The Land of Cotton

The other day, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR)  sent out a tweet that said -- and I note first that everything in it is absolutely untrue -- "California is begging residents to stop using air-conditioning during a heat wave. These policies aren't a model for America—they're a warning."

I sent back two replies because my reaction couldn't be contained in just one. (Or even two, really.)

I asked "at what point does lying begin to hurt you inside? Ever??"

To set the record straight -- a voluntary request was sent to pre-cool one's home at a low, cold temperature during non-peak hours and then raise the temperature just a few degrees higher than usual during peak hours.

That's it. There was NO begging, NO turn off your air conditioner. In fact, they even said to, at one point, lower the temperature to cool your home!

And in reality, it was a GREAT model. Most especially because it worked! California residents acted responsibly, followed the model, energy was saved and there were NO blackouts.

I also wrote back that I couldn't express in a tweet how sick his lying tweet was. Or maybe it was that people lied to Cotton and just couldn't be bothered to check it out. Because it fit a destructive narrative, never mind if it was a lie.  

What he wrote was 100% UNTRUE on EVERY level. I live in California. I got the alert.

Tom Cotton a U.S. senator! It's a position of high responsibility. People listen to his words -- and believes lies like this.

At the very least, I said he should TRY to be responsible.

I don't expect him to. I know what he was doing and why. It's a fascist move, to try to create distrust in other sources of authority. But the lie fits into what his base wants to believe, without knowing better, without knowing that what they believe is an objective, demonstrable lie.  Or perhaps even not caring that what they believe is a lie, just knowing that it's critical of "the libs," so that's all that matters, even if it has zero truth to it.  But if one doesn't respond to the Cottons of the world, it normalizes the lie.  

By the way, just to be clear, I can make up a fake tweet and send it out, too, just like Tom Cotton!  In fact, I did so, in response to him.  The only difference is I said very clearly and upfront that it's fake.  After which I then wrote --

"Bank documents reveal that Tom Cotton took $250,000 from North Korea to pass a bill outlawing the sale of pimento cheese in Arkansas."

And I again made clear that that that was as false as Cotton's tweet. 

See, it's easy.

Easy, too, given that everything in his tweet was completely and literally untrue, I wondered if he planned to delete his tweet and rephrase it.   When I've posted things that had some information wrong, that's what I've done.  It's pretty easy, and feels good being accurate.  As a U.S. Senator, I'm sure he's well aware of having even far more responsibility to the public, including about honesty.

Besides which, the alert sent by California was sound and worked, two things which should be encouraged.

And no, I don't expect him to delete it either.  Because, y'know, that how "fascist thing."  Honesty and decency to the public good have no place there  There, in the Land of Cotton, where old times there are best long  forgotten.