Last month Texas was hit with the coldest temperatures for a generation, leaving millions without power and running water and completely blocking roads and the wider transport network. The weather is also thought to have left as many as 30 people dead.
However, despite this, conspiracy theorists have now claimed that the recent cold-snap in Texas was fake and all part of a wide government conspiracy. The ridiculous claims were made online and were met with curiosity, bewilderment and ridicule.
While it is highly unusual for snow to fall in the state famed for its hot temperatures, it is not unheard of. Despite this, the conspiracy theorists claim that the snow was fake and that they have proof to back it up.
One reason that has led them to beliving this is that people have noticed that when the snow is picked up and put to a flame, it doesn't melt as expected. Instead, it appears to burn.
One video put online by a Texan trying to melt the snow includes her commentary in which she claims the snow is 'fake' and sent by Microsoft founder and CEO Bill Gates. She says in the video:
"Thanks Bill gates for trying to f*****g trick us that this is real snow. You'll see its not melting and its going to burn. Snow don't burn. Snot f*****g melts. If I put it in the microwave it's going to melt."
I am obsessed with idiots in Texas thinking the snow is fake and a government plot pic.twitter.com/7F0hsLB3hB
— B.W. Carlin (@BaileyCarlin) February 22, 2021
The viral video soon had thousands of Texans, and others around the world trying to melt snow and see if their snow was indeed also 'fake'.
Another conspiracy theorist, Scott L. Biddle, said that the snow had been deliberately put there by President Joe Biden in order to carry out an attack on Texas. He wrote on Facebook:
"Joe Biden's 'Dark Winter' statement was not a random thought, it was a foreshadow of what was to come. Texas is the only state to have its own, entirely independent electric grid separate from the rest of the United States. This is warfare, an attack on Texas by altering the jet stream, seeding the clouds, and ultimately causing the storm that blacked out over 4 million people. Sound crazy? Too hard to believe? Believe it."
WTVR News meteorologist Mike Stone explained that the snow didn't melt due to a process known as sublimation, in which high temperatures move a solid object directly from a solid into a gas, as oppose to first entering a liquid stage. The black tinge is a result of the burnt lighter fluid gathering on the surface of the snow.
Scott L. Biddle's book about conspiracy theories has now been removed from Amazon. However, one must question whether it is really necessary to clamp down on conspiracy theories that are so outlandish and implausible, and that would only be believed by the most gullible individuals.
[h/t: I heart Intelligence]
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