I have been deeply puzzled by the conservative mantra that they would never wear masks or social distance because doing so would be “living in fear.” I mean, these same people believe they need to carry an assault rifle to go grocery shopping. So wearing a piece of cloth over their faces is an intolerable concession to fear? Then, the almighty social media algorithm planted this image on my Facebook newsfeed.
Upon seeing it, I had my little Eureka! moment. Going back to the early stages of the pandemic in the US, conservatives cast the CDC as surrogate of the Democratic party and the pandemic as “the fear” they were spreading place freedom lovin’ Americans under their diabolical control. Don’t live in FEAR; BE FREE; Catch and Spread a virus!!!!
A little further tracing and lo and behold, I discovered this image was featured on the Fox News website as their political cartoon of the day. Once you enter that space, you are deep into the Alice and Wonderland rabbit hole. It is a complete and total alternative reality that is based almost completely on right wing fantasy worlds where Trump is the chosen one, where liberals persecute god fearing Americans for doing true blue American stuff, like reading the bible or being free, and leading Democrats spend all their time figuring out ways to give your hard earned money to illegal immigrants.
So, let’s delve just a bit deeper into the part of the rabbit hole that concerns the covid-19 pandemic. Though Facebook gets it deserved share of the blame for propagating disinformation about the vaccine and all things related to the pandemic, these alternative reality cartoons play an important role too.
Our first image. How clever! The vaccine juxtaposed against the dreaded hammer and sickle icon. Now that image is historically associated with the Russian revolution but conservatives love Russia now, so the connotation is clearly China. This china virus framing also aligns with other daily cartoons that depict President Biden as the drooling, senile servant of the Chinese government. So, the vaccine is part of the Chinese plot to take away your freedoms, which makes perfect sense so long as you do not think about this image at all and just accept it with an “AHAHA, I knew it” sense of self-satisfaction.
Same idea, vaccine mandates are stabbing (tearing?) the constitution and giving “it” to the people, which seems really, really bad because, uh we can draw “it” that way so “it” must be true. Don’t live in fear!!!!!
Next up, oh, that elitist freedom hating Fauci is going to make your kids wear a hazmat suit to school!!! Because mask mandates are you know, like a slippery slope to LOST FREEDOM. Don’t live in fear!!!!
Next, yes, We knew it! The CDC, the WHO, and all those Godless medical experts in hospitals and universities are purveyors of untrustworthy junk science!! What do they know? I bet they can’t even spell ivermte, ivremtici, ivemerc, you know that horse stuff that cures covid but they don’t want you to know about it. Don’t be a sheeple, well, do take sheep medicine but don’t be a sheeple, Anyway follow the “real” science as reported by Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Nicky Minaj, and your Trump loving Aunt Joan, who has read through a lot of really informative Facebook posts!!! Did you know the covid-19 vaccine contains baby alien fetuses and will turn you into gay Zombie! Now ask yourself why won’t CNN report on that? What else are they hiding?
Next up: Of course Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers has nothing to do with the virus, which is a hoax (and which was created by china to hurt trump by wrecking the USA!USA!USA! economy) (and which only kills people because “they” are hiding the
real cure so that you take the vaccine and turn into a carrier for Bill Gates’ refrigerator magnets). Oh wait, where was I, oh yes, the vaccine mandate is to cover the mess-up that Biden created by following through on Trumps withdrawal agreement.
So, just a brief sampling of one node in this insane conservative alternative reality that is killing people and threatening the very fabric of our democracy. It is a fervent, mouth foaming world where nothing happens that is not a plot by Democrats and their evil masters to take away FREEDOM !!! While the ideological contours of this alternative reality predated the covid-19 pandemic, these extended crisis seems to have pushed more people, deeper and deeper into this illogical rabbit hole. At this point, can they find anyway out? Would they want to ever, which would mean facing the consequences that have resulted from this alternative reality?