Truth and partisanship

So we finally get around to the question. Why has vaccine denialism become almost exclusively a province of the right wing and the Republican party? This began to happen before the Covid-19 pandemic, but that was when it moved decisively into the Alex Jones/Joe Rogan/MAGA camp. Donald Trump actually tried to take credit for development of the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines at a rally, and got booed by his own cultists, so he quickly gave up on that idea.*

 

A major impulse for this was the move by the right to seize ownership of the word "liberty" by rejecting all measures to protect public health, including masking, not having large indoor gatherings, distancing, and of course vaccination. Any efforts by government to require, or even encourage these measures were portrayed as totalitarian oppression. This only works, however, if you leave out the part of the picture where you're, you know, making people sick and killing them. People in the ICU on ventilators don't enjoy a whole lot of liberty, and people with long-term or permanent disabilities form long covid have their liberty greatly impaired. So the only way to make your story cohere is to promulgate your own alternative facts.

These came in various iterations and combinations. The whole thing is a hoax, the virus is no more dangerous than the common cold, or it doesn't even exist. The symptoms are actually caused by radio waves from 5G cell towers. Or (and perhaps simultaneously), the virus can make people sick but all you have to do is take horse deworming pills or a common anti-malaria drug, but they're covering it up because they want to seize control over our lives. The vaccines don't work, and they have horrific side effects. Also they contain a microchip so that Bill Gates can track your movements, and they selectively sterilize white people . . . 

You get the idea. But in fact the Republican war on science goes back decades. Madhusudan Katti, writing for Scientific American, draws the link between Republican denialism and Donald Trump's rhetorical strategies specifically, and creationism. Biblical fundamentalists are an essential part of the Republican constituency so science denialism was necessary before Covid-19 came along. But the real Republican constituency, the one that matters to politicians, is the wealthy donor class, including the fossil fuel industry and other polluters. The party denies the reality of anthropogenic climate change because they get their money from the people whose obscene wealth depends on it, and also because it blows up their phony Free Market™ ideology. The same goes for other environmental regulation, and public health in general. Katti has a few things to say that are worth reading, but I'll give you one excerpt:

Coined by the National Center for Science Education’s founding director Eugenie Scott in 1994, the Gish gallop takes its name from the creationist Duane Gish, who frequently challenged biologists to debates about evolution. His tactic consisted of talking fast and with confidence, bombarding opponents with falsehoods, non-sequiturs and enough cherry-picked factoids to confuse the audience. Scientists debating him faced the challenge of sifting half-truths from outright lies and finding the right evidence to refute them systematically, all within the few minutes allowed in response. Which effectively meant that when the bell went off, the Gish gallop left the scientist “stumped” and Gish declaring victory for creationism. Such a spectacle leaves the audience less informed than they were before the debate, all at the hands of a debater whose only goal is to discredit their opponent and “win” the debate.

The migration of the Gish gallop from creationist’s patter onto the presidential debate stage, and increasingly onto news opinion pages nationwide, exemplifies a dangerous debasement of honest dialogue in American life. That both the public and its leaders pass over, or applaud, this kind of dishonesty on the highest political stage shows how integrity has taken a back seat to “winning” power in politics, business and the so-called “culture wars,” and now shrouding us in a fog of disinformation.

 

Well, I'm still in the Reality Based Community.

*Actually he developed the vaccine personally, in his own laboratory in the White House basement, using his very stable genius qualities.