Adding Insult to Injury – The Responses By Everyone About the Texas Snowstorm

As if the situation wasn’t bad enough, so many different people’s responses have been appalling to see. 

Politicians

Greg Abbott

Texas Governor Greg Abbott falsely blamed the utility failure on the wind turbines and solar panels freezing up. He even falsely claimed that this was why the Green New Deal would be bad for America. 

His own energy department quickly debunked this. Renewable energy only makes up about 10% of the state’s energy production, and the majority of their energy comes from gas, coal, and nuclear energy – which also largely failed. 

Rick Perry

Rick Perry, former Energy Secretary and governor of Texas, also said that Texans would rather go without power to keep the federal government from controlling and regulating their electrical grid. 

Tim Boyd

As if it wasn’t bad enough, we saw Tim Boyd, a now-former mayor in Colorado City, Texas, write a social media post blaming his constituents for needing help, calling them lazy, telling them the government owes them nothing and that they shouldn’t be asking for “handouts,” and saying “only the strong will [perish].” He resigned shortly after, and his wife was fired from her job for supporting her husband’s cruel words. 

Ted Cruz, A.O.C., and Beto O’Rourke

And, of course, we all saw the backlash of Senator Ted Cruz abandoning his constituents in a crisis to go on vacation to Cancun with his family and even leaving behind his dog. 

This all contrasts greatly with the responses of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (A.O.C.) and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who previously ran against Ted Cruz in 2018 for state senator. 

Both of these people – not even representatives of the state – not only showed up to help Texans but also raised over five million dollars to help them. What’s Cruz’s excuse?

It shows the lack of regard and representation that Texas’s elected officials hold for their constituents. And what’s been almost comical to see, if it weren’t for the lack of humanity, is the people who have come out to defend the responses of people like Ted Cruz, including Ben Shapiro and Joe Rogan, who questions what Ted Cruz could possibly be capable of doing to help people, including making the ridiculous argument that it’s not like he can control the weather. (DAMN JACKIE). 

After seeing AOC and Beto actually doing something, Ted Cruz returned to Texas to “help” people, doing some damage control and photo-ops of him passing out water. 

Mainstream Media Coverage

Aside from this has been the response by the media, particularly right-wing media like Fox News. Pundits blamed things like the Green New Deal, despite it not yet passing in Congress. They blamed wind power not withstanding the cold, even though windmill farms exist without issue in places like Alaska and Antarctica. 

I also want to touch on something that’s seen an alarming lack of coverage or response – the conditions of the children and migrants in the concentration camps located in Texas. And if we’re real with ourselves, it’s not just the camps located in Texas, but any state hit by this extreme winter weather. The lights being on changes little regarding the abhorrent conditions and treatment these people are kept in. 

What’s Happening at the Camps? *crickets*

For days I posted about the lack of coverage of what was happening at these camps. If this is how the Texas government is treating its citizens, what untold horrors were people experiencing behind closed doors? 

It appeared only individual people on places like Twitter said or asked anything.

I’ve now since heard people make claims of children standing barefoot on concrete floors without shoes, blankets, or warmth, kept in the dark and cold, not receiving safe food. At one facility in North Texas, the power and water went out for several days. 

Knowing what we know about what happens at these facilities from the last few years, I’m not surprised by any of the horrors we hear from them. Even now, a while past the snowstorm, I have heard next to nothing being reported. How many people died? Would we ever know?

I pretty much only heard mainstream media outlets talk about Biden continuing deportations and opening new camps up. And those in themselves are issues, but the fact of how quiet it’s been about the abuse that people at the camps experienced during a natural disaster is really deafening if you think about it.

Responses From Others

Despite all of these responses, which I’ve almost come to expect at this point, perhaps the most unsettling thing for me was seeing people blaming those living in the southern/red states for their plight. Saying they deserved this and that maybe they’ll learn to “take voting seriously” and “vote those people out.” Or even saying they didn’t care seeing people suffer and die because they assume everyone in Texas is a conservative, or a racist, wants to secede from the U.S., or this or that. Or that the people who caused this deserve what they’re getting for ignoring climate change and prioritizing profit. 

Except, the people making these comments fail to understand several important facts and forget the victims in this situation. 

The Fallacy of Their Comments

One

You don’t get to choose who lives and dies in a situation like what we saw. It’s unacceptable when conservative people make these kinds of comments about people harmed at the protests over the past year or when police shoot unarmed black men, and it’s unacceptable here. 

We should not blindly forsake people solely based on their affiliation or where they live. Not everyone is calling for secession in Texas, just the loudest voices – not the majority. The division is the same, and no one is better than the other for making the same comments but being on different teams. 

Two

The people getting harmed by this are not the people who caused this mess. They have the means to leave, as we saw happen with Ted Cruz. He and his family were never in real danger of starving or freezing to death, but his constituents were – and they include the people who did not vote for him. At least five of the board members from ERCOT didn’t even live in the state; one actually lived in Canada! 

Three

These types of comments gravely ignore the fact that nearly half the state actually voted blue this last election. If it weren’t for the rampant gerrymandering, voter suppression and disenfranchisement, and lack of representation in the state, Texas might have actually flipped red in the last two elections. As a result, these comments ultimately blame low-income and minority communities for their own oppression by their own state government, making it difficult to change things politically. 

Four

These people cruelly overlook the fact that the people most likely to die during this natural disaster – and ANY natural disaster – includes the elderly, disabled, homeless, low-income, and communities of color. When people say they don’t care about Texans dying because they “deserved” this, it’s disgusting and shameful. 

Not to mention, voting isn’t going to help anyone RIGHT NOW. The next election is the 2022 midterms. People needed and continue to need help at this moment. Telling people to vote does nothing as a solution to their current situation. 

Getting Off the High-horse

The people who made these comments are no better than any other group wishing death upon people. To speak such ugliness about our own citizens’ suffering by a government that’s abandoned them speaks more about those saying these things than those impacted. This type of mindset is dangerous and divisive, forsaking the lives of others solely for their circumstances. We must be better.