Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Shit happens for a reason

 Eric Boehlert is shrill:

 

[T]he rest of the world must be looking on in slack-jawed astonishment as Trump voters lead a mad movement powered by Fox News. The network is doing what no other outlet has done in the history of television news — it’s deliberately getting people killed during a public health crisis by feeding eagerly gullible red state viewers a mountain of lies.

From PizzaGate, to QAnon, to the current anti-vaccine and anti-mask hysteria, the GOP has been brainwashed. It’s no secret — lots of victims openly admit it. Still, the press shies away, nervous about offending conservatives by portraying them as mindless zombies being easily duped about a miraculously safe and effective vaccine. (It’s the same reason news outlets refused to call Trump a “liar.”)

Yep. "Vaccine hesitancy" and purportedly libertarian resistance to mask wearing doesn't just happen, and it has nothing to do with actual conservative beliefs or ideology. It's happening because Republican politicians and their propaganda organs are manipulating people into killing themselves and their children. The rest of the corporate media might at least have the courage and decency to point that out.

 



7 comments:

Don Quixote said...

The question I have, of course, is: WHY are Republican politicians and their propaganda organs manipulating people into killing themselves and their children? What’s in it for them all, from Murdoch on down?

Cervantes said...

They want to create division. They want to make it a marker of tribal loyalty to deny consensual reality -- climate change, environmental hazards, wealth inequality -- anything that their plutocratic overlords don't want people to believe. If they can get them to reject science, reason and logic they can manipulate them and assure that they are dupes in every respect.

Also, Dear Leader denied the reality of the pandemic so we have to honor his omniscience.

Don Quixote said...

Well, what did the plutocrats get from sowing division? I know it’s hard to know what goes on in another person’s mind, if not impossible. But is it simply a sick game for them? Or is it all about manipulating the masses to gain power? Or both? Do the plutocrats really have no idea that destroying the rest of humanity is a boomerang?

mojrim said...

Political paralysis.

Don Quixote said...

Yeah. Okay, true. But seriously, what’s the gain? People do things because they want to. Is it the fear of change? Paralysis obviates change? Is it that simple?

Don Quixote said...

Or, Mo, is it simply the pleasure that humans derive from, say, squishing a bug? The sick lust for power that seems to find a home in the twisted minds of conservatives. The same sick drive that powered slavery and the rule of every dictator, autocrat and president named Trump who ever lived. The bottomless ego pit of the fragile, insecure man.

mojrim said...

No, Don, it's not. We have developed a political economy that entirely benefits the wealthiest and all change is downside risk. The very rich are not like you and me: they are ruthless, clear eyed predators with no illusions of how class and power really work.