General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhite Republicans Are Killing Themselves Because Of Trump And Fox News
It is hard to view this as anything other than an orchestrated campaign for murder.https://thebanter.substack.com/p/white-republicans-are-killing-themselves
Newsmax host and radio personality Dick Farrel urged his audience not to get the coronavirus vaccine calling it bogus bull shid[sic]. He called Dr. Anthony Fauci a power tripping lying freak, labeled liberals who argued that a vaccine was still necessary after getting Covid morons, and believed the Delta variant was a conspiracy theory to keep people scared. Farrel, who lived in Florida, caught Covid just weeks later and deteriorated rapidly. On July 11th, he posted this to his Facebook page:
10 days after his initial diagnosis he was admitted to the ICU with severe breathing difficulties. From his hospital bed, Farrel reportedly changed his mind about the dangers of Covid and urged his friends privately to get vaccinated. "I wish I had gotten it" he told his friend Amy Leigh Hair. Dick Farrel died of Covid-19 complications on August 4th. Stories like this are an almost daily occurrence now. Prominent Texas Republican Party member H. Scott Apley promoted mask burning activities online, labeled incentives to get vaccinated disgusting, and likened mask mandates to Nazi Germany. Apley caught Covid, was placed in a coma and hooked up to a ventilator. He also died of Covid complications last week. Last month, Phil Valentine, a conservative talk show host in Tennessee who mocked vaccines and downplayed Covid was admitted to the ICU after a coronavirus infection gave him pneumonia. Valentine is still in critical condition and fighting for his life. According to his brother, he apparently regrets spreading vaccine disinformation. Republicans are dropping like flies as the Delta variant rips through the United States. The data on this is unequivocal; the pandemic in America is now almost entirely an unvaccinated problem or more specifically a red state problem. Just look at what is happening in Florida. Reports NPR:
The Rights deadly game
While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis threatens to withhold salaries from school officials who enforce mask mandates, he is quietly begging the federal government for new ventilators. By politicizing Covid-19, the Trump administration set the scene for the biggest domestic bloodbath since the Civil War. Almost 634,000 Americans have now died from Covid-19, an unimaginable number that could have been cut almost in half had the former administration taken the virus seriously. From the beginning, Trump viewed Covid as an inconvenience and refused to take it seriously. Instead of listening to public health officials and making the difficult decisions necessary to lead a country through a genuine disaster, Trump pretended everything was fine. He encouraged acts of domestic terrorism against public officials trying to contain the virus, refused to wear a mask in public, promoted quack cures off of the internet, held huge rallies with no social distancing, and even held a super spreader event at the White House that almost killed him. Trump became the number one cause of Covid misinformation in America an astonishing fact given he was tasked with leading the country through its worst crisis in a century. Taking their cues from Trump, the right wing media fell in line and helped spread the insane disinformation coming out of the White House. Whatever Trump said, Fox News dutifully supported leading to spikes in infection rates in red states.
New vaccines, new smears
Now that we have several highly effective vaccines, the politicization and misinformation hasnt stopped despite Trump being out of office. The right wing media ecosystem still sees enormous value in spreading false information having trained their audience to see Covid as a Red vs Blue issue rather than a highly contagious, deadly pathogen. Media Matter published a study on Fox News last month that concluded the network relentlessly undermined the effort to get Americans vaccinated against the COVID-19 disease. According to the report, From June 28 through July 11, 57% of segments about coronavirus vaccines on the network included claims that undermined vaccination efforts. This included claims suggesting that the vaccination drive is coercive or that it represents government overreach, and suggesting that vaccines are unnecessary or dangerous. It isnt surprising then, that Republicans as a group are amongst the least likely to get vaccinated. It is hard to view this as anything other than an orchestrated campaign for murder. Fox News and other right wing outlets are quite literally encouraging their audiences to kill themselves for no other reason than to own the libs. The numbers are unequivocal: vaccinated Americans now account for less than one percent of Covid deaths. That means over 99% of Covid related deaths are occurring amongst the unvaccinated. It isnt difficult then to draw a straight line from Fox News disinformation to unvaccinated Covid deaths.
snip
SoonerPride
(12,286 posts)But they do.
JoanofArgh
(14,971 posts)by the time this pandemic is over. Not that others won't take their place.
SergeStorms
(19,204 posts)they'll all be vaccinated, whether they admit to it, or not.
JoanofArgh
(14,971 posts)SarcasticSatyr
(1,178 posts)Never interrupt your enemy while he's killing himself ...
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)After all, if there are no Republicans, how are the Rs going to retain power?
Lanius
(599 posts)SunSeeker
(51,579 posts)Vinca
(50,294 posts)the others have been vaccinated. They just want their moronic listeners to think they haven't. They're enabling their audiences to kill themselves. Real smart.
paleotn
(17,931 posts)NNadir
(33,532 posts)...voting laws, they can at least be prevented from killing people by becoming a marginal cult of the wounded and the dead.
BaronChocula
(1,572 posts)and say they are dying at a faster rate than most.
SunSeeker
(51,579 posts)33taw
(2,446 posts)StClone
(11,686 posts)Marcuse
(7,493 posts)Demobrat
(8,985 posts)they stick somebody else with the bill.
FailureToCommunicate
(14,016 posts)for the rest of us when they get injured.
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)But, just like so many things they say, it's a lie.
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)machoneman
(4,007 posts)This would be great. They lose, we win!
SunSeeker
(51,579 posts)oasis
(49,393 posts)BHDem53
(1,061 posts)progressoid
(49,992 posts)SMDH
11 Bravo
(23,926 posts)Demobrat
(8,985 posts)some poor health care provider always gets stuck taking care of these morons.
If only they would just stay home and die in their own beds. Then the problem would solve itself.
Ohioboy
(3,243 posts)People with actual emergencies and surgeries shouldn't have to deal with overcrowded hospitals because of the idiots.
Response to 11 Bravo (Reply #11)
Demobrat This message was self-deleted by its author.
Ohio Joe
(21,761 posts)It has been the repug health care plan for many years now.
paleotn
(17,931 posts)than corn dogs and cotton candy at the county fair, I have little to no sympathy for those yet to be vaccinated, whether they're rabid lunatics or not.
LiberatedUSA
(1,666 posts)Always look for the good.
Hekate
(90,737 posts)Those and other high-profile media monsters are responsible for untold deaths.
IronLionZion
(45,469 posts)these people don't trust qualified experts or public health officials but they look online to import drugs to self medicate without a prescription. Has anyone told them Canada has socialized medicine? Why would they want to buy drugs from a liberal socialist country that is more vaccinated than the US now?
NBachers
(17,126 posts)Ohioboy
(3,243 posts)Centuries from now anthropologists can dig them up and piece together yet another fallen civilization.
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)Comfortably_Numb
(3,809 posts)3catwoman3
(24,016 posts)monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)crook's ! had refund 135 million ! rnc
Sane1
(96 posts)Holy Crap, I'm losing count of the high profile right wing Covidiots that keep dying from the virus.
Is there a website that tracks all these Morans??
If not there should be, I can't remember them all!
dalton99a
(81,534 posts)Botany
(70,534 posts)What does that Dr Fauci know?
Tarc
(10,476 posts)A Trump-slurping loyalista til the very end
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)but my sympathy has been all used up for people who got sick and died before the vaccines were available.
Sid
DFW
(54,415 posts)"Damn, I wish I hadn't done that."
Except that personalities on National Hate Radio are never Socrates. More like Göbbels.
wolfie001
(2,263 posts)The Unmitigated Gall
(3,821 posts)So LOAD UP!
Oh...too late, you died.
Sux to be you, Dickie.
Kimber432
(74 posts)Gee that's some scary ass hair. Did it die too?
UCmeNdc
(9,600 posts)milestogo
(16,829 posts)For me, choosing to follow Dr Fauci, who has decades of experience in studying infectious disease, is a no-brainer.
Choosing to follow a politician or a minister of any stripe when making decisions about health behavior and vaccines doesn't seem like a very smart choice.
But yes, we all have the freedom to make this choice.
Response to Celerity (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
moose65
(3,167 posts)Even if the Republican elite are vaccinated, I cant for the life of me figure out their motive here. Why in the world would they want to put their own voters at risk? I know that early in the pandemic they were not concerned since it seemed to be killing the sinners and libtards in California and NYC, but now its killing people in Alabama and Mississippi.
Need I say it, but a political party that seems hellbent on killing its own members doesnt seem like a very savvy party, now does it??
Does anyone know if DeSantis got the vaccine? I dont usually wish harm on anyone, but if he caught a good case of COVID I dont think I would care much. Same thing for Taylor Greene and Boebert.