Stephen King has been facing backlash and calls for an apology after saying Texas voters were responsible for power outages across the state.
In his insensitive comment about the catastrophic power disruption in Texas, the author appeared to mock residents by blaming them for the deadly event that has cost millions of people the option to stay warm.
“Hey, Texas! Keep voting for officials who don’t believe in climate change and supported privatization of the power grid!” King wrote in his tweet.
“Maybe in 4 years you can vote for Trump again. He believes in the latter but not the former. Perfect.”
Following his comment, the 72-year-old liberal was quick to become the target of critics who suggested he was bashing an entire state rather than showing empathy for the people suffering from power outages.
“So I guess it’s cool that me and my family suffer in the cold because we don’t live in the right state? Cool. Good to know. I’d think that one of our country’s beloved authors would know not to make sweeping generalizations about an entire state, yet here we are,” someone wrote in response.
“Hey Stephen! Texan here. Almost half of our citizenry is Democrat. Our voting laws are the MOST oppressive in the country and we are gerrymandered worse than most other states. But congrats on owning the citizens of a state that has more Democrats than Maine,” another one said.
One user suggested: “I’m sitting in the dark, shivering until my teeth chatter, afraid to sleep because I’m too cold. If I die in this, leave my body on his doorstep, please and thanks.”
After the tweet went viral, people from both the left and the right lashed out at the best-selling author and demanded an apology. Nevertheless, there were also those who defended King by saying he just wanted to encourage the people of Texas to be better in the future.
“I don’t want anyone to suffer but am very frustrated that TX politicians voted to let other states suffer. How’s that fair? Elections have consequences,” someone said.
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Replaced!