Thread by @gorskon

This is just the next step in a longstanding antivax strategy to portray themselves as an oppressed minority. Their misuse of the Yellow Star of David is the most egregious example of course. 1/

https://twitter.com/nicolekarlis/status/1403137087801499650

Antivaxxers trying to co-opt Juneteenth is a natural evolution of a strategy that started years ago and, pre-pandemic, led them to call themselves the "new civil rights movement." 2/ respectfulinsolence.com/2019/09/10/sb-…

As an aside, if the anti-Asian bigotry among antivaxxers that we've seen during the #COVID19 era is nothing new. Get a load of these images likening @DrPanMD and other Asian supporters of vaccine mandates to Chairman Mao. 3/ facebook.com/APILegCaucus/p…

Even back then, antivaxxers were aligning themselves with far right extremist groups like the California State Militia. 4/

https://twitter.com/thereal_truther/status/1171087256787939330

And, of course...🙄 5/

https://twitter.com/LorenaSGonzalez/status/1171192951214526464

In an event that rather presaged January 6, they also, in essence, took over the California State Capitol Building in 2019. Sound familiar? 6/

https://twitter.com/katie_hanz/status/1171168710083502080

Again, does this sound familiar? 7/

https://twitter.com/MelodyGutierrez/status/1171170474342006784

They threatened @DrPanMD, as well. Sound familiar? 8/

https://twitter.com/LMiddleton221/status/1171139362395848704

Before they claimed to be the "new civil rights movement," antivaxxers were furiously trying to recruit Blacks to their cause, perhaps realizing how white and privileged they were. 9/

For example, in 2016, Andrew Wakefield and Del Bigtree held an antivaccine event in Compton. 10/ respectfulinsolence.com/2016/05/25/and…

In 2019, @RobertKennedyJr promoted antivaccine conspiracy theories in Harlem. 11/ respectfulinsolence.com/2019/10/04/is-…

Here's a brief history of what I knew in 2019 about antivax efforts to recruit Blacks and other minorities to their conspiracy theories. 12/ respectfulinsolence.com/2019/11/12/ant…

Indeed, the entire "CDC whistleblower" conspiracy theory at the art of the antivaccine propaganda film disguised as a documentary VAXXED was that @CDCgov was "hiding" evidence that the MMR vaccine increases the risk of autism by 4-fold in Black boys. 13/ respectfulinsolence.com/2016/07/18/in-…

It's a key reason why antivaxxers have long compared school vaccine mandates to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, a comparison that has been turbocharged since #COVID19. 14/

Given how antivaxxers have co-opted the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the 1950s and 1960s civil rights movement to claim the mantle of an "oppressed minority" (even though they are mostly white and privileged), it should be no surprise they'd abuse Juneteenth, too. 15/15