Public health is called public health because it involves issues that affect us all, collectively.
Oh my god, I used the word “collectively!”
Socialism! Communism! Run for your lives!
The opposition to vaccine mandates is simply another piece in the conservative/GOP stoking of their endless “Socialism! Communism!” fear-mongering, basically the same crap a swath of conservatives shouted in the 1950s and 1960s. Back then, mainline conservatives like William F. Buckley mocked the anti-communist, lunatic-fringe conspiracy theorists from the John Birch Society.
But here we are today. The lunatic-fringe conspiracy theorists shouting, “Socialism! Communism!” are now the dominant strain of modern conservatism. Hannity, Carlson, Ingraham and the many satellite right wing media shouters can’t scream the two words often enough. And many Republicans in the House and the Senate echo the lunacy, mainly as a way to stir outrage in their base.
The Federalist Society, a modern incarnation of the Birchers, claims encroaching socialism and communism pose greater threats than the 9-11 terrorists, according to a piece published by John Daniel Davidson on their website on September 10 under the title, “The 9/11 Attacks Ultimately Proved A Lesser Threat To America Than The Totalitarian Left,” as annieli highlights in her latest piece.
The subhead of Davidson’s piece is:
The left hates America and ordinary Americans at least as much as the 9/11 hijackers did, and for some of the same reasons.
Yes, this is where we are. And vaccine mandates simply fit into this bizarrely-warped worldview.
What these folks really want is a return to the time when white, male landowners were dominant. It’s a retrograde pining for the days when masters could whip slaves, and wives did what their husbands commanded (see: Texas abortion law and Supreme Court decision).
I don’t know when or if conservatives will ever emerge from their cocoon of insanity. Right now, it seems unlikely. And that has dangerous consequences for us all.