MAGAReport 1/9/25: Cheering the fires
A tour of the psychopathic response to the California fires on the MAGA boards
“I hope the whole fucking shithole burns down. Literally would not piss on it to put the fire out.”
The MAGA forums have been absolutely stewing in hatred for California since the fires broke out. They are gleeful watching the destruction and reveling in the suffering in a state they despise. The above tweet from catturd made its way over to the message boards, and what followed was a deep exercise in communal psychopathy.
The responses fall into a few categories. First is the “Christian” response, namely: “The Christian thing to do is to bathe in God’s wrath playing out and pay [sic] their [sic] they will no longer be satanic pedophiles. Not this faggot shit.” There are long discussions about how this is God’s will and he is punishing Californians for being liberals and/or evil. When someone occasionally points out that MAGA people, like James Woods, also lost their homes, it does not inspire any empathy. “James should have left. Can't feel sorry for people staying in an area prone to a preventable problem that is often criticized for not addressing said preventable problem. When the police stopped arresting the blacks running rampant where i grew up, I left. When it was made publicly known California wasn't preventing fires properly (I remember Trump doing it a few times while he was still in office), he should have left.”
They also have a shared group mis-impression (delusion?) that the dominant response from the left to natural disasters in red states is to celebrate them. When these tragedies strike red states, I have seen liberals highlight that right-wingers do exactly the thing they are doing here with California when it happens to liberals, but they change their tune when it happens to them. But certainly, there have been un-empathetic liberal comments when disasters strike red states. Accounts like Libs of TikTok run on finding these examples - even if there are only a few of them - and exaggerating and amplifying them for outrage bait. It is a pattern within MAGA to take anecdotes of bad behavior from an unfavored group and use that as evidence to condemn the whole group.
“Remember when the fires in Texas happened. The governor asked people to pray. And those assholes mocked texans. They could have prayed. They could have stayed silent. But no they mocked.”
“They celebrated Helene wiping out thousands of Trump supporters off the map. They are evil.” [From Jen: around 250 people died in Hurricane Helene]
“Fools mock, but they shall mourn.”
“Not only did they have no sympathy, they joked and laughed and celebrated.”
“They want us DEAD, BROKE, DESTROYED, even if they have to LIE to do it. Fuck them. I wish them nothing but pain and suffering at this point.”
“Dark, cold winter of death I believe potatus said.”
“I'm done with these commie bastards. I have nothing but contempt for them. The enemies of Christ deserve what's happening.”
“Nope. These people wanted me in a cage, my children taken from me, and fired from my job, and they laughed when the floods came to tge Carolinas. Not a chance that I could care.”
This combines with a cartoonish view of the demographics, wealth, and life of people in different parts of the country: “Me either. These people didn't do anything but mock the people in WNC when an unprecedented flood wiped out whole towns. We didn't get a visit from Joe. [Biden visited Western North Carolina shortly after the storm] They still have not disbursed the 1.75 million dollars of emergency funding that is supposed to help people with housing, emergency shelter and supporting the businesses that flooded to their rooftops. [FEMA has distributed $32 million to NC and was going door to door to connect people with financial assistance] They were on social media making the most insane comments: shouldn't build near the water, that's what happens. WNC is about 300 miles from the effing ocean arsehole. Not to mention the people in Appalachia are some of the poorest in the nation... Rich people in CA will be able to rebuild. They have millions of dollars. The people in WNC have nothing.”
And then there is a full rejection of people on the left as Americans paired with a desire to see them suffer:
“Fuck em. They're communists, not Americans.”
“I actually feel good, I don't really care. I hope the rich people in the foothills around Denver have their houses burn next. Minneapolis and Chicago can burn too. They're not my country they're at best occupiers when their side is in power and I don't mind nature's wrath coming down on them. The northeast can be wiped out by a tsunami. Not my country, not a place I care about, they're actively trying to destroy my way of life, good riddance.”
There are hundreds of comments like this across the forums with only a smattering of dissenting replies. Even those dissents are usually rooted in the idea that there are conservatives in California who should be exempt from this judgment, rather than the idea that humans losing their homes deserve empathy.
This is important to look at not just because it is a ghoulish reaction to the events of the day, but because it reflects a broader mindset within the far-right MAGA community. There is a startling lack of empathy, and a monstrous desire to see people suffer. We will see this play out with demands for cruel policies throughout the next four years. When we try to counter that, we need to be prepared and understand who we are speaking to and how they really think.