MAGA killing itself
Conservatives who wallow in rightwing media consume a nonstop diet of covid-19 denial and vaccine skepticism, so it should come as no surprise that they are much more likely to believe disinformation. As a result, they are dying in greater numbers than their better-informed Democratic neighbors.
The Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed Americans on eight pieces of disinformation about covid-19 (the government is lying about the fatalities, vaccines cause infertility). Its poll found “Nearly half (46 percent) of Republicans compared to just 14 percent of Democrats believe or are unsure about four or more misstatements about covid-19.”
And while 52 percent of Republicans think pregnant individuals should not get the vaccine or are unsure, just 28 percent of Democrats do. When it comes to the anti-parasite drug Ivermectin, 44 percent of Republicans think it is safe and effective, contrary to what the Food and Drug Administration has said; only 10 percent of Democrats say the same.
The role of right-wing media in spreading dangerous disinformation highlights the moral culpability of the hosts, executives, board members and stockholders who make money off selling lies to an unwary audience.
Meanwhile, “Belief in misinformation is higher among those who say they trust covid-19 information from conservative news sources, with nearly four in 10 of those who trust Fox News (36 percent) and One America News (37 percent) and nearly half (46 percent) of those who trust Newsmax for such information saying they have heard at least four of the falsehoods tested in the survey and either believe them to be true or are unsure if they’re true or false.” (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.)
The results are tragic. David Leonhardt of The New York Times notes, “The vaccines are remarkably effective at preventing severe covid, and almost 40 percent of Republican adults remain unvaccinated, compared with about 10 percent of Democratic adults.” As a result, deaths are concentrated in pro-Trump locales.
And it’s not just right-wing media exploiting these consumers. Republicans are bombarded with a nonstop barrage of deadly disinformation from a former president who concealed the transmissibility of the coronavirus and held super-spreader campaign events as well as the fleet of Republican House and Senate members spreading dangerous lies.
Democrats have shied from making a blunt assessment: Republican elites and politicians are contributing to unnecessary deaths of their supporters. Perhaps it is time for some straight talk. Rarely have we seen a political movement do so much harm to those it claims to protect. Democrats should say so.