The COVID-19 pandemic is not funny. People are dying, many because they, like many of their elected Republican officials, chose to listen to disinformation instead of real experts. (They're also sacrificing kids to score cheap political points, but that's not really new, even though it is very on point for the metaphor to come.)
But all that doesn’t mean it isn’t objectively hilarious that there exists a non-negligible population of people drinking, vaping, rubbing, injecting, (thinking about) butt-chugging, breaking international law, and otherwise finding fun (dangerous) ways to consume a veterinary version of a medicine called ivermectin.
It’s meant to kill parasites in horses, dogs, and sheep, which again, is objectively funny because of how high the odds are that they’ll call you a sheep for getting vaccinated or wearing a mask. As a result of taking horse-strength medication, these people are (surprise!) literally shitting their guts out, (though apparently not always while in the middle of the grocery store) and (falsely) thinking they’re protecting themselves from COVID.
And why do they choose to do that instead of just getting a safe and effective vaccine? Because someone on Facebook, reddit, TikTok, or a dial-a-quack insurrection-doctor’s website convinced them it was a smarter choice.
What’s this have to do with climate denial?
It doesn’t, really. Except that you can bet the horse dewormer-eaters are also climate deniers, and more importantly it demonstrates the lengths people will go to in order to remain loyal to their rightwing fantasies, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, and highlights how hopelessly naive it is to expect that it’s just a matter of finding the right messaging framework or political strategy to get everyone on board with even the most basic and obvious requests to change their behavior to keep themselves and others safe.
Can you imagine how easy solving climate change would be if the only thing we had to do was convince everyone to wear a mask and get a couple vaccinations?!
… No, you can’t, because you probably wouldn’t have imagined that the efforts to stop a global pandemic that has killed at least 637,000 Americans and counting would be foiled by people considering putting horse-parasite-paste up their own butt, just to own the libs.
Which is why the solutions to climate change need to be systemic, so that — to continue beating this metaphor like a dead but de-wormed horse — it’s not up to the people who treat Facebook like the doctor’s office and the livestock feed barn like a pharmacy to make smart decisions for themselves, for others, and the planet.