A lesson in how lies lead to dangerous outcomes
Facts, once unassailable, have become, well, difficult to quantify. People make up or repeat lies, especially on social media platforms and other online spaces, and people believe them, think what they read or hear is true, is a fact. As it turns out, those lies can be dangerous. We’ve all witnessed it at the national level, but it’s also happening right here in Western North Carolina.
Take what happened recently in Haywood County. During a time of year when most look forward to being thankful for their blessings and spending quality time with family, Haywood commissioners have dealt with the repercussions of false information spreading around the internet. Those repercussions included threatening emails and phone calls, all because of the spread of false information online.
It started when Commissioner Terry Ramey appeared in YouTube “personality” John Ward’s video about hurricane response in Haywood County, or the supposed lack of hurricane response. Ward claimed county commissioners could ignore state building codes and allow campers for homeless hurricane victims to be set up at, say, the fairgrounds (formally known as the Smoky Mountain Event Center). Ramey agreed but said he was just one of five votes.
In a subsequent video that aired Dec. 1 — one day before a county commission meeting — Ward posted the names, phone numbers and email addresses of all the commissioners, and encouraged citizens to call FBI offices and have commissioners arrested: “Call your local FBI field office and have the county officials involved arrested under citizen’s arrest … for felony conspiracy against rights in violation of title 18 USC section 241, felony deprivation or rights under color of law … [and] section 242, insurrection and rebellion against the constitution of the United States, perjury and violating oath of office, crimes against humanity, and domestic terrorism for refusing to allow tiny homes ….”
With that, what had been on onslaught of emails and calls became a larger deluge and even more threatening. There are a lot of issues in the video and the subsequent fallout at the Dec. 2 meeting that are symbolic of how the unreliability of online “news” sources can lead to potentially dangerous situations. In The Smoky Mountain News story by Cory Vaillancourt, Haywood Sheriff Bill Wilke “said that he was ‘alarmed’ that new rumors were again circulating about people living in tents or otherwise out in the cold because of commissioners. He directed his deputies to double check and said there were ‘zero’ people living in tents.”
Ward and Ramey served as a catalyst for this whole controversy by starting the spread of outright lies. The larger issue, though, is that some intentionally spread misinformation and gain fame and followers (that means money) by doing so. And those folks don’t have to deal with the repercussions, but folks like Wilke do.
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This is somewhat like the whole “Haitians eating dogs and cats” lie spread by — yes, let’s say it though some will accuse me of just going after him — incoming President Donald Trump and incoming Vice President JD Vance.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said Sept. 10 during a presidential debate. “The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.”
The problem was, it wasn’t true. But Trump and Vance did not walk back what they said despite Springfield, Ohio, officials saying it just wasn’t true. Trump, when asked, said he had heard this on TV. Vance claimed constituents were calling him and making the claims.
The fact that it wasn’t happening didn’t matter. What did matter is that, suddenly, grocery stores, schools and other places in Springfield began getting bomb threats. Just for the record, this whopper of a lie earned Politifacts “Lie of the Year” for 2024.
Some people are unwitting puppets won when episodes like this occur, and that may be what happened with Ramey. But that does not excuse his actions and his role in the fallout from it. Instead, this episode should serve as a reminder of how dangerous the spread of misinformation can be, how quickly sensationalized accusations can take an ugly turn for the worst, and how the ability to discern fact from fiction is more important than ever.
(Scott McLeod can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
