Mud Rain

The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

This entry won't really have a lot to do with model rocketry directly... but it started with it.

An area rocketry club decided that they would hold a launch this weekend.  They planned well, assigned who would set up, who would strike, what times they would be at the launch field, and they checked the weather forecast.

Although a bit cold for my tastes, the skies would clear and bright sunshine might offset the March chill in the air. They would go for it.

However the night before, something odd happened in the weather.

There were a lot of reports of "dirty rain".  The public was commenting to media outlets that their cars were dirty after sprinkles or showers, even after they had just run them through a car wash.  They wanted to know what this tan, brown, white or dirty residue was.

And, they posted on social media about what they found and some snapped pictures of their hoods and roofs to share.

Almost immediately, the misinformation campaign began.

Posters claimed it was chem trails washing out of the sky.

Posters insisted that it was forest fires from the Carolinas that had had drifted up here.

Posters insisted that it was irritating to the skin, and not to risk touching it.

Posters insisted that they could smell smoke, proving it was from Carolina.

Posters contacted the National Weather Service, who initially had no idea what they were dealing with.

Posters also stated reports from local media that it was a sandstorm from Texas that blew up here.

Finally, the National Weather Service posted they had backtracked the wind flow from dust storms in the southern great plains around Texas and OK over the last two days.  They shared on social media satellite images of the dust cloud being swept into the mid-west where rainfall was bringing the fine particles down onto cars.

But that didn't stop the know-it-alls.

Almost immediately, the media was being attacked for being shills of the Deep State...lying to cover up a genocidal program to infect the general public.

Some expressed outrage that the media was reading a "script" prepared by the National Weather Service.  They claimed there was no way that the NWS could possibly have come up with the answer so fast, unless it had all been preplanned.

Others pointed out that the NWS claimed it was dust, while their local law enforcement offices put out a press release that it was "sand".   Others discounted the entire thing, saying no sand could be blown that far, and that they were SURE that it was a chemical or ash release from a local chemical plant.

Some posters on social media were clearly poking fun at the alarmist attitude expressed by some. But others were clearly spreading misinformation, and confusion by discounting the answer to the question everyone had been asking.

Scrolling through the comments on social media, I was shocked at how many people wanted to ignore or downright discredit their governmental authority on weather, who had conducted a quick analysis and got an answer for people.  And in real time.  They had the photographic proof of the source.

But that wasn't good enough for some.  They wanted to twist this into a political crisis, one way or another.

The whole thing saddened me.   I remember a time when we trusted our media, listened to authority and didn't try to wind each other up.

I think that's the problem now.  Everyone has a keyboard and an opinion, and there is such a cacophony of misinformation shared and floating around, frequently in the same postings, that one is left confused and distrustful of any information shared.  Even if it's the right explanation.  We have been trained to discount, distrust, and reject all official explanations in favor of a more sensational or salacious theory that would "prove" malfeasance.

What does this have to do with Model Rocketry?

I fell into this rabbit hole when I went to check the forecast for their launch...and saw John Q Public over-reacting to an unusual amount of dust residue on his car.

Some days, I think social media was the worst thing to have happened to our society.... due to no editorial control, and no responsibility for misinformation.

But then, without it, I might not even be writing this blog or have a forum.

What do you think?

The Thrifty Rocketeer wants to know your opinion.