Yesterday my
wife and I took our COVID-19 boosters. When
we got home my wife commented on the life-threatening treatment that Dr Fauci experienced by Donald Trump and his MAGA followers.
I think it
is undeniable that MAGA is a cult following of a charismatic con man. You can disagree with people, but only cult
members would see a disagreement with their Dear Leader as a call to violence
and persecution.
Dr. Fauci is
a scientist who was head of the Center for Disease Control. You may disagree
with Fauci, but during the COVID-19 epidemic he gave his best scientific
advice, based on years of experience and scientific data on how pandemics
behave.
People have
every right to disagree and even to ignore his recommendations; but threatening
his life, stalking him, sieging his home, and pillorying him on the internet is
the act of extreme reaction that you find in cult members.
Swatting,
showing up armed at a person’s home, threatening family members, threatening
physical harm just because you disagree with someone, these are not the actions
of civil disagreement, they are not the actions of responsible people, these
are the actions of people who have drunk the Kool-Aid. These are dangerous people, and unfortunately,
they make up a considerable percentage of the MAGA base.
Not all
people who voted for Trump are MAGA cult members. They are people who voted their conscience. Though
their politics differ from mine, they are neighbors and friends.
Trump was
elected. He will be our President. I am not thrilled about it, but I am not
going to take up arms against his followers.
I can’t help but wonder, had he not been
elected, what kind of violence would the Nation have experienced from his MAGA
cult followers?
the Ol’Buzzard
The anti-vaxxers were nuts long before Trump slithered down that golden escalator. When I worked at the CDC almost 20 years ago I'd get to run the gauntlet through the anti-vax protesters every time I had a reason to go to the main campus. There'd always be a dozen or more people totally convinced vaccines caused autism. I never felt threatened by them but this was back when aWol was President. W may have been kind of feckless, but he did believe in public health (or, maybe more importantly so did Darth Cheney), more or less. Still, even back in the oughts researchers like Paul Offit (one of the most respected virologists on the planet) received death threats when his books on vaccination were published. His publisher had to cancel a book tour back around 2010 because of the rather frightening threats Dr. Offit and his family received.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you "ain't seen nuthin' yet" from those extremists.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see how it goes once he finishes filling up the clown car.
ReplyDeleteDeath threats seem to be the go to response of MAGAts to everything and everyone they disagree with. Ol'B you may need to take up arms to defend yourself.
ReplyDeleteI need to make appointments next week to get our Covid 19 vaccinations. When we got our flu shots early in November they told us to come back after mid November as they wer getting a new supply of Covid vax.