The Los Angeles wildfires are terrible. Whole neighborhoods have been wiped out and, sadly, five people have lost their lives. Countless people have been evacuated and many have lost their houses, including celebrities who made L.A. their home.
There’s been an outpouring of sympathy for those affected… except for James Woods. The actor and far-right commentator outright cried on CNN about the loss of his home, but people on social media weren’t swayed. After all, Woods is among other things a climate change denier, and it was hard not to see his house burning as karma finally getting to him.
Woods certainly was fishing for sympathy when he appeared on CNN. He explained that he and his wife had just moved back into the house after its renovation. “We finally had it done, and we were swimming every day and my blood pressure was going down,” Woods said tearfully. “If you ever saw the views from that house before this fire, they were just… It was paradise. And our neighbors, we knew them all.”
To give hardcore Trump supporter Woods what little credit he deserves, he did help rescue a neighbor with dementia as the fires raged. According to Woods, he called the police after becoming concerned about the neighbor, and police took them to a hospital.
But that wasn’t enough to make people feel anything but schadenfreude towards Woods, a man who called climate change a “grift” that appeals to the “low-thinking class.” There are multiple posts on X mocking him.
Woods told a sob story on CNN about his little niece offering her piggy bank to help pay for the ruined house. “I thought I would be stronger than this,” he said, crying. But on X, formerly known as Twitter, he was back to his old self. When a person calling themselves “Lucifer” brought up the climate change issue, Woods rudely snapped at them, “This fire is not from “climate change,” you ignorant a**hole. It’s because liberal idiots like you elect liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass. One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs.”
Nope, it’s predictably nothing to do with “liberals.” It’s climate change. How much of a role it played is still being discussed, but scientists agree it’s a cause. “These devastating fires are not only occurring with greater intensity but are also striking earlier than Southern California’s typical fire season, highlighting how climate change is reshaping fire regimes – the characteristic patterns of wildfire in a region,” Dr. Kimberley Simpson of the University of Sheffield told the Science Media Center. “While working to slow the effects of climate change and reduce fire risk through strategic vegetation management, we must also adapt to the new ‘normal’ of larger, more intense fire regimes and enhance our preparedness for these escalating challenges.”
Social media are also using this opportunity to shame Woods over something else he once said. This comment is breathtaking in its cruelty. In the wake of the beginning of the Israel-Palestine war, Woods said of Palestinians, “No ceasefire. No compromise. No forgiveness. #KillThemAll” The comment on X has a warning on it for potentially violating X’s hateful conduct rules, but it’s still there. Woods was not suspended for making it.
Many people are pointing out that, now he’s lost his house, Woods is experiencing an iota of what Palestinian civilians have been through.
It is unlikely the wave of condemnation will change anything for Woods. Even losing his Hollywood career because of his behavior didn’t make him move away from the far right. Now his house is gone as well. But his callous attitude remains.
Published: Jan 9, 2025 10:55 am