Siri, what happens when your country lags in pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity - but also has no Murdoch media properties spreading vaccine disinformation? ctvnews.ca/health/coronav…
On present trajectory, Canada will overtake US double-vaccination rate sometime probably this month.
The US is slowing not because of any healthcare failure, no lack of vaccine. It's attributable instead to a mighty anti-health propaganda effort headed by Trump and Murdoch
Murdoch took care to vaccinate himself of course. He shoved his way to the front of the British vaccine queue three weeks ahead of the Queen. But his network works night and day to dissuade his viewers from protecting themselves as Murdoch protected himself.
By now, of course, anti-vaccination has become a test of faith for the American right and even to many of the supposedly "rationalist" anti-Wokesters.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Trump's interview this weekend ... acclaim by Trumpists for a Twitter essay justifying the violent attack on the constitutional transition of power ... time to start using the F-word about post-presidential Trumpism theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
In a 2020 book, I experimented with the word "fascoid" to describe Trumpism - meaning similar to fascism, but not quite there. But as Trumpism moves from *threatening* anti-state political violence to *justifying* anti-state political violence, it's time to drop the fancy suffix
And now the question for mainstream politics is: the US is a two-party system, and one of the parties is only conditionally committed to democracy. "Yes" if it wins; "no" if it doesn't.
That's not a formula for political stability. The best case ...
Through my adult life, I've never been interested in spectator sports. My son @natfrum is an intense fan of every/any sport. He'll watch darts if there's nothing else. After today's worst day in English history since the fall of Singapore, I asked him ...
@natfrum "Sports fans suffer SO MUCH. Their team almost makes it, then loses the big game. Then almost again, then loses again. Maybe once a decade or worse, your team wins the big championship, and you are happy. Then ... more suffering. Is it worth it?"
@natfrum And @natfrum - a prematurely wise person - answered: "Without the suffering, you'd never have the joy. My favorite teams are the teams that every year find a new way to rip my heart out. ...
Holy crap there is already a Das-Ashli-Babbitt-Lied
It wasn't so very long ago that Trump supporters enthusiastically championed police who shot unruly protesters. This is from November 2020 tampabay.com/news/florida-p…
Governor DeSantis's proposed law would have authorized deadly force against people who engaged in criminal mischief that resulted in the "interruption or impairment" of any place of business.
Something else I'd forgotten: how many journalists bought the story that Trump made huge inroads into Haitian-American vote in Florida in 2016. Best studies indicate that Hillary Clinton won over 80% of that vote. And yet so much this huffpost.com/entry/did-trum…
The "Haitian-Americans voted for Trump" fiction illustrates how ultra-progressives helped insert far-right conspiracizing into mainstream reporting in 2016. They hated the Clinton family's efforts to promote market-friendly reforms in Haiti as "disaster capitalism." So ...
The United States has a long history of racist provocation on the radio: Father Coughlin to Bob Grant to Rush Limbaugh
Local TV programs in the 1960s and 1970s could also enflame: future US senator Jesse Helms got his start reading ferocious editorials on the local NBC affiliate in Raleigh, NC. history.capitolbroadcasting.com/people/icons/j…