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As usual, Trump only amplifies something that was floating around for decades. FEMA has long been the target of conspiracy theories. You can get a taste of it from the old X-Files movie. Being a federal department that gets to do extraordinary things in emergencies tends to make it a target.
The difference is back then, it was relegated to the insane fringe. The premise of the X-Files is "what if all those farfetched conspiracy theories were true", evil FEMA was in the same category as cryptids and alien abduction. Now it's part of the platform of the second largest political party in the country. It's roughly equivalent to campaigning on killing Bigfoot, if not worse because at least the latter is harmless.
I somewhat disagree with this.
The conspiracy theories that have been floating around were the typically outlandish and unrealistic conspiracy theories of the time. You know, like the moon landing being fake. And with social media being nonexistent and the conspiracy theories being so batshit crazy, it was near impossible for these theories to gain any kind of critical mass or be taken seriously.
And Trump doesn't amplify existing things. He creates conspiracy theories around literally everything and just hopes some of them stick. Mostly around migrants. Or he ties them back to migrants.
FEMA? Fema can't help you because they gave all their money to the migrants. Child Care? Gas? Those would plummet in price if we just got rid of all the migrants, if you believe what Trump said at the debate. 20,000 Hatians in Ohio? If we were to just get rid of them, it would solve whatever problems your state is having too! Judges in his trials can't be impartial because they have Mexican heritage.
The real problem is that there are far more openly racist people in our country than we were willing to admit to. We all have that creepy Uncle Joe in our family that only comes around for holidays, looks at his niece just a little too long, and spends half the day spouting racist bullshit, but never really considered just how many Uncle Joes there are in this country. Trump realized that and has simply been tapping into their racism ever since. That's all it is. Trump has simply coralled the most gullible and racist into one huge voting bloc, and we severely underestimated how big that bloc could get.
And now it's too late. There are enough of them in this country where they are openly embracing the racism and saying "Yeah, we want it this way." And theree may be enough of them to get what they want.
People forget the conspiracy theories from Katrina. Where they accused FEMA of stockpiling body bags in New Orleans before the hurricane. And of course the 9/11 conspiracies which weren't helped by the Bush administration actually lying to make sure we ended up in not one, but two wars.