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 Chasity.
This story skips the first act altogether, which usually establishes the antagonist’s anti-vaccine bona fides, and gets right into the crisis. And that’s fine, because you’re about to get a long and sobering look at what many medical personnel in hospitals have to deal with from unhinged “Facebook doctors.”
This is a point completely lost to the “I have an immune system” and “COVID has a 99.8% survival rate” crowd: It’s not just about you. We get it, you’re a conservative psychopath who doesn’t care about anyone else. But can you at least care about your nuclear family? Is that too much to ask for?
Because when you start adding up the people in your family and other loved ones, the odds start looking less and less good.
I grew up Catholic, so I understand the Christian tradition, generically. But this I don’t understand.
Your god is all-powerful, all-knowing, and wise beyond comprehension. But woah, God totally missed this one illness over here, so we gotta bring it to His attention. And just the family praying … well, might not cut through the clutter, so we need everyone to pray as well. Because with the evangelical god, the squeaky wheel gets the grease?
Clearly, this is more of a sociological phenomenon, a plea for community support in a time of need. Because theologically, it just doesn’t make any sense.
But if community is so important … why not take a jab to protect everyone in that community?
It’s not my people, in my liberal Bay Area bubble, that are dying of COVID. It’s these rural conservatives that are being decimated.
I would totally take a vaccine to avoid “the worst” headache and a bad cold.
Chasity’s bout with COVID ended up being more like a bad flu. We don’t hear about her brother anymore, so presumably he came out the other side okay. But mom isn’t doing so well—a reminder that COVID precautions aren’t just about the self, but the broader community.
Why is this so hard for conservatives to understand?
“Vyreus.” Apparently, these people are sophisticated enough to come up with creative spellings for certain words to avoid Facebook filters and warning labels, but not creative enough to take a free jab that would’ve avoided all of this—maybe even that terrible headache.
But instead of taking an FDA-approved vaccine, she wants the hospital to administer a horse dewormer that has FDA approval … for killing parasitic infestations. And she’s doing “research” which now has her believing crazy conspiracies that hospitals benefit financially from COVID patients, and that hospitals are literally murdering people.
Their twisted efforts to rationalize their irresponsible behavior are become more and more dangerous.
She thinks the hospital is killing her mother. She wants the hospital to send her home with hospital equipment.
At least her friend Holly is trying to talk sense into her.
Agreed. COVID floor sounds horrifying. That’s why we’re blessed with a vaccine that allows most people to avoid the COVID floor.
Imagine thinking you know better than the entire medical and scientific establishment because of something you read on a sketchy website.
Imagine thinking that there is a vast global conspiracy to keep those people from knowing about those drugs, so she can’t even say “ivermectin” or spell “virus” correctly, lest it foist a useless warning label on her post.
Imagine thinking that there’s any governmental incentive for mass death in this country—a government, by the way, that is begging people to take a free life-saving jab.
Imagine crying that the vaccines that mostly prevent this disease are insufficiently tested, but wanting to take untested drugs to treat this disease.
I’m glad she was able to take time off from her efforts to get her mother out of the hospital to post a meme attacking the vaccine that would’ve kept her mom out of the hospital.
If I’m ever this sick and my kids post a picture of me in this condition, I am kicking their asses. And if I die, I’m haunting them from beyond the grave.
But maybe, just maybe, people might see that COVID isn’t “just like the flu”?
Looks like Chasity’s mom had COPD, and that’s why she needed a CPAP machine? Regardless, her mother was clearly at high risk for a disease that attacks the lungs, which should’ve given both her mom and her family even more reason to vaccinate.
But of course, it’s everyone else’s fault, because an overstretched and overworked medical system didn’t deliver that machine quickly enough. Overstretched and overworked because people like Chasity and her mom and family won’t vaccinate.
Back to theology … so if they stop praying, their god gets bored and moves on to other things?
Oh boy, Ivermectin cures everything! Not just COVID, but AIDS, too! And Ebola and Zika! So she thinks she's outsmarting the hospital by applying horse paste on her mother’s feet, under her socks. Okay then.
Also, it’s clear she doesn’t realize hospice care is end-of-life palliative treatment.
Incidentally, if ivermectin was an effective treatment, its manufacturer Merck would make bank. Here is what they’ve said:
These people will claim that the vaccine is being pushed by Big Pharma to make money, and yet here is Big Pharma going, “DON’T BUY OUR PRODUCT IT MAY HARM YOU.”
Ironic, huh?
Oh boy.
“Send me money so I can get the word out.”
CRISIS ACTORS, OMG. She thinks hospital personnel are actors literally killing and torturing patients!
And … and what exactly is it that “GOD is about to show us”? Is it related to her threats of violence she apparently sent via Facebook messenger?
There is no cure, but a vaccine gets us most of the way there.
Seriously, what is the logic behind “government wants businesses to fail”? Is there any attempt at an actual argument?
It’s over.
Any redemption? Of course not:
Chasity was driven to madness by her mother’s rapid decline. It’s painful and horrible to have to experience. But that pain is nothing compared to what she would feel if she admitted that her actions created the conditions for her mother’s death. So her only other option is to dig deeper into the conspiracy theories, to prove to herself over and over again that refusing the vaccine was the right call to make.
Incidentally, I looked up that “White Coat Summit.”
These assholes are truly the worst.
Today’s cautionary tale is Chasity.
This story skips the first act altogether, which usually establishes the antagonist’s anti-vaccine bona fides, and gets right into the crisis. And that’s fine, because you’re about to get a long and sobering look at what many medical personnel in hospitals have to deal with from unhinged “Facebook doctors.”
This is a point completely lost to the “I have an immune system” and “COVID has a 99.8% survival rate” crowd: It’s not just about you. We get it, you’re a conservative psychopath who doesn’t care about anyone else. But can you at least care about your nuclear family? Is that too much to ask for?
Because when you start adding up the people in your family and other loved ones, the odds start looking less and less good.
I grew up Catholic, so I understand the Christian tradition, generically. But this I don’t understand.
Your god is all-powerful, all-knowing, and wise beyond comprehension. But woah, God totally missed this one illness over here, so we gotta bring it to His attention. And just the family praying … well, might not cut through the clutter, so we need everyone to pray as well. Because with the evangelical god, the squeaky wheel gets the grease?
Clearly, this is more of a sociological phenomenon, a plea for community support in a time of need. Because theologically, it just doesn’t make any sense.
But if community is so important … why not take a jab to protect everyone in that community?
It’s not my people, in my liberal Bay Area bubble, that are dying of COVID. It’s these rural conservatives that are being decimated.
I would totally take a vaccine to avoid “the worst” headache and a bad cold.
Chasity’s bout with COVID ended up being more like a bad flu. We don’t hear about her brother anymore, so presumably he came out the other side okay. But mom isn’t doing so well—a reminder that COVID precautions aren’t just about the self, but the broader community.
Why is this so hard for conservatives to understand?
“Vyreus.” Apparently, these people are sophisticated enough to come up with creative spellings for certain words to avoid Facebook filters and warning labels, but not creative enough to take a free jab that would’ve avoided all of this—maybe even that terrible headache.
But instead of taking an FDA-approved vaccine, she wants the hospital to administer a horse dewormer that has FDA approval … for killing parasitic infestations. And she’s doing “research” which now has her believing crazy conspiracies that hospitals benefit financially from COVID patients, and that hospitals are literally murdering people.
Their twisted efforts to rationalize their irresponsible behavior are become more and more dangerous.
She thinks the hospital is killing her mother. She wants the hospital to send her home with hospital equipment.
At least her friend Holly is trying to talk sense into her.
Agreed. COVID floor sounds horrifying. That’s why we’re blessed with a vaccine that allows most people to avoid the COVID floor.
Imagine thinking you know better than the entire medical and scientific establishment because of something you read on a sketchy website.
Imagine thinking that there is a vast global conspiracy to keep those people from knowing about those drugs, so she can’t even say “ivermectin” or spell “virus” correctly, lest it foist a useless warning label on her post.
Imagine thinking that there’s any governmental incentive for mass death in this country—a government, by the way, that is begging people to take a free life-saving jab.
Imagine crying that the vaccines that mostly prevent this disease are insufficiently tested, but wanting to take untested drugs to treat this disease.
I’m glad she was able to take time off from her efforts to get her mother out of the hospital to post a meme attacking the vaccine that would’ve kept her mom out of the hospital.
If I’m ever this sick and my kids post a picture of me in this condition, I am kicking their asses. And if I die, I’m haunting them from beyond the grave.
But maybe, just maybe, people might see that COVID isn’t “just like the flu”?
Looks like Chasity’s mom had COPD, and that’s why she needed a CPAP machine? Regardless, her mother was clearly at high risk for a disease that attacks the lungs, which should’ve given both her mom and her family even more reason to vaccinate.
But of course, it’s everyone else’s fault, because an overstretched and overworked medical system didn’t deliver that machine quickly enough. Overstretched and overworked because people like Chasity and her mom and family won’t vaccinate.
Back to theology … so if they stop praying, their god gets bored and moves on to other things?
Oh boy, Ivermectin cures everything! Not just COVID, but AIDS, too! And Ebola and Zika! So she thinks she's outsmarting the hospital by applying horse paste on her mother’s feet, under her socks. Okay then.
Also, it’s clear she doesn’t realize hospice care is end-of-life palliative treatment.
Incidentally, if ivermectin was an effective treatment, its manufacturer Merck would make bank. Here is what they’ve said:
These people will claim that the vaccine is being pushed by Big Pharma to make money, and yet here is Big Pharma going, “DON’T BUY OUR PRODUCT IT MAY HARM YOU.”
Ironic, huh?
Oh boy.
“Send me money so I can get the word out.”
CRISIS ACTORS, OMG. She thinks hospital personnel are actors literally killing and torturing patients!
And … and what exactly is it that “GOD is about to show us”? Is it related to her threats of violence she apparently sent via Facebook messenger?
There is no cure, but a vaccine gets us most of the way there.
Seriously, what is the logic behind “government wants businesses to fail”? Is there any attempt at an actual argument?
It’s over.
Any redemption? Of course not:
Chasity was driven to madness by her mother’s rapid decline. It’s painful and horrible to have to experience. But that pain is nothing compared to what she would feel if she admitted that her actions created the conditions for her mother’s death. So her only other option is to dig deeper into the conspiracy theories, to prove to herself over and over again that refusing the vaccine was the right call to make.
Incidentally, I looked up that “White Coat Summit.”
These assholes are truly the worst.