You were always a really nice guy. You’d give anyone a helping hand whenever they needed it. You were the stereotypic midwestern redneck farmer. You were a BIG guy that I don’t think I ever saw not wearing a pair of overalls, and that includes at church. Your son and my kids went to church camp together. Your son and my son played against each other in baseball all the time. You and I would sit by each other and yell “encouragement” to the players and the umps.
We disagreed strongly when it came to politics but that didn’t mire our friendship. On Facebook, you’d tell me how wrong I was and I’d reciprocate. When COVID came along, you were in the “You can’t make me wear a mask” camp. I’m pretty sure that you supported ivermectin use. I don’t know if you ever got vaccinated but I very much doubt it.
Now you’re gone. Taken from this world far too early from COVID pneumonia.
Yes, sorry for your loss. As @gdave said, it is good to remember that anti-maskers / anti-vaxxers are human beings and complex individuals too. There are several like that on my wife’s side of the family-- really great people for the most part who would do anything for you, but solidly in the ‘anti-mask / anti-vax / trump could do no wrong’ camp.
Not to turn this into another ‘trump-bashing’ thread, but I often wonder, if Hillary Clinton or even another, (slightly) saner Repub had become Pres in 2016, and had embraced the science and endorsed masks and vaxxing, would we be where we’re at now? I know a lot of it comes from the loony far-right crowd, but I really feel like a lot of people were swayed because “the President says or does it, so it must be true.”
It would be worse if it were Clinton. The only type who had a hope to make it better is a sane Republican. One who could embrace the scientific methods, and LEAD. Not because of anything wrong with Clinton or right with sane Republicans, but because the Republican rank and file are poisoned to Democrat ideas.
Maybe not. If Republicans were not in power, there may never have been any anti-vax, COVID-denying bullshit. Trump was in full COVID denial mode because it was affecting the stock market.
Like I said, I feel like a big swath of mainstream(ish) America saw and heard trump not wearing a mask and pushing wacky alternate drug therapies, and decided “if the President says / does it, then it must be right”.
In addition to trump being in COVID denial mode because of the stock market, he also had other reasons for what he did-- he listened to the wingnut loonies pushing alternate drug therapies, and he refused to wear masks simply out of vanity, at least at first.
Then a vicious cycle thing kicked in where the wingnut crowd took trump’s not wearing a mask, and turned it into a “people’s right not to be muzzled” ideological thing. And then trump took it on as his reason for doing so.
I think the ‘direct from wingnut to mainstream(ish) America’ anti-vax, anti-mask influence would not have had the same impact if anybody but trump had been president for those four horrible years.
Nah, the “President does it” was simply convenient justification, as it just happened to align with their pre-existing ignorance. Trump didn’t give them the idea, he just reinforced the dumb shit that was already there.
I think there’s some evidence for this “public safety guided by populism” later on, when it came to vaccines. Trump was not an anti-vaxxer; on the contrary he made it a goal to help get vaccines made, and to his credit, he did. Pretty quickly. And he promoted them, and still does. But, many of his followers are anti-vaxxers, so he’s cautious about the way he promotes them, because when he speaks about vaccines his own people boo him, and he doesn’t want that. He tries to encourage people to get vaccines because it’s part of his legacy, but he also doesn’t want to be pushy about it. Here’s an example:
To the OP, I’m sorry for your loss. I haven’t lost anyone to Covid (knock on wood) but I know decent folks who are part of the “no mask, no vaccine crowd”. I really dislike that they risk themselves and others in their beliefs and behaviors, but I would still really hate to lose them.
