They Did This to Us

Homes are burning. Lives are destroyed. This isn't the weather. And it didn't just happen. It was done by people and it was done on purpose.

As I write this, the skies are a dark grey. Many of my friends are evacuated. Some of those have without a doubt lost their homes.

Some of them are single mothers. Others have lost their synagogues and mosques.

These are just my stories, and they represent the tiniest of slivers of the stories coming out of Los Angeles in the last day.

For many, this will be a time for mourning as they are used to mourning natural disasters. They will write, speak, and post about the losses. The mourning will stop there, with a shrug of the shoulders that this is how life is, that nature can take lives in a moment.

We will hear explanations of how this occurred. That the Santa Ana winds were unusually strong, the air dry, and that vegetation had become more widespread due to the watery last few years, then turning parched due this winter’s incredibly lack of rain. That will also be where it ends.

The news itself will write this way. An “unusual” event they call it. Words like “rare” will get thrown around. Simultaneously, they will point out that a similar event happened only 7 years ago, an interval that’s far less than half of what the interval once was.

They will, of course, write about climate change. It will be tucked into the later parts of articles, or in entirely separate ones that are lower in priority than the most urgent ones. They will explain how climate change has worsened. They will explain the science.

They will stop there.

In that sense, they are using the excuse of inertia of past writing and reporting to ignore the most important truth: what happened was done to us. The science only explains the how. It does not explain the why. It does not explain the who. In that sense, the news is itself involved in a coverup at worst, negligence at best, and either way is guilty of spreading misinformation. This is not minor: the language, the way we talk, the substance of what is shared, all of these affect how we look at events in the news.

My friends and their families were not hurt by science. Their homes were not devastated by weather. The climate changed, yes, but it did not change on its own: it was done by specific people with names. It was done by the companies they run. It was allowed by the government beholden to them. It is built into the system we live under, which has contributed to the destruction of the environment, ecosystems, and indigenous people well before climate change.

When I look at the images of people running for their lives, cars destroyed, homes gutted, I do not see anything natural about it. I see it as targeted violence done by people who know exactly the consequences of their actions, protecting themselves from the consequences of their actions while knowing full well they are not just destroying lives today, but far into the future.

As detailed 8 years ago by the New Yorker, “In private Facebook groups, wealthy survivalists swap tips on gas masks, bunkers, and locations safe from the effects of climate change.”

These are criminals. Perhaps not criminals as decided by the state, but in the deepest moral and spiritual sense they are committing unimaginable acts of terror against our society. Climate is convenient for them because unlike presidents and prime ministers who we see as responsible for the wars they wage, the news will report their crimes as if it is just the weather.

The people of Los Angeles (and North Carolina and Florida and Spain and Africa and India and and and) are victims of terror. Like most other wars, it is done not for any other reason but to plunder the world of riches in order to benefit the few.

The war is not just fought on the battlefield of the climate, however. It is directly due to the economic war waged against us. Inequality is not a consequence of their actions, it is their goal. The more unequal we are, the more they have succeeded. By the same logic, climate change is really an indicator of their profits, and thus as it worsens, their wallets fill.

If I were to write a headline of last night’s wildfires, I would write: “Los Angeles Burns in Corporate-Backed Climate Offensive” or “Los Angeles Engulfed by Fires in Ongoing Climate Conflict Waged by the Ultra-Rich.”

But I would go further, as the people in charge are just the wielders of power in a system that incentivizes them. If it wasn’t them, it would be someone else. Because the economic, political, and cultural system we are part of—not just in America but the world over— is based around exploitation. Its roots go deep, based in slavery, authoritarianism, and genocide. “Inequality” is not just about economic inequality: it is the core, the essence, of this system which has been built over millennia to victimize the many to benefit the few.

At its absolute core, it is why racism persists (to establish hierarchy while giving people someone to blame instead of those above them). It is why misogyny exists (to get free labor and establish a lower caste both in our homes and throughout society). It is why people are still convinced that war will benefit them. It is why we put more money towards police, jails, and armies than helping the people in our society (We spend 7 times more on our armies than protecting the environment, by the way).

No moment in time has more clarified how this system benefits no one. There is no escaping climate change, especially when it comes to our children. What is happening here spreads beyond our borders and what happens there affects us.

The only answer, then, is the system that so many have fought for, a democracy built not on top of the previous generations’ exploitive systems but a transformation that turns the system inside out to put its resources towards our true rights: shelter, health, food, income, and a planet to live on.

This is why the war is also waged in the information ecosystem, not just the climate or the economy. Never has humanity been more united in our victimization as well as more interconnected in our communication. While it may not feel like it, these are the ingredients that make us closer than ever to achieving that new society. That is why the far right has grown: it exists to exploit our victimization and our interconnection in order to maintain power. Note how so many of our ultra-rich like Bezos, Zuckerberg, and the rest are suddenly embracing it after pretending to be benevolent. The goal is for the exploiters to ensure we lose the truth in order to look the wrong way, fight the wrong people, and hurt other victims worse. Anything but transformation of the system that keeps them at the top.

This is why we have to stop talking about climate change as if it is the weather. It is the rocket that blows up our homes as they invade. It is the software that falls apart over time as it is tweaked to wring more profit out of us instead of benefit us. It is the worse healthcare at the higher cost they designed for us.

This didn’t just happen. This was done to us. They did this to us.