No, ANTIFA Did Not Start the Fires in Oregon
The wildfires in Oregon have hit very close to home for me as I am not only from Portland, but my family still lives there. Of my mom, dad, and sister, here is how it breaks down right now as I'm writing this. My mom has been evacuated and is staying with my sister. However, my sister is at level 2, which means have your bags packed and be ready to leave at a moments notice. Level 3 is evacuate. My dad lives closer to downtown and isn't as close to the fires and is currently out of harms way.
Something that I have seen be spread almost faster than these fires have is the rumor that ANTIFA is to blame for these fires. This is how quickly misinformation spreads on the Internet. Need I remind you the spider story. The Internet rumor that you eat 8 spiders in your life while you sleep. Well, it's not true. It was started to literally show how quickly misinformation can spread on the Internet.
How has the ANTIFA rumor spread? Well, it's pretty simple. People are sharing false information on Twitter and other social media platforms, and it's being spread by people who already believe this to be true. Police departments in the areas where the fires started have had to come out and inform the public that these rumors are false.
But the interesting thing is, to most of the people spreading this, the police debunking this means nothing to them. But they're also the ones who are supporting the police department on social media. You can see it on their timeline. You'll a post "I back the blue!" Then right after that you see the "ANTIFA started the wildfires!" post. Soooo, you only agree with the police when it backs what you believe?
If you want to know what it's like to live right near the fires. Below is a gallery of photos from mom's place before she evacuated.
Something that does need to be addressed is that there have been arrests of people TRYING to start fires. Emphasis on TRYING. Simply because someone was caught trying to set a fire, or a bogus Twitter account wants to claim responsibility for something doesn't mean the fires that are doing all the damage were caused by ANTIFA or by anyone looking to do damage.
There was an instance in Puyallup, WA of a man live streaming himself trying to start a fire and getting arrested for it. Take note of where he's trying to start the fire, to apparently inflict as much damage as possible. It's in a median. An area of grass that has concrete on both sides of it. Yeah, these are clearly the geniuses that are setting the entire west coast on fire. Seriously, gender reveal parties are causing more damage than ANTIFA at this point.