Thread by @WillMcAvoyACN

Too many people seem to think that it is a lack of belief that is keeping people from getting vaccinated, and that some piece of evidence (full FDA approval) will convince them to get vaccinated.

Overall, it won’t.

This isn’t lack of trust. This isn’t fear. It’s stubbornness.

These people are so emotionally invested in being correct—in part because our society has reinforced for decades that changing your mind on something, even when there is new evidence, is somehow a bad thing.

To them, getting a vaccination means admitting they were wrong.

And if there’s one thing they can’t stand it’s the idea of being weak. And so they project their idea of strength (which come across as willful ignorance), which quickly becomes toxic as it is disconnected from all reality and fact, which only emboldens them further.

This, more than most things, was something that appealed to them about Trump. A man who wouldn’t admit when he was wrong, even when it was absolutely clear that he was incorrect.

A man who if he made a typo would claim the dictionary was wrong.

They saw that as strength.

But here’s the thing: it’s actually weakness. Because it denies you of growth, it denies you of the ability to learn and change and become a better person. It denies you, in this case, of a free vaccine that radically improves your ability to survive a deadly pandemic.

So what can we do? Well, the only thing that even has a chance to work is having employers require the vaccine for employees.

This gives them an out, and one that doesn’t come from the government but rather from capitalism itself. Alas, corporations may be the only salvation.

Which is pretty sad, but alas that is where we have found ourselves.