 Meteorologist Chris Gloninger, who worked at a local television station in Iowa, has essentially been bullied off the air, all because he does really good climate change coverage. Yeah, so the Des Moines Register reports, on July 16th of 2022, Gloninger wrote on Twitter, quote, my climate coverage has garnered negative feedback, but last month I received the first threat followed by a flow of harassing emails. Police are investigating. It's mentally exhausting. Looking at times, I have not been okay. If you're facing this and need someone to talk to, I'm here. In September of 2022, a Lennox man was fined $105 for harassing the meteorologist in a series of emails. The emails lasted for several weeks and included threatening language and swear words, quote, you are worthless Biden puppet, a liar, a conspiracy theorist and an idiot. You give Iowa a bad name. Go home, bitch. One email read according to court documents. Again, this is a meteorologist subjected to right wing harassment for simply doing his job. And this article doesn't give you the full picture, but this man received a death threat that shook him to his core to the point where he developed PTSD as a result of it. And today on Twitter, he announced that he's quitting in large part due to that threat. He writes, 18 years, seven stations, five states, I am bidding farewell to TV to embark on a new journey dedicated to helping solve the climate crisis. After a death threat stemming from my climate coverage last year and resulting in PTSD, in addition to family health issues, I've decided to begin this journey now. And he goes on to say goodbye to his colleagues and explain how quitting will allow him to pursue his passion of combating climate change more. And he also echoed the same sentiment in his on air goodbye saying, I did receive a threat last summer that left us a little bit shaken and I've been working through the healing process. But during that time, both of our families have unexpected serious health issues. He said, family is important. And again, he reiterated that quitting his job as a meteorologist, mind you, will allow him to better pursue his passion of combating climate change full time. Just let that sink in for a moment, right? This is a meteorologist who worked his entire career to get to this point where he could actually educate hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who watch him about this issue that threatens our species existence. But after being terrorized, he felt like giving up that platform, that massive platform, put him in a better position to make a difference. This is so sad to me. And the question is, what's going to stop right wingers from harassing the next meteorologist? I mean, the fine was $105. That's not a high price to pay to bully someone you don't like off the air. And this story really is a microcosm of broader U.S. discourse right now, where capitalist forces spread propaganda to deceive Americans into supporting an industry to the detriment of their own health and self-interest. And what's sad is that climate change wasn't always one of the most divisive partisan issues. The problem is that this became more partisan. The problem was exacerbated following a devastating 2010 decision from the Supreme Court. And in a 2022 piece for the New Yorker, Elizabeth Colbert explains, a report put out two years ago by the Senate Democrats special committee on the climate crisis noted in the 2000 several bipartisan climate bills were circulating in the Senate. Then in 2010, the Supreme Court and the Citizens United decision ruled that corporations and wealthy donors could effectively pour unlimited amounts of cash into electioneering. Fossil fuel companies quickly figured out how to funnel money through front groups, which used it to reward the industry's friends and to punish its enemies. After Citizens United, according to the report, bipartisan activity on comprehensive climate legislation collapsed. When it comes to direct contributions, the top recipient of fossil fuel money in Congress, this election cycle, has been Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia. She's of course referring to the last cycle prior to the 2022 election. Among the top 20 recipients of oil and gas money are three other Democrats, Senator Kirsten Sinema of Arizona and Representative Henry Quay are and Lizzie Fletcher of Texas, the rest of Republicans. So this is why things are the way they are and understand that the United States does not exist in a vacuum. Even though our political system is arguably more dysfunctional than other developed countries, political systems, they've also failed to address this issue too. So it's not just us and climate change is definitely a complex issue, right? It's hard to figure out specifically what you need to do. Don't get me wrong. When you have 100 companies responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions, I mean, at a minimum, you've identified some of the world's biggest climate criminals. So why not start to take action, look in that direction? And the answer to that is very simple, capitalism. In late stage capitalism, corporations have so much power that they're able to cripple entire governments, even though the stakes couldn't be higher. I mean, we're talking about possibly the end of our species if we don't take action. And there's just no urgency here. Capitalism is a cult, okay? That may be offensive to some people and difficult to hear, but capitalism is indeed a cult. And the worst part is that normal people have taken the side of corporations who are killing us when they don't have to do that. Why? Because like cult members, they've been brainwashed into believing that advocating against themselves is better for the collective cult that they're living in. Now consider this, quote, several red states, including Texas and Louisiana have taken steps to penalize financial firms that say they are reducing their investments in fossil fuels, even though these steps are likely to cost the state's taxpayers money. See, and this is why I say it's a cult. Because Republicans don't have to do this. In fact, it hurts them fiscally to do things like this, but they do it anyway, out of loyalty to their corporate overlords. And this suicidal behavior might literally doom our entire species, but the climate criminals, they have both paid goons, like the Republican Party, and unpaid goons, like the guy who harassed that meteorologist, who's just brainwashed by propaganda. Doesn't get any money to advocate on their behalf, but does it anyway because he thinks that's in his own self-interest when the opposite is true. So these climate criminals, these capitalists, they don't really have to do much. They just keep pouring in the money, making it rain. They just sit back and watch Americans fight each other while the world literally burns. And the conspiracy has been flipped. That's what makes this so aggravating, what makes this situation feel hopeless. Because the opposite of the truth is very, very prominent. For example, Marianne Williamson called for a World War II level of mass mobilization to address the climate crisis back in April. And Jordan Peterson, conspiracy mongered about this, saying that it was nothing more than a ploy to assume power. I mean, that right there, all of this, it's what George Orwell warned us about. The powerless are actually the powerful. The real climate conspiracy is that the scientists are the ones lying, not these fossil fuel companies, so that way they can continue to profit off of the destruction of our planet. No, it's the scientists. They're the ones who are lying. And also war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. It's just it's hard not to get down when you see how bad of shape we're in and how little time we have left. And it's scary. But if our species survives this, then future generations are going to look back at this moment and just be utterly shocked by the breathtaking level of stupidity that plagued society in this era. But as for the meteorologists, I wish him well and I hope that more people end up finding his work because of this story. So even though he got PTSD after he received that death threat, I hope that this leads to a happy ending where people are now following him and he has an even bigger platform than he had at that news outlet. So, yeah. Like everywhere there's good, you see them all the time. I mean, it's constant. My children are about mama. Go, go, go, go. I turn on TV, there's clothes in the background. Every TV show news media. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?