Two nights ago, my wife and I turned off the dozen or so scattered tea lights that illuminated our apartment as electricians worked around the clock to restore power, even as the wind uprooted centuries-old trees around them. Within hours, we stuffed our trunk bags full of the six P's (people/pets, documents/phone numbers/documents, prescriptions, pictures, personal technology, and plastic/credit cards) to evacuate to safety. I'm happy that my apartment building is still standing, but the last update I got was from a friend who said: "Looks like 'Silent Hill' here." I should be sleeping, but I haven't, too lulled by the 24-hour news coverage of the devastating fires ravaging Los Angeles County and staring in too-dry-eyed horror at the smoke choking out any semblance of fresh air.

The destruction is unimaginable. Tabloid publications have smeared photos of multimillion-dollar celebrity homes leveled into rubble. Meanwhile, local news stations interview tearful working-class families sifting through the remains of family homes, and drones capture the sight of mobile home properties flattened on vacant lots. "You can replace things, you can't replace people" is a platitude steeped in toxic positivity, lobbied by people who have never known the feeling of loss. everything. We will spend years debating "who's to blame" as mutual aid foundations desperately try to help the thousands of people who are now homeless, adding to the already catastrophic number of homeless civilians.

"We will rebuild," is repeated a lot through gritted teeth and deep sighs that feel like background, but rebuilding takes time, supplies, labor, and money. Unfortunately, as we approach an oligarchy, there are undoubtedly people who view the news of the wipeout not with empathy or horror, but with dollar signs in their eyes. I always turn to movies in hard times (see also: my experiences watching the Inside Out movies.), but it's hard when real life feels like an emotional cross-section of something made by Roland Emmerich.

It is especially difficult on the eve of "Twisters", which highlights a rapacious villain so despicable that it should radicalize anyone watching at home.

When we meet the Storm Par in "Twisters", they are a highly organized team of storm chasers who receive funding through famous investors, including the wealthy Marshall Riggs. Storm chasers are using the funding to continue their work analyzing tornadoes in hopes of eventually finding a way to slow or weaken storms, but their financial backers aren't funding the team because they're actually giving a flying rat their ass for protection to the people in Tornado Alley. . In reality, it is quite the opposite.

Investors like Riggs provide funds in exchange for the names of people whose homes were destroyed by tornadoes... so he can offer them cash for their land, often for less than what it's worth. They prey on and exploit the emotionally compromised and vulnerable communities that have lost out everything because these capitalist pigs care more about profit than helping people. While we were too busy debating whether or not Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Tyler (Glenn Powell) should have kissedthe real debate was about the financial backing of Storm Par and how capitalism has invaded and corrupted every industry imaginable.

Javi (Anthony Ramos) is undoubtedly conflicted about where Storm Par's funding is coming from, but it's clear he's made this deal with the devil because, as his business partner Scott (David Korensvet) rightly learns, it's one of the only ways they can afford to continue their research. Javi is trying to help people with his tornado research, and people like Riggs know that without their investment, his work won't be able to continue. Javi is another vulnerable person who acts against his own interests because our world requires those without wealth to be forever at the mercy of those who have, while Scott has been corrupted by their influence and is now a fictional version of people who they hunt storms. living in poverty defending the reputation of tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

People like Marshall Riggs, unfortunately, are very real, and even as the fires continue to rage, they quickly scatter from the tree lines like the aggressive monsters that they are. People already have taken on social networks to talk about being offered 15% or less of their home's value for the land it previously sat on. Get-rich-quick freaks encourage people to "invest" in land in the Pacific Palisades area "while it's still cheap." At press time, the fire has spread to over 17,000 acres and is zero percent contained. The fire isn't even out, and these stormtroopers are already plotting their rise as the richest of the wasteland.

And as is the case with Twisters, their profit margins are downright myopic. Sure, they can buy cheap land after tornadoes or wildfires destroy communities, but if the tornadoes or wildfires never improve, regardless of the profit these bigwigs make from selling properties built on their cheaply bought land, they will eventually should be used to pay for the rebuild. again when Mother Nature proves once again that she is not a man to be messed with. We're less than six months from when Twisters hit theaters, and this major plot point unfortunately feels a little too real for comfort. It's time to be like Javi, Kate and the Tornado Wranglers led by Tyler and finally leave these opportunistic villains in the dirt.

For information on how to actually help those affected by the SoCal wildfires, you can find a list of resources here.