Vaccine Polarization Is About More Than Just Vaccines — It’s Culture War
One Trump made a lot worse than you think he did.
Barring the chaos in Kabul, Biden’s presidency has been relatively — what’s the word? — normal. But it’d be wrong to accept everything in America was normal. Strip away the layers of presidential conduct, seeming respect for democracy, words of unity rather than division, and you find brewing resentment, an authoritarian lust for power, and a sincere drive to spread misinformation. In other words, America was never “healed.”
Take vaccine polarisation as an example. At the same time doctors and the scientific community were pleading with Americans to get inoculated, people were taking ivermectin on TV. Famous, and not so famous, people were deliberately inciting vaccine hesitancy, spreading medical falsity, and conspiracy theories.
When it comes to the latter, the Tucker Carlsons of this world, his more extremist followers, and those spending their time and energy in making America sicker — it’s been enticing, at the very least, to label them as “the problem” — as those trying to ensure America never makes it out of this alive. But, as repulsive as they are, they’re a symptom of the real problem — not the problem itself.
