Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

1. We can't verify if Dennis Prager did in fact test positive for Covid.
2. We can't be sure he is unvaccinated.
3. It's possible that an unvaccinated person his age could survive Covid, but his cult followers are drawing all the wrong conclusions from his claim, as intended.

https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1450153630112403456

Here is the video & transcript, without commentary (from the above linked @JasonSCampbell tweet.) Keep an eye out for follow up articles with new info about Dennis Prager's claims re Covid. Prager is one of many RW influencers deploying the same schtick.

mediamatters.org/dennis-prager/…

Before becoming #XGOP on 1/6, I never paid much attention to Prager and his disinformation media outlet @PragerU.

Since almost every national-level GOP politician officially came out as a far right fascist in 2021, I've been reviewing various media outlets in a new light...

Prager and Co are not freedom fighter, and they're not patriotic Americans, either. They are #ProCovid #AntiVax #AntiMask and #AntiSocialDistancing.

In the past few months at least EIGHT RW hosts on US radio (just one medium) have died of Covid, many after a painful ordeal.

I followed one or two of the cases from the start. Covid is not a nice way to die. Typically the person needs hospitalization after developing shortness of breath. Later they feel like they are suffocating. If they survive, it can mean 6 weeks on a ventilator in ICU...

Pre pandemic, the risks of needing and having any ICU ventilator time due to illness or injury were well known, and cumulative. Anything longer than 14 days is very risky. Also, occupying a scarce bed for 6 weeks then dying anyway... how many others miss out?

There are so many issues with "conservative" public figures influencing the public to decline Covid vaccination, and the other tools we need to save lives.

I took a detour just now that led me to this piece about the reprobates behind PragerU & others:

rightwingwatch.org/post/the-wilks…

Opponents of the far right fascist movement often focus too much on the role of FOX "News" and not enough on the vast sea of influencers doing just as much damage to American democracy and the desperate work to save as many lives as possible in this pandemic.

One silver lining of this slow moving train wreck is that it's now super easy to spot a person or group that earns their living from spreading misinfo and disinfo. ANYONE getting paid to oppose the toolbox of pandemic response measures should be suspected of being in this group.

It only takes a few minutes to find out who is primarily funding them. The sources can be foreign AND domestic.

The Wilks brothers (see above) have directed large sums of money at the Daily Wire, PragerU, and all manner of right wing ecosystem influencers, for years.

Many of the influencers eg Ben Shapiro were involved with Breitbart media before the death of Andrew Breitbart and subsequent sale of the outlet to (IIRC) Steve Bannon? and others.

The movement is bigger than one person, even Bannon or TFG. No one person is in control of it.

Both parties have an ecosystem of non office holders who contribute cash and in-kind eg overly biased media coverage. The "cash" is in the billions... not just the cost of a POTUS campaign... the cost of a decades long media and social media operations. The difference is...

...that one of the two main US parties openly encourage, enable, condone, and justify violence* as a means to obtain and hold power. That's crystal clear after 1/6 for anyone with a modicum of honesty. Earlier warning signs were seen by many observers.

*and LIHOP deaths:

LIHOP = let it happen on purpose.

Republicans are letting an excessive number of preventable Covid direct and indirect deaths happen on purpose.

To own the libs. How can people go along with it?

Some go along with it for the money.

Some go along with it because if people have to die as they climb the ladder of autocratic power then, to them, the ends justify the means.

Some are sucked in.

It is EXACTLY like the Nazi rise to power in Germany from 1918 onward.

I used to think that conclusion was drawn inappropriately but I've learned a lot more about the two world wars in recent years.

Ignoring far right fascism in 2021 is not an option.