There’s an episode of Seinfeld in which the titular character tries to return a jacket to a high-end boutique. When asked why, he answers “for spite” — he doesn’t much care for the salesman to sold it to him in the first place. That doesn’t go over well with the staff at the boutique and they refuse to take the jacket back.
At times it seems like right-wing politics today is about nothing but spite. Donald Trump spent his four years in the White House trying to undo virtually every one of Obama’s accomplishments; his followers try to “trigger the libs” by refusing to wear masks indoors in the middle of a devastating pandemic.
Now a right-wing activist has written a little spitist manifesto for a reactionary America First publication called American Greatness in which he admits straight up that “I Won’t Take the Vaccine Because It Makes Liberals Mad.”
Peter D’Abrosca begins with a cursory run-through of some of the legitimate and quasi-legitimate medical reasons some cite as the reason they’re not getting the vaccine.
I will never allow myself to be injected with Big Pharma’s mass-produced mystery juice, in part because it was rushed out of the lab and into the manufacturing line like a replacement for a Honda Civic’s recalled airbags.
Never mind that the various vaccines have been thoroughly tested and serious side effects have been vanishingly rare.
But possible side-effects aren’t what’s driving his decision.
“But in truth,” he writes,
I’m not really avoiding the vaccine due to potential medical complications, or because of the speed with which it was produced.
And he’s not doing it because he’s some sort of libertarian fanatic.
Personal liberty is not the reason I’m avoiding it, either. I’m not a member of the “don’t tread on me” club.
No, the real reason is, to put it plainly, spite.
My primary reason for refusing the vaccine is much simpler: I dislike the people who want me to take it, and it makes them mad when they hear about my refusal. That, in turn, makes me happy.
Maybe it’s petty, but the thought of the worst people on planet earth, those whom I like to call the Branch Covidians, literally shaking as I stroll into Target vaccine-free, makes me smile. …
So I have decided that because the vile political Left, which I despise in the abstract, wants me to take their coveted vaccine, I simply will not.
None of this would matter if it were only D’Abrosca who would be hurt by his decision. If he wants to gamble with his life — he describes himself as “a healthy 29-year-old” whose chances of dying from COVID are “practically nil” — that would be fine by me. I honestly don’t care if he gets COVID or a piano falls on his head.
But by not getting the vaccine he puts others at risk; everyone who doesn’t get the vaccine makes it harder for the population as a whole to reach the “herd immunity” that makes viruses stop spreading.
And as long as some unvaccinated people are passing the illlness on to other vaccine-refuseniks, newer and potentially more deadly strains of the virus are more likely to develop — and some of these strains might be different enough to render our current vaccines moot.
If you want to know what it might look like if significant numbers of Americans refuse to get vaccinated, take a look at India today, where a lack of vaccines is sending the country into crisis. The US now has more vaccine than it needs; we need to help India out both because it’s the right thing to do and because it will help us too. If we don’t, we’re really no better than D’Abrosca.
I can’t help but think of that HuffPost piece a couple of years ago “I Don’t Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People.” Because I don’t know how to do that either, and if our country is going to be able to move on from the current pandemic (and survive all the other crises to come) we’re got to learn how to make people like D’Abrosca care, at least a little bit.
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@Battering Lamb, yes, exactly!
@opposablethumbs
Hope they’ve done something about the texture – the bit of lab grown I tried a couple years back were rather disgusting. Still, early days and I really hope they get it sorted out.
Even if you don’t care about other, you would still take vaccine, both for you and because helping herd immunity is very low opportunity cost anyway. I know ; I am pretty misanthropic, but the idea of going out of my way to show it is much more effort than the vast majority of mankind is worth of.
It’s not that theses asshole don’t care about others. It’s that they want to actively inflict suffering and will take any opportunity to do exactly that.
Off-topic, I know, but it’s just been reported that Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins has died.
Not getting vaccinated for spite is stupid for the same reason that use of a biological agent in warfare is stupid. Biological agents and novel (to us) bacteria and viruses are nearly impossible to predict or control. Are spitesters simultaneously dissing and depending on science here?
None of us are really safe from Covid until all of us are. Altruistic behavior is adaptive for our species. I feel like when we got to the threshold of having enough individuals to produce libertarians, it was almost a death knell for our species.
@ opposablethumbs
Thanks for the link. That whole thing though reminds me of the Arthur C Clarke story Food of the Gods.
I’m at the state where I physically can’t process meat because of the changes to my gut biome. Also I have a revulsion to the mere thought. Scildy explained it to me in terms of how new neural pathways form.
It is an interesting branch of research though. And I’d be very much in favour of lab grown meat replacing animal sourced products.
@Moggie: That said, Waffle House apparently released a bacon-infused beer last year. (Beer is usually uninteresting to me anyway, and that even more so.)
Here I thought that the bacon in everything trend had died.
@Threp, apparently several companies reckon they’re making significant progress wrt texture/mouthfeel, even if there’s a way to go. Possibly drawing on 3D printing technology to print ‘muscle fibre’ for tuna steaks (no plans as yet for anything with a bone in it, though – too complicated, so no ribs or chops) 🙂
@Alan, yes – it’s not so much directly relevant to those who like you are already vegan or vegetarian, as to those who want an alternative form of meat. But hopefully there’s potential for significantly reducing environmental impact and cruelty even in the current context of huge world demand, and capitalism. To be honest, the thing that makes me feel hopeful about it becoming a practical reality relatively soon is the fact that a growing number of companies reckon they can get rich :-s
@ opposablethumbs
Indeed. I get sent a lot of investment and finance stuff. That’ll teach me to click the ‘notifications’ button. But it’s very interesting. Lots of advice to dump animal-ag and invest in plant based. So when we say “The future is vegan”, it’s not just us, it’s the market.
https://www.businessinsider.com/meat-substitutes-impossible-foods-beyond-meat-sales-skyrocket-2019-5
There’s an irony that the two biggest societal disasters here recently, Brexit and Covid, have done a lot for animal rights. With Brexit the fishing industry is on the verge of collapse, animal-ag is really struggling, no live exports, and lorry drivers can only take vegan food across the channel. Seriously!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2021/jan/12/welcome-to-brexit-dutch-officials-seize-ham-sandwiches-from-british-drivers-video
And with the Covid there’s been a big uptick in people eschewing meat and replacing with plant based. That’s for self interest health reasons rather than ethical; but I’m not bothered why people reduce animal product consumption. Just happy when they do.
Unfortunately, some people like this have kids, and the U.S. still has this shitty system where parents have an Inalienable Right to stop “their” kids from getting any health care whatsoever, including vaccines. And then kids of folks like those featured in this post interact with people with immuno-deficiency.
Speaking of Seinfeld: The jerk store called, and they’re running out of Peter A’brosca!
Bleah on the Politics of Spite. The Politics of Dancing sounds like a much more fun conversation to have.
https://youtu.be/4uDAd8_2K0E
ETA: uhm, isn’t most beer made from plants? At least the base of most beer recipes are made from grains? Or did I miss something here?
I abbreviate because “Right Wing Nazi Jackass” is too long to type out regularly. But thanks for the bad faith assumption.
(Thanks, Bookworm!)
A non-plant based beer would be… I’m not sure, but if not impossible, then really gross.
I would love it if lab-grown meat was a thing. I wish the current fake burgers didn’t have so much salt in them.
@Moggie: interesting thought — do they hate foreigners more than liberals?
Redsilkphoenix, the vast and overwhelming majority of beer is plant-based, which is what makes Kudlow’s attempt at fear-mongering so hilarious
I remember how the warcraft 2 orcs were supposed to drink beer made from pig blood.
It’s fitting for theses alt right. They have about the same depth of personality and bloodthirst as theses.
[note for younger people : in warcraft 2, unlike the later War3 and WoW, orcs *were* entirely brutish killers, whose motivation to invade Azeroth was that they killed each and every human on their home plane and needed more blood]
@Ohlmann
Er, what? There were never any humans on the Orc homeworld of Draenor, and the Orcs didn’t drink human blood. The Orcs invaded Azeroth after being corrupted by drinking the blood of a demon, to wipe out the native population and colonize Azeroth, not to harvest blood.
@Allandrel : the small part is that I mean “the orc need more blood” as metaphorically ; they wanted to conquer and exterminate another country. They only used pig blood for beer, I don’t remember a clear mention of anthropophagy or ennemy blood drinking. Also, you confuse the story of warcraft 2 and the story of warcraft 3, who retcon quite a bit of war2.
Warcraft 2 is clear on that draenor was populated by human. We see the head of one in the manual next to the fluff explaining they killed the last draenei, and a half-orc half human was with them, too. Mannoroth didn’t exist at all back then, only Kil’jaeden (who however did look almost the same as the modern incarnation), the dragons did not have several flights yet, the orc didn’t needed no blood pact to be frenzied war machine intending to destroy everything, etc …
By the time of the 3, Blizzard added a ton of details, with the goal of making them more palatable. It’s also why all the event from warcraft 2 and especially its expansion seem goofy or strange ; they made much more sense back then. They retconned a lot of war2 to make it fit, trying to do it in a way that isn’t too visible. I.E. most of the change are unobstructive and somewhat compatible with war2, but not entirely so.
The Draenei as non-human retcon started in the expansion of war3 (The Frozen Throne), and also introduced the concept they were survivors from the purge. The Beyond the Dark Portal expansion of Warcraft 2 have ogres and some trolls, but no draenei to be found, nor any non-pig, non-orc native life.
“I will never allow myself to be injected with Big Pharma’s mass-produced mystery juice, in part because it was rushed out of the lab and into the manufacturing line like a replacement for a Honda Civic’s recalled airbags.”
I’ve seen so many right wingers say this and then turn and praise Trump’s handling of the pandemic because of how fast he got a vaccine out.
I know calling out hypocrisy when it comes to MAGAs is like saying water is wet but damn this one really gets me
I don’t care if you think your chances are nill to die. There have been children who died of Covid. Chances are never nill.
Even if I would be selfcentered and wouldn’t care about others, I would still look forward to the vacination (and I am a coward who hates needles). I wan’t a nornal live back.
If a think angers people I hate is not somethink that is high on my prioritylist. (Getting joj to others I care about is another motive)
I want to shop normally again, not beeing afraid, visit friends again etc…
I find it very hard to understand that simple logic and health became a political isue, exspecially because many republicans (the politicans) are probably vacined allready. Not getting vacinatad should be in no one interested.
@Ohlmann
ISTR that Beyond the Dark Portal introduced the Draenei with the Broken (though they were simply called “Draenei” in that expansion), but the web says not until WC3.
But yeah, WC1 and 2 have been retconned a LOT. In WC1, the humans had what appeared to be Christian churches complete with crosses, for example.
@ GSS ex-noob
To butt in where I’m not needed, I also assumed the acronym in the ableist sense. It wasn’t because I thought I had a reason to think you’d use such language, it’s just that that’s the only way I’ve seen the acronym used.
Language is hard.
@ Who?,
Agreed. I don’t understand how vaccination, of all things, became such a political issue. Seriously, does anyone on here know why/how/when the anti-vaxxers really got going? Is it just because vaccines by definition function best when most of the population has them*, and the right-wing in general is so rabidly individualist?
It can’t be because vaccines are “new” inventions, ffs. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/28/how-mary-wortley-montagus-bold-experiment-led-to-smallpox-vaccine-75-years-before-jenner
* I’m not a doctor or a scientist so I honestly have no idea if this is true, but I think I’d heard that’s how it works.
@ bookworm in hijab
Over here, it was down to someone called Andrew Wakefield. He originally had a company that supplied compound vaccines, that inoculated against a series of illnesses.
However he couldn’t break into the market. So he set up a company that manufactured single doses. To bolster that he did a ‘study’ showing a link between multiple vaccines and autism. It was all bollocks of course. It involved 12 kids, including the children of his business partners. That purported to demonstrate
rival manufacturers’conventional vaccines caused autism.Then in response to a tweet about this Cherie Blair, the wife of our then prime minister, said she understood the concern. Doctors implored the Blairs to confirm that they thought vaccines were safe and they’d inoculated their own kids. But they refused to do so on ‘privacy’ grounds (although it appears they were in fact vaccinated).
And it all grew from there.
Wakefield and his co-directors got into all sorts of bother with the regulators. His colleagues pleaded guilty, but Wakefield maintained he was correct. He was struck off as a doctor . But he makes a fair bit of money lecturing on the dangers of vaccines, and there’s a lot of people out there who believe him.
GMC judgment here…
https://briandeer.com/solved/gmc-charge-sheet.pdf
Alan, thank you, I hadn’t known any of that! Explains a lot…