Turns out the US government didn’t engineer Hurricane Milton to smash Florida last week. We know this because, as things stand, humans don’t have the ability to generate or control hurricanes. But we live in a world where such things must be clarified because social media has been awash with such conspiracy theories – this specific one amplified by a Republican congresswoman.

It is, I’m afraid, far from the only one. Here’s perhaps the most pernicious coming from Donald Trump, declaring at a rally in Michigan that the Biden administration slashed hurricane recovery budgets: “They stole the FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season”.

Illustration: Simon Letch

Here distilled is the essential Trump case in a single sentence. They’re crooks. Every issue is ultimately about “their” illegal immigrants. The election is being stolen (again). To this, Trump adds that devastated areas were left for days without help, and without helicopters being sent. All of which is demonstrably untrue.

Also demonstrable are the consequences. Meteorologists are facing death threats. FEMA says the misinformation is stopping people from seeking the help they need, thereby hampering recovery efforts. So thoroughgoing, so ruthless, so wild has politically driven misinformation become, that not even matters of life and death can deter it.

Recall, for instance, the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump and the immediate conspiracy theories that followed. For Trump loyalists, it was a deep state........

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