvidentlyI’m being funny when I say Musk blames women for the wildfires. Evidentlyit’s more complicated than that. To be more precise, the tech billionaire also blames the catastrophe – which has killed at least 11 people and destroyed more than 10,000 structures – on minorities, diversity initiatives and various other scapegoats. Everything except the climate crisis, actually.
On Wednesday, for example, Musk took a moment to avoid obsessively tweeting about whether the U.S. “shouldfreeBritain announces that the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) “prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes.” He has continued to post false claims about diversity initiatives (for example: “DEI means people DIE“) for days, along with reports insinuating that if the LAFD fire chief were not a woman, things would be very different.
Musk isn’t the only one trying to link forest fires to ‘wokeness’: all of them usual suspects are working on it. Donald Trump Jr. has also been busy making uninspired jokes about DEI, which means DIE. Right-wing actor James Woods and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly have railed about the fire service’s promotion of diversity. Even CNN commentator Scott Jennings laid the blame wildfires on DEI policy.
Of course, this isn’t the first time the Maga crowd has blamed DEI initiatives for a tragedy. This time last year they were all busy claiming that Boeing planes were falling apart because of DEI initiatives. Musk even amplified a stunningly racist tweet suggesting that students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have lower IQs and therefore should not become pilots. “It’s going to take a plane crashing and killing hundreds of people before they can change THIS crazy policy,” he said at the time.
Right-wing agitators, never one to let a good crisis go to waste, also used the assassination attempt on Donald Trump last July as an opportunity to criticize DEI efforts. the secret service. “There should be no women in the secret service. These should be the very best, and none of the very best in this position are women,” wrote conservative political commentator Matt Walsh after the assassination attempt.
Ideally, we would just ignore these people and their bigots – altogether unfounded – attacks on DEI (these are just thinly veiled attacks on women and minorities). Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury because the right-wing crusade against DEI is working alarmingly well. Companies are now cutting their DEI budgets and budgets DEI policies in response. So we are forced to argue again and again that women and minorities are just as talented as white men. We are forced to point out again and again that, far from being the persecuted minority that some of them seem to think they are, studies show that the idea that white men as a group are now more difficult to hire is correct . demonstrably false. If anything, female and minority candidates are penalized compared to white male candidates, according to a Wharton economist.
While we can’t ignore the right’s obsession with attacking DEI, we must also make sure we don’t get distracted. After all, Trump and his various allies are masters of distraction. They want us all to be divided and embroiled in culture wars so they can wage a stealth class war. And when it comes to the bushfires, they want us to focus on the various conspiracy theories and disinformation they are spreading so that we don’t focus on the rather uncomfortable issue of climate change.
To be clear, there are several nuanced issues that have contributed to the wildfires spreading so heavily. But the climate crisis is clearly an important factor. According to a 2021 study, climate change is the leading cause of climate change increase in fire brigades in the western United States. Greed and hubris are other factors: Speculators continue to build homes in areas prone to flooding and forest fires. There is a much quoted one essay from 1995 by urban theorist Mike Davis later called it The Case for Letting Malibu Burn became a chapter in a book called Ecology of Fear. In it, Davis argues that spending millions to save homes in areas never intended for neighborhoods and power lines is not only foolish, but also a waste of public resources.
“I am notorious for suggesting that the broader public should not have to pay a dime to protect or rebuild mansions on sites that will inevitably burn down every 20 or 25 years,” Davis said. told the LA Times in 2018when the Woolsey Fire broke out in Malibu. “My opinion has not changed.”
The California fires are a terrible tragedy. They should also be a wake-up call. We live in a world on fire and unless we take our changing environment seriously, we will continue to watch the planet burn. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that the new administration – and its de facto advisors like Musk – will treat the California catastrophe with the seriousness it deserves. Cutting back on DEI departments is much easier than solving real problems.
Jamie Lee Curtis is facing backlash for comparing the Palisades fire to Gaza
“(T)he entire Pacific Palisades unfortunately looks like Gaza, or one of these war-torn countries where terrible things have happened,” Curtis said. Making such a lighthearted comparison to what many experts call a ‘ genocide is terrible. At least 74 children are said to have been killed First week by 2025 in Gaza. It is unclear how many people have now died in Gaza, but a new report in the medical journal Lancet estimates that 64,260 deaths occurred from traumatic injuries between October 2023 and the end of June 2024. And that’s not even counting all the people who starve. or freeze until death. Curtis has previously made her disdain for the Palestinians clear: she previously posted a photo of terrified children being bombed and claimed they were Israeli. deleted it when she found out they were Palestinian.
Why female artists use screams to express female anger
If you feel like screaming into the void right now, you’re not alone. In artistic, Emily Steer thinks the way that guttural screams have appeared in many works by female artists since the mid-20th century, from those of Marina Abramović to Faith Ringgold and Tracey Emin.
Malawi’s religious leaders are fighting for legal abortions
Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the country – which has some of the strictest abortion laws in the world – contributing to 18% of maternal deaths. Now some Christian and Muslim clerics have joined forces in an effort to overturn colonial-era abortion laws.
People are leaving American states where abortion is restricted
It turns out there are a lot of people don’t like living in states who treat women like walking wombs.
French police arrest founder of website used by Dominique Pelicot
The website, coco.fr, was shut down by French authorities in June 2024 after it was linked to more than 23,000 crimes, including rape, murder and pedophilia.
The world’s first blood test for endometriosis could be on its way
Endometriosis is a debilitating condition that roughly affects 10% of women of childbearing age and girls worldwide. However, despite how common it is, it can take “an average of seven years for a woman to receive a diagnosis” and detecting the condition can involve invasive procedures. A simple new blood test, developed by a team of Australian researchers, is in the making. If successful, it would mean more women could be diagnosed much earlier.
The week in the paw triarchy
It’s getting cold in South Florida, which means it’s time for… iguana dropping warnings. Once temperatures drop below 40 degrees, iguanas – which can grow up to six feet long – enter a cold-stunned state and can sometimes fall from trees. If you do encounter an iguana that has been stunned by the cold, it is advisable to ignore it. Like many of us, they get very cranky when they first wake up.