Thread by @KrisAtLarge

one of the most distressing things that's happened in the last couple years in American #media and #journalism—something that I've watched happen in real time—was the way that everyone forgot that irrational hatred of vaccines, indeed of medicine, was an *ongoing thing*.

(1/x)

#Christianity is largely to blame, because Christians are taught to regard disease as a symptom of *sinfulness*.

just about any deviation from normality is regarded as a symptom of *sinfulness*, to a #Christian bıgot like @MattWalshBlog or @dalepartridge. there's lots.

(2/x)

being too short to @dalepartridge's exacting standards, or being fat, or having an awkward posture, or having the wrong shape nose, or having a twitch in one eye, or speaking with an accent, or having a stammer...all of these things, and more, are signs of abnormality.

(3/x)

but the perplexing propensity for #Christians of the @dalepartridge / @PastorMark sort for regarding *all* human irregularities as evidence of sinfulness extends further: these folks think that sin is *catching*. they think you can simply "get" sin, like catching a cold.

(4/x)

this is rubbish of course: sin requires human will, human *choice*. it's not something that wafts through the air or radiates from the "wrong music" or whatnot.

@dalepartridge, who is an extraordinarily sinful man, has reasons for wanting to believe in this fantasy.

(5/x)

the same can be said for @MattWalshBlog, @RepMTG, and all the other right-wing #Christian crooks you might care to name. they've tried to rid themselves of sin through a simple act of *psychological projection*—they pretend that their sins are someone else's fault.

(6/x)

the notion that sin is somehow *communicable*, by some involuntary and supernatural process, informs the reactionary American #Christian opposition to #vaccination.

oh, look, there's a #vaccinegenocide hashtag. @dalepartridge, you're a Christian. don't you LIKE genocide?

(7/x)

but I digress. the point is that reflexive hatred of vaccination is a decades-long cult movement in the United States. there's millions of Americans, probably, who believe that vaccination is sinful in some way—that it's corrupting and stained with "The Mark of the Beast".

(8/x)

then #COVID19 happened, and everyone in American #journalism forgot all about this, even intrepid pseudo-gonzo journalist @mtaibbi and his equally pseudo friend @walterkirn. even the "independent" journalists forgot that the antivax cult was a _thing_, a going concern.

(9/x)

the antivaxxers trotted out all the same specious arguments that they used against every *other* sort of vaccine, and this time the trick worked. Western journalism, unbelievably, took the antivax propaganda seriously—because now it *actually mattered*, because #COVID19.

(10/x)

suddenly, every fraudulent claim churned out by the antivax propaganda machine needed to be carefully sorted and sifted and examined for truthfulness. mighty intellects like @EricRWeinstein's hapless brother and @bendreyfuss (some actor's kid) gave us their theories.

(11/x)

and it seemed like *nobody* saw the bigger picture on this one—the fact that #COVID19-denialist hogwash was a worse than usual eruption of an irrational movement, concentrated mostly among right-wing #Christian people, that regarded vaccines as mere carriers for sin.

(12/x)

even fearless investigative reporter @mtaibbi missed this obvious connection somehow. I suppose he was too busy, or something. waiting for @elonmusk to show up with a bouquet of flowers, or something.

~Chara of Pnictogen

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