You can see where they made that mistake, though, as trusting experts on their field of expertise and caring about your fellow man are traits almost entirely gone from the US right. Believing reality, trusting science, and trying minimize harm to your fellow human beings are effectively “leftist ideas” in the current US political climate.
(More accurately, almost no democrats are actually left, and it’s really just sane conservative vs insane conservative, with the republican party giving up any pretenses of having those traits)
I think this is pretty much the only avenue left for right-wing talking heads to get off this ridiculous hill they’ve climbed and decided other people should die for.
I can’t imagine it’s their vestigial human decency, so I have to wonder if they’re detecting some weather change in the Republican base or they’re afraid of the potential legal liability of getting all these people killed and being stuck with the actual blame. They need a no-fault way out and it looks like John Nolte has started the rush for the gates.
I think my favorite part is where they say, “You know how the left made fun of you for not getting vaccinated, and you responded by refusing to get vaccinated even though refusing might kill you? That’s a totally sane and mature and normal thing for humans to do, everyone would do that!”
Right, and that’s going to be a big thing going forward. It’s kind of a two-way validation agreement.
The right-wing talking heads are going to be telling the people who are hopefully now getting their vaccines, that not getting their vaccines earlier was a totally legit thing to do until doing so was the only way to own the libs by seeing through their plot.
In return, the hitherto-unvaccinated will feel validated and refrain from considering that these talking heads got tens of thousands of them killed for no goddamn reason at all. (Except the biblical sense of the word pride)
This movement will be tacitly supported by the Republican party, so the rest of civil society can’t action these talking heads for creating a literal death cult. Because it’s their death cult. Kind of like China keeps North Korea around, or Russia keeps Belarus.
At some point in the past few months I had the whimsical thought that the Biden Administration should forbid Republicans from getting vaccinated to spur them into getting vaccinated.
In another remix of “Leftists want to kill The Right”, hard core seditionists like Lin Wood are promoting the theory that leftist health care workers are killing conservatives that are admitted to hospitals with COVID by putting them on ventilators instead of treating them for worms.
The CTs also haven’t explained what the left was supposed to do to get the right vaccinated. Should they have said, “Don’t vaccinate” to get the right to vax up? Then it would cost the left lives because some leftists wouldn’t get…vaccinated.
“Without a clear indication of the author’s intent, it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between an expression of sincere extremism and a parody of extremism.”
It is an observation that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between parodies of fundamentalism and other absurd beliefs, as well as their genuine proponents, since they both seem equally insane.
I tried to minimize the quotes from the article, but Nolte later says this:
The push for mandates is another ploy to get us to dig in and not do what’s best for ourselves because no one wants to feel like they’re caving to a mandate.
So, if we’re not gonna get vaxxed because you mocked and ridiculed us, then we certainly won’t if you try to force us to.
I sometimes think what is needed is a variant that the vaccines are effective against, but which kills the unvaccinated in a much shorter period of time. The result would be the same, but with much less wear and tear on health care workers.
As has been discussed before, Biden needs to spread a rumour that a certain readily available pet anti flea injection protects you from COVID. He needs to publicly denounce this rumour. Then arrange supply of the vaccine packaged as anti flea medication to all vets.
The American right, especially the religious right (whom comprise all the right I personally know) remind me more and more of the Church of Rome during the middle ages. They are devoted to outdated religious beliefs and texts, they have no full understanding of the world at all, they hold WAY too much power and authority, and they are afraid of anyone disagreeing with themselves. (For example it is not enough for them to oppose abortion themselves- they will not be happy until NO ONE can have an abortion without regard for their personal beliefs or medical circumstances.)
Here is the thing that proves they are simple minded hypocrites: they believe science they grew up with and have already assimilated into their beliefs – but fear and oppose any new science because - - - everything new must be evil. Fifty or a hundred years from now things they oppose to the point of becoming martyrs will be widely accepted and they will be rejecting science that in new then.
I thought that too. Tell them that they had the opportunity to take the thing for free for a full year, but starting on January 20th 2022 the shots will still be mandatory but the cost will be shifted to the vaccinated. That will give them a month or two to bitch and moan about it before they buckle down and get the shots for free THIS year. What is more, if got the vaccine free- all boosters will be free also, if you waited, you pay for boosters too.
This would be kind of funny if it wasn’t so damn sad!
In some thread someone suggested all the writers for The Onion and other comedy farces are now just working for the Republican Party.
The legal liability thing is what I’ve been wondering about. At what point does it become possible that a court might say that the disinformation about COVID encouraged by right-wing leadership and media amounts to actual negligent harm or some other law thingy that they could be held legally responsible for?
I don’t see an approach that would work with the anti-vaxxers. We’re living in a post-fact world. Any election not won by a Republican is illegitimate. Global warming is a hoax. Googling to find a nutjob that agrees with your initial prejudices outweighs the opinions of experts who spend decades in their field of study. It fucking never ends and never will end. If the unvaxxed die and didn’t affect others, I’d say let them die. But they affect their innocent children, they affect all of us when the clog up the health system and keep us from getting the care we need. They’re beyond reason and beyond hope and there isn’t one thing we can do about it.
This “oh it’s too bad when both sides make it political” tut-tutting is moronic. Only one side has made this political. Only one side denied that covid was real. Only one side was touting hydroxychlorquine and horse dewormer and bleach injections. We’re seeing Darwin at work now as the mentally unfit are marching into extinction.
“Somebody sent me a thing this morning where they’re talking about putting the vaccine into salad dressing. Or salads. Have you seen this? I mean it’s—and I’m thinking to myself, this is the Bizarro World, right?” Flynn can be heard saying in the clip. “This is definitely the Bizarro World. … These people are seriously thinking about how to impose their will on us in our society, and it has to stop.”
I don’t think that you could. We have that whole freedom of speech and all. If Fox News told people that sticking their tongue into a light socket prevents COVID, I don’t think that they’d be liable even then.
Now, doctors who are supposed to be giving care may have some liability towards their patients, so there may be something there. But as far as news and politicians, I don’t think that there are any consequences to their lies. (other than to their non-existent consciences.)