Thread by @iowahawkblog

If the government wants to target people spreading COVID misinformation on the internet, they might as well shut down the whole thing at the breaker box

yes, there are Facebook anti-vaxxers and COVID conspiracy kooks. There is also a cable network called "The Learning Channel" that features intergalactic aliens playing laser polo on dinosaurs inside volcanoes, but I don't want government shutting it down

If there are people who'd rather believe Wacky Uncle Chuck's FB post about Raytheon secretly liquifying vaccine casualties into Chicken McNuggets than press conference podiums full of scientists in white lab coats, maybe the problem here isn't Wacky Uncle Chuck

Personally I got fully vaccinated ASAP, and recommend you do as well. Evidence is overwhelming they are safe and effective for adults. But evidence is also overwhelming that censoring social media to stop the spread of COVID misinformation has absolutely the OPPOSITE effect.

FB COVID kook: there is a gubmint conspiracy to shut down the truth about COVID

Government: well that's just nutty, erase him from FB

FB: Okie doke, bossman

Government: gosh where did all these new conspiracy kooks come from

just spitballing here, but perhaps we wouldn't have so much rampant COVID kookery had our benevolent credentialed minders not burned their own credibility on a pyre of mutually contradictory Calvinball guidelines and pulled-from-the-ass pseudoscience.

So what to do about Wacky Uncle Chuck and his kooky Facebook pals? I hope we can agree the goal is to talk him down out of his tree and get him to CVS for his shots. And sorry, a government-Facebook partnership to un-person him from social media isn't going to cut it.

Maybe - hear me out on this - a good step would be for social media platforms to temporarily un-un-person a Former President Who Shall Not Be Named, so he can prevail upon Wacky Uncle Chuck to get vaccinated.

As painful as it may be to see Former President Who Shall Not Be Named taking credit (deserved or otherwise) for fast tracking COVID vaccines, I really don't give a shit. Like I said, the goal is getting vaccinations over the hump.

One we're over that vaccination hump (I dunno, 75% of adults?), I really don't give a shit if all the social media platforms un-un-un-person him again, as long as it isn't at the behest of DC.

Burge's Razor: the best public policy solution is the one that will piss off everybody on Twitter.

If you think he wouldn't jump at the chance for another turn in the spotlight and play hero of the Great Vaccination Surge, I'm not sure you paid much attention to the fellow.

https://twitter.com/DistrictDave01/status/1416149211624710146

Again, this is about Wacky Uncle Chuck, and convincing him to voluntarily go to CVS for his COVID shots.

Maybe an appeal from pmurT won't be 100% effective, but these White House brainstorms about Facebook bans and door-to-door vaccination checkers are less than zero effective.

Fine, continue screaming at the unvaccinated and calling them idiots and banning them from social media until they realize you only have their best interest in mind. Or I don't know, declare them federal livestock herds. JFC

https://twitter.com/buhhhhlieevmeee/status/1416155711147544581

It would not kill Biden to invite Trump to jointly appear in a 5 minute pretaped, mutually approved film asking people to get a vaccine that they both want to take credit for. Doesn't have to be at the White House, it could be at a DQ or wherever.

Let's face it, unvaccinatedness is associated with Trumpiness, and while both may be dumb it's in all our interest to get dumb people vaccinated too.

And if Trump won't, or can't, convince Wacky Uncle Chuck to get the vaccine, at that point I don't give a shit if he gets COVID