Oct 21, 2024 3 min read

In September 2021, a clearly exasperated West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice went before the cameras to plead with his state’s residents to get COVID-19 vaccinations, and to shoot down some of the conspiracy theories about the shot that were making the rounds.

Justice explained that one of the conspiracy theories had it that a tracking device would be implanted in a recipient’s arm once the vaccine was administered. Perhaps resisting the urge to do an eyeroll, Justice noted that the smartphones that we all carry around can more than adequately offer the authorities a window into where we’ve been and who we’ve talked to.

“I mean, come on,” Justice said.

As conspiracy theories go, a belief that the COVID-19 vaccines contain tracking chips is actually pretty small potatoes compared to one that’s been circulating over the last few weeks – that the federal government can control the weather.

More specifically, some believe that shadowy officials can manipulate hurricanes, like Helene and Milton, make them more powerful and target them at certain areas. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has trumpeted this theory, and has suggested that “it would be ridiculous to lie and say it can’t be done.”

Think about it: If President Biden actually had the ability to control the weather, that would put him in a category of presidential greatness beyond even that of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or either of the Roosevelts.

It would be easy to dismiss this as so much election-season lunacy, but it’s had actual consequences. Several outlets have reported on threats that have been directed at meteorologists at local television stations for not amplifying the idea that Washington, D.C., has a hand in whether the sun shines or rain falls. Katie Nickolaou, a meteorologist at WLNS-TV in Lansing, Mich., took to social media to say that “murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes. I can’t believe I just had to type that.”

Making matters worse in areas that have been stricken by Helene and Milton are the false stories that government assistance is going to migrants or is being sent to Ukraine rather than to hurricane victims. Neither is true. Nevertheless, workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have had to exercise caution in parts of North Carolina where they have been delivering much-needed aid.

According to The Washington Post, an employee with the U.S. Forest Service was angrily informed “we don’t want the government here” when he stopped at a North Carolina gas station.

Perhaps as long as man has been alive, there have been conspiracy theories. Historians have uncovered conspiracy theories that were circulating in ancient Rome. But it does seem like conspiracy theories have gained additional velocity in recent years thanks to audiences that have become unmoored from traditional media outlets, politicians fanning the flames, and an additional dollop of paranoia that has been in the air as a result of the multiple traumas the United States has endured in the 21st century, from 9/11 to the Great Recession and COVID-19.

But the reality is that things often are what they seem. President John F. Kennedy was likely killed by a lone gunman, astronauts did indeed walk on the moon, 9/11 was not an inside job, vaccines are safe and the government does not control the weather.

As Jim Justice said, come on.