Since the Los Angeles wildfires broke out on January 7, a strain of online panic has painted the city as functioning a lot like The Purge, the horror movie about a 24-hour period where all crime is legal.

Take a purported conversation that former Tinder executive Brian Norgard relayed in a Twitter/X post that’s been seen over 2.5 million times. “My famous actor neighbor came by today after the looting gangs freaked him out,” he posted, “and whispered in my ear, ‘I guess I am a conservative now.’”

In sharp contrast to the doom and gloom pronouncements, the city has actually been smothered, sometimes even a little overwhelmed, in such acts of goodwill. When I went to drop off other donations at the Snail Farm and Bike Oven—an artists studio and community-run bike workshop, respectively—both were so thoroughly stocked there was hardly room to put anything down. “Please, no more children’s books,” begged a local bookstore, calling off a previous request for donations of reading material for evacuated kids. “Once again having to put a stop to Angelenos bottomless generosity at this time!!!” (As such messages attest, at this point, it is far more useful to send money to affected people; most places have stopped accepting physical donations.)

  • HubertManne
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    221 minutes ago

    its all projection. if it were them in that situation it would be the purge.

  • @atempuser23
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    288 hours ago

    I have a right wing co-worker. We were on a business trip to Hollywood a few years ago after some riots. He had seen hour after hour of coverage about how it was all destroyed and ruined. As we were getting lunch we walked around the area just to see the specific areas he was watching on the news. All we saw was a single broken store window waiting to be replaced for the 2-3 or so square blocks we walked.

    There is a whole alternate reality they live in.

  • @[email protected]
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    1510 hours ago

    In the movies, the purge is a psyop by the ruling class to purge the nation of undesirable poor people using paramilitary troops.

  • @BetaBlake
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    1010 hours ago

    I haven’t heard this, but I don’t take in dumb people news so that may be why.

  • @someguy3
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    9920 hours ago

    “My famous actor neighbor came by today after the looting gangs freaked him out,” he posted, “and whispered in my ear, ‘I guess I am a conservative now.’”

    Ah we’re back to the “[obvious fake story] now I’m a raging MAGA!”

    • @[email protected]
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      7720 hours ago

      “I used to be a progressive but then a random liberal online was gently critical of me and now I believe immigrants are poisoning the blood of our race!”

    • Ech
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      1018 hours ago

      Not: “Hipster coffee shop”

      Hot: “Famous LA actor neighbor”

      • Flying Squid
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        610 hours ago

        Not even remotely similar.

        There are 69% fewer women executives in leadership teams than there are in the US workforce. While women account for 47% of the US workforce benchmark, they account for just 28% of all executives in the top leadership teams of the S&P100. Comparably, men account for 53% of the US workforce benchmark and account for 72% of the executives in those top leadership teams.

        https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2023/02/22/gender-diversity-in-the-c-suite/

          • Flying Squid
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            37 hours ago

            6-year-olds notice things like that. Especially the girls. I know because I had a 6-year-old daughter once. She noticed who was a girl on TV and websites back then more than she does now at 14.

            • @[email protected]
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              37 hours ago

              I’m sure 6yos are really spending time thinking about corporate structure and gender roles.

              But whatever, this isn’t worth an argument. Just a low effort joke about people making shit up on social media.

              • Flying Squid
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                07 hours ago

                She was shown her mom’s boss and pointed out that her mom’s boss was a girl. She wasn’t thinking about corporate structure and gender roles, she was happy that a girl was in charge because she’s also a girl.

                I get that you have no experience with children but I do.

  • @Sanctus
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    5020 hours ago

    You wouldnt know them, they go to a different Hollywood.

    • @[email protected]
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      17 hours ago

      Funnily enough there are different Hollywoods: Hollywood (obviously), East Hollywood, West Hollywood, North Hollywood, Hollywood Hills (this is the one near Hollywood that was on fire, but it was very small compared to the other 2 burning now), and Hollywood Hills West. There is no South Hollywood, but I might be missing some others. One of them is independent of the city of LA (WeHo) and another isn’t even bordering Hollywood (NoHo).

      This has been your unscheduled autistic info dump about cities in LA County with Hollywood in the name.

      • Flying Squid
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        810 hours ago

        Yep. I lived in North Hollywood. As I used to tell people, there is a mountain range between it and Hollywood. The name was essentially a real estate scam. They changed it from Lankershim (still the main road) after the movie industry became an L.A. success story.

        • @dogslayeggs
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          43 hours ago

          And the two are connected by Cahuenga, which has one of LA’s best blues clubs.

  • @[email protected]OP
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    3221 hours ago

    But comedian and podcaster Adam Carolla proclaimed on January 13 that the National Guard had been called in to deal with widespread looting, claiming that “We live in Sodom and Gomorrah times here in Los Angeles.”

    Since so many of these scumbags seem enamoured about Sodom and Gomorrah, can we just find an uninhabited place in the desert, name it S&G, and send all of them there?

    • Flying Squid
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      99 hours ago

      The funny thing is that the actual sin the people of those cities were supposedly punished for was being unkind to strangers from a foreign land (in that case, angels).

      How many foreigners do you think Adam Carolla would let in his house- other than his domestic staff, obviously.

      • @MothmanDelorian
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        25 hours ago

        A lot, he has a background in construction. He’s racist but not that specific kind of racist.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      17 hours ago

      If you have any interest in finding out what MAGA is raging on about, may I recommend The Righting. Their blurb is, “Alerting Mainstream Audiences to Today’s Headlines from The Right”.

      It’s an awesome source.

      • @[email protected]
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        816 hours ago

        It is genuinely difficult to tell if the stories they link to are real or just hyperbolic parody. Even just skimming them I can feel the incoherent rage and desperate glee for vengeance billowing off of them. Anyone actually reading them seriously would inevitably end up getting swept along, and it makes a lot of what we’ve seen make a lot more sense.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          919 hours ago

          Lol.

          It’s an aquired taste. I get their daily emails. That’s about all I can handle.

          The creator is center-left, and some of his commentary is pretty good.

          • @[email protected]
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            1219 hours ago

            I joke. It’s important to stay informed. I’ve just read most of those headlines already and having them all laid out like that is…kind of disgusting to see.

            • Tiefling IRL
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              517 hours ago

              They’re literally making fun of people being worried that they’re going to end up in concentration camps…

              • Flying Squid
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                29 hours ago

                Well The Washington Times should be happy to know that this (former) Hollywood (still) leftie is fleeing the country on Monday. And yet, at least until Trump decides to change things, I’ll still retain my citizenship and can both come back whenever I want and stay as long as I want and vote in elections from overseas. So fuck you, Washington Times.

            • @[email protected]OP
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              919 hours ago

              I admire people like the creator because I could never EVER do that for funzies.

              Shit, it took me weeks to get over the fact America elected Trump again.

      • rhythmisaprancer
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        616 hours ago

        Wow. This is a really great way to see how bad that side is, thanks for sharing this source.