Anti-vax is now a mainstream GOP position

A friend of mine points out that the vanguard of the Republican party is rapidly heading toward a hardcore anti-vaccine position. This started with the Covid vaccine, of course, but is inevitably mutating into a general opposition to vaccines. Until very recently the latter view was held only by a combination of far right purity of essence survivalist types, the most paranoid strains of post-hippiedom, and your Jenny McCarthy has some interesting thoughts on this issue concerned suburban mom who is just thinking of the children Facebook group.

My friend writes:

“DeSantis, Greene, Carlson, Musk, Dilbert dude, Catturd; all the big players have really hit it hard recently. They’re past Just Asking Questions, they’re now convinced that the vax never worked and it’s killing everyone. Every death or illness is vax-caused. Damar Hamlin’s collapse was vax. Diamond’s death* was vax, even though she wasn’t vaxed and would never be, because of vax-shedding.
Partly this may be a DeSantis strategy to get to the crazy side of Trump, since after all Trump invented the vax and still nominally supports it. Lots of electoral gold to be had there. Mostly though it’s that nobody controls the crazy now. It’s out there, mutating and thriving.

*Trump got the mike at the funeral and bitched that he was told it would only go 15-20 minutes and now they were into hour 3. This is not a crime. I don’t care about Diamond, who lived a malevolent, grifting life as far as I ever paid attention. But she was an actual human and this was her actual funeral. There are certain things a decent person would never, ever do at a funeral, and if they did they’d be shunned. That ship has sailed.

It sure has.