Facebook is a menace. COVID-19 is a menace. Conservatism is a cesspool. Together, those three ingredients have created a toxic stew of malevolent death and devastation. We can talk about all those things in the abstract, look at the numbers and statistics, and catch the occasional whiff of seditionist right-wing rhetoric. But I hadn’t really fully understood just how horrifying that combination of right-wing extremism, Facebook, and a killer virus was until I became a regular at the Herman Cain Awards subreddit. This series will document some of those stories, so we are aware of what the other side is doing to our country.
Today’s cautionary tale is Bruce.
I AM NOT WEARING A SEAT BELT. I am not a sheep.
I AM NOT LOOKING BOTH WAYS BEFORE I CROSS THE STREET. I am not a sheep.
I HAVE DISABLED ALL MY SMOKE DETECTORS. I am not a sheep.
I DO NOT WASH MY HANDS AFTER USING THE BATHROOM. I am not a sheep.
The New World Order refers to a global totalitarian government.
“Seeping into popular culture” really means “spreads by Facebook.”
Looked it up. So, the government never poisoned alcohol distributed to anyone who would actually drink it. Rather, it included toxic chemicals in industrial alcohol to make sure that bootleggers couldn’t convert it to moonshine. However, moonshine was too lucrative a trade for the Mafia to let a little poison get in the way, so they continued converting that tainted alcohol into drinking alcohol, poisoning that estimated 10,000 people. This meme is actually true!
Of course, how is that relevant to today? If the lesson is, “the government will add poison to curtail the use of illegal substances,” how is that relevant to a very legal vaccine?
Of course, this is about distrusting the government, full stop. So a thing that happened a century ago—egged on by the very same religious mania that infects modern-day evangelicals—means that you shouldn’t listen to the government when it says “please vaccinate.”
But what about listening to doctors? Or the scientific community? Heck, even religious leaders like the Pope?
Yes, those outfits provide the most protection. But why does everything have to be binary with these people?
Masks are easy, convenient, and while they don’t eliminate all risk, they eliminate a big chunk of risk. Not every choice has to be so binary.
We do. Trust us.
We aren’t giving away free insulin and chemo because asshole conservatives vote for people who refuse to allow free insulin and chemo.
“Hi, I think I know better than you, the scientific community, and the medical establishment. So going against everyone’s objectively safer recommendations and putting you and everyone else around me in danger doesn’t mean I’m an asshole.”
Uh, yeah it does.
These people read these memes and are like YEAH, I GET IT!
Meanwhile, the meme is utterly incomprehensible and illogical. Makes zero sense.
“Russia gets good vodka and we get Coors Light. DON’T YOU GET IT YET?!”
Meanwhile, China has lockdowns and an auto chip shortage (along with literally the entire world), Russia has record COVID deaths because of its refusal to lock anything down, and the Taliban can’t feed its people. (But hey, they’ll have fun with broken-down military equipment and no access to spare parts or the expertise to fix them.)
Yeah, not a thing that exists. But they’ll use a devastating natural disaster to further their efforts to keep another natural disaster alive and well.
Yeah, this is bullshit.
Not only are hospitalizations down over 90%, but deaths are down even more.
Shows you how easy it is to twist data for your own nefarious purposes.
Three weeks after shit-posting about the vaccine, COVID took Bruce’s life. His best friend is like “what’s up with this dam COVID,” as if we haven’t spent over a year trying to educate people about what’s up with this damn COVID.
We know that it is devastating, a brutal killer, a painful death, and an economic wrecking ball. We know that vaccines dramatically reduce the damage it causes, as does masking, social distancing, washing hands, and other mitigating acts.
We know what’s up. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone anymore.
Goldie is Bruce’s widow, still sick as we close out this story. His sister and niece have also died within the past month.
I keep saying it: I don’t know a single person within one degree of separation that has died of COVID. I am lucky, I know, but my circle took this disease seriously from the beginning, even before we knew how horrific it was. The Northeast wasn’t as lucky, and got slammed before doctors knew how to best treat the infections, and before we knew how to best mitigate its spread. (Remember the early guidance not to mask. Unfortunately, that got a lot of people killed.)
But now we know how COVID spreads. We have a vaccine that mitigates most of the deadly risk. And yet entire swaths of the country are being slammed because people like Bruce knew better than everyone else, and decided that “fear” was the biggest danger, not the virus itself. And not only is his whole family suffering as a result, so is his community.
What is up with this damn COVID? It’s a fucking horrific disease, and it doesn’t give a damn if you think you’re a ferocious lion. The sheep aren’t the ones doing the dying.
Vaccinate and mask up already! That’s what’s up.
Today’s cautionary tale is Bruce.
I AM NOT WEARING A SEAT BELT. I am not a sheep.
I AM NOT LOOKING BOTH WAYS BEFORE I CROSS THE STREET. I am not a sheep.
I HAVE DISABLED ALL MY SMOKE DETECTORS. I am not a sheep.
I DO NOT WASH MY HANDS AFTER USING THE BATHROOM. I am not a sheep.
The New World Order refers to a global totalitarian government.
“Seeping into popular culture” really means “spreads by Facebook.”
Looked it up. So, the government never poisoned alcohol distributed to anyone who would actually drink it. Rather, it included toxic chemicals in industrial alcohol to make sure that bootleggers couldn’t convert it to moonshine. However, moonshine was too lucrative a trade for the Mafia to let a little poison get in the way, so they continued converting that tainted alcohol into drinking alcohol, poisoning that estimated 10,000 people. This meme is actually true!
Of course, how is that relevant to today? If the lesson is, “the government will add poison to curtail the use of illegal substances,” how is that relevant to a very legal vaccine?
Of course, this is about distrusting the government, full stop. So a thing that happened a century ago—egged on by the very same religious mania that infects modern-day evangelicals—means that you shouldn’t listen to the government when it says “please vaccinate.”
But what about listening to doctors? Or the scientific community? Heck, even religious leaders like the Pope?
Yes, those outfits provide the most protection. But why does everything have to be binary with these people?
Masks are easy, convenient, and while they don’t eliminate all risk, they eliminate a big chunk of risk. Not every choice has to be so binary.
We do. Trust us.
We aren’t giving away free insulin and chemo because asshole conservatives vote for people who refuse to allow free insulin and chemo.
“Hi, I think I know better than you, the scientific community, and the medical establishment. So going against everyone’s objectively safer recommendations and putting you and everyone else around me in danger doesn’t mean I’m an asshole.”
Uh, yeah it does.
These people read these memes and are like YEAH, I GET IT!
Meanwhile, the meme is utterly incomprehensible and illogical. Makes zero sense.
“Russia gets good vodka and we get Coors Light. DON’T YOU GET IT YET?!”
Meanwhile, China has lockdowns and an auto chip shortage (along with literally the entire world), Russia has record COVID deaths because of its refusal to lock anything down, and the Taliban can’t feed its people. (But hey, they’ll have fun with broken-down military equipment and no access to spare parts or the expertise to fix them.)
Yeah, not a thing that exists. But they’ll use a devastating natural disaster to further their efforts to keep another natural disaster alive and well.
Yeah, this is bullshit.
Not only are hospitalizations down over 90%, but deaths are down even more.
Shows you how easy it is to twist data for your own nefarious purposes.
Three weeks after shit-posting about the vaccine, COVID took Bruce’s life. His best friend is like “what’s up with this dam COVID,” as if we haven’t spent over a year trying to educate people about what’s up with this damn COVID.
We know that it is devastating, a brutal killer, a painful death, and an economic wrecking ball. We know that vaccines dramatically reduce the damage it causes, as does masking, social distancing, washing hands, and other mitigating acts.
We know what’s up. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone anymore.
Goldie is Bruce’s widow, still sick as we close out this story. His sister and niece have also died within the past month.
I keep saying it: I don’t know a single person within one degree of separation that has died of COVID. I am lucky, I know, but my circle took this disease seriously from the beginning, even before we knew how horrific it was. The Northeast wasn’t as lucky, and got slammed before doctors knew how to best treat the infections, and before we knew how to best mitigate its spread. (Remember the early guidance not to mask. Unfortunately, that got a lot of people killed.)
But now we know how COVID spreads. We have a vaccine that mitigates most of the deadly risk. And yet entire swaths of the country are being slammed because people like Bruce knew better than everyone else, and decided that “fear” was the biggest danger, not the virus itself. And not only is his whole family suffering as a result, so is his community.
What is up with this damn COVID? It’s a fucking horrific disease, and it doesn’t give a damn if you think you’re a ferocious lion. The sheep aren’t the ones doing the dying.
Vaccinate and mask up already! That’s what’s up.