When Any Help Offered Is Taken

Cass Troy

— 3 min read
When Any Help Offered Is Taken

This week, we've seen catastrophic destruction in the wake of Hurricane Helene, in areas that most thought of as immune to hurricane damage. And while there is so much to say about climate denial, disaster preparedness, or the privilege of being able to evacuate, I want to talk about how extremist groups use disasters as recruitment events.

When somebody is in a disaster zone, they accept help from the first people to show up, they don't quiz them about their ideology. Sometimes that's FEMA or the National Guard, or local mutual aid, but white nationalist groups, Christian nationalists, and militias, all make it a priority to get out there and spread their rhetoric along with whatever aid they provide. And if you were stranded on a roof for days watching your car float away, why wouldn't you hear them out?

In the last few days we have seen members of Patriot Front, the Proud Boys, and the Florida Nationalists all on the ground helping with cleanup, supply drops, and EMS services. They are also pushing narratives of immigrants participating in looting and other opportunistic crimes, and seeding doubt in the functionality of government organizations created to provide assistance.

I don't bring this up to say that anybody should try to stop these people from helping. But non-judgmental assistance should be drastically outperforming them, for the sake of basic decency, and as a community effort to blunt the appeal of extremist groups.

Some resources for helping out those affected by the storm

Asheville community resource sheet (updated regularly by locals)

Blue Ridge Public Radio resource list

Also, buckle up, it's October, and we basically never get to rest again.

In the last week:

This week:

Early Warning:

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