By Kennedy Thomason
Elm Staff Writer
Instead of celebrating the recent Easter weekend, four families were grieving.
These are the families of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, Miguel Luna, and Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval — construction workers who were filling potholes along the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it was hit by a cargo ship and collapsed into the waters below on March 26.
While these families were learning the news of their loved ones’ deaths or holding out hope for them to be found alive, right-wing extremists were already crying conspiracy.
Unfortunately, we are currently experiencing one of the most politically and morally divided societies our country has ever seen. Bad actors on both sides of the aisle are now using their influence to spread propaganda that reinforces their beliefs. Pair this with the reach of social media, and you have mass misinformation-spreading machines. According to Axios, “extreme polarization and a historic low in Americans’ trust in media have created a perfect environment for misinformation to flourish in moments of chaos.”
Ultra-conservatives flocked to social media platforms, mainly X, due to its lack of safeguards against the spread of misinformation. According to NBC News, political troublemakers “have flourished on X since Elon Musk acquired the platform and removed many of the rules that once tried to limit the spread of false claims.”
Examples of these ridiculous and rampant conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the bridge collapse included statements like “nothing is safe,” “this is a BLACK SWAN event,” and “looks deliberate to me. A cyber-attack is probable. WW3 has already started.” These fear-mongering claims were posted to X by popular “alpha-male” influencer Andrew Tate, former national security advisor Mike Flynn, and InfoWars’ Alex Jones, according to The Guardian.
Due to the malicious and self-serving intentions of these talking heads as well as the lenient treatment towards misinformation on X’s platform, Axios reported that “accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers were promoting baseless claims that the Dali had been the victim of a cyber-attack or had intentionally rammed into the bridge.”
These campaigns were not restricted to social media, either. Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, appeared on Newsmax and “suggested that the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s infrastructure and transportation services were weakened by Covid lockdowns,” according to NBC News. Fox News host Maria Bartiromo accused “wide open borders” of causing the accident. Finally, some Republican officials latched on to diversity-focused hiring strategies as a rationale, just in case the other hypotheses were not absurd enough.
This is not the first time that tragedy has been met with wild speculation of ulterior motives, and it will not be the last. Similar actions of figures like these created mass hysteria over the use of masks and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic whilst thousands of people lost their lives. Hijacking the narrative of terrible occurrences to fit political agendas is not only unethical, it is quite frankly disgusting and dangerous.
Not only were four people killed, but many more will now be put out of work until the remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge can be lugged out of the water. According to AP News, “jobs for roughly 2,400 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 333 could dry up until shipping traffic resumes.” This is not to mention environmental concerns which are currently being navigated, or other livelihoods which could be affected by the loss of the bridge or the blockage in the vital Port of Baltimore. All of these factors combined make the baseless claims made by right-wing faultfinders that much more offensive. When did humanity become so desensitized to mass catastrophes? When did horrible accidents stop being exactly that: accidents?
President Joe Biden took the opportunity to quell speculation about terrorist attacks or other conspiracy theories relating to the crash of the Dali cargo ship, “everything so far indicates that this was a terrible accident. At this time, we have no other indication, no other reason to believe there’s any intentional act here,” according to Axios. The fact is, those who spread their unfounded theories did not care about being accurate nor about the lives that were impacted that day, they only cared about furthering their own preconceived sociopolitical beliefs to millions of vulnerable Americans.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Photo caption: The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore recently collapsed after being hit by a large cargo ship, killing four workers.