A day or two ago there was a woman on Twitter who apparently wants to sell a biopic about a woman who fought for the victims of the atomic bomb tests in New Mexico. One problem: almost everything she said in the thread is made up. It got over 12 million views.
I understand being upset other stories haven’t been told, especially in regards to harms done to one’s people. But #Oppenheimer doesn’t seem to idealize its subject and one can advocate for other stories without lying. 1/
@SarahOestreich @vaurora Thank you for pointing this out, and for linking to Stephen Schwartz discussing the actual details of the history here.
As you wrote, the author of that thread seems to like co-opting and misrepresenting real & serious problems (such as downwinders being denied recognition and assistance for decades).
@michael_w_busch @vaurora of course! Glad Stephen was able to fill in the parts for which I was ill-equipped.
It is rather disappointing that she seems to have a bit of a tenuous relationship with the truth about such a serious topic. Downwinders deserve their stories to be told and I fear that people hearing that she may have misrepresented some of the history means her thread could end up doing more harm than good. But I do feel fact-checking is still important
Sarah
Michael Busch