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This week, a series of fires erupted in Los Angeles and swept through parts of the city, the infernos setting some of its wealthiest neighborhoods alight.
A recent severe drought, alongside hurricane-force winds, supercharged the flames, and the city struggled to respond.
Although many responded in horror over some of the images, conspiratorial posters on far-right forums found something they could cheer on.
The fire struck in an area where numerous celebrities had homes, and people on these sites saw a righteous cleansing flame, ripping through the American epicenter of sin and iniquity.
Unfortunately, they didn’t realize they were cheering on the demise of one of their own.
For the far-right, the Los Angeles fires are (mostly) good, actually
One poster on Gab shared the heartbreaking tale of a celebrity forced from his home, castigating him for inaction.
“Easily stopped with firebreaks. Though they don’t want that do they, they want to flagellate themselves over global warming and so on,” the poster wrote with a link to a story about a “heartbroken Hollywood actor” who compared the situation to losing a loved one.
Comeuppance, well deserved, for years of heinous… whatever you think the elites did.
The only problem? The heartbroken actor savaged was none other than ardent Trump supporter (an occasional conspiracy theorist) James Woods, who’d been forced to evacuate and lost his home.
Others online, when later posting the story, took to adding parenthetical asides or noting up front that it was Woods, such that people wouldn’t immediately begin reveling in their agony.
Woods lost his home, safely evacuated, and is now blaming the fires on nature’s most dangerous tinder: DEI.
But some conspiracy theorists had other theories.
“I just enjoy seeing hollyweird get what they deserve. I pray for innocent people. I love the children of God but member, God shall not be mocked and the largest entity that mocks him is in Hollywood!” wrote one, intimating it was an act of God.
“We don’t want normal houses burned,” wrote another. “We just want evil people to handled by God. We don’t celebrate burning of places. There could be regular normal people suffering from it.”
Los Angeles fire conspiracy theories spread
But the thing about imbuing a righteous worldview within a boatload of conspiracies is that it can be hard to decide just what is going on. Like, maybe this wasn’t God but celebrities destroying evidence in advance of the coming Trump reign.
“Looks to me like the Hollywood elite, have decided to try and hide, evidence of their crimes. No way better, than burn it all down, before our new justice dept comes knocking,” theorized another.
And of course, you couldn’t go a stone’s throw on the sites without hearing about HAARP and directed energy weapons, which seems like a lot of work when lighting a match would suffice.
But others noted that this disaster, regardless of how it started, was acceptable to cheer on.
Some could not pass up the opportunity to chastise the Hollywood elites, who through their fundraising for Kamala Harris (or whatever), deserved it for angering the Lord.
“Although they are undoubtedly covered by insurance, I hope the overpaid, spoiled residents of Beverly Hills see their homes go up in smoke. Burn, Hollywood, burn,” another said.
Some tried to draw a distinct line between what happened in October with Hurricane Helene, and the disaster here.
“Oh the irony! Gods pissed! God bless Appalachia! Bet the government rushes to help the rich!” wrote one.
Added another, there is a “big big difference between a once-in-a-lifetime flood ON A MOUNTAIN inhabited by decent hardworking Americans and forest fires in an area … that put the needs of Americans before illegals. I don’t blame folks for not feeling sorry for LA Hollywood elites who have done NOTHING but treat struggling Americans with scorn for decades. Karma is real,” wrote a poster.
But God or karma or directed energy weapons, noted one poster, need to be more careful.
“There are innocent people there,” one said. “James Woods had to evacuate.”
Well, at least someone remembered.
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