Our friend Jerry over at Grumpy’s Grumblings has another excellent post out today. I’ve included a link at the end to continue reading. Thanks, as always Jerry!
Every day there seems to be at least one new news story about another loudmouthed Trumpist anti-vaxxer being hospitalized with COVID-19. The latest is Fred Lowry, a council member from Volusia County, Florida. Not at all surprising is Lowry’s other occupation; he’s the pastor of a white evangelical church.
According to several credible news sources, Lowry, who labeled the virulent virus a hoax, has been sick for two weeks and was recently hospitalized with double pneumonia. Also, according to those news sources, in a sermon which has since been deleted from the church’s website, Lowry told the congregation, “We do not have a pandemic, folks. We were lied to.”
The Real Liars
Lowry was right in part of that statement. They were lied to. But it was the crazy far-right conspiracy promoters who lied to them, not reputable public health officials and mainstream media. You’d think that by now, as the infection rates are again spiraling and as more and more—mostly like-minded anti-vaxxers—die in droves, the goofballs would heed the foreboding forecast pointing to a perfect storm brewed up by mixing intransigent ignorance and ludicrous hubris with a mindless, violent virus. You’d think.
To avoid such nonsense, one must think rather than merely parrot the outlandish conspiracies circulating among one’s peer group.
And therein lies the problem. To avoid such nonsense, one must think rather than merely parrot the outlandish conspiracies circulating among one’s peer group. But I’ve seen such behavior far too often to hope humanity will ever, en masse, grow out of it.
A Misguided Old Friend
An example comes from an old friend, a dyed-in-the-wool fundamentalist white evangelical. I referred to him in a previous post. The man—as I said at the time—is one of the most gracious and caring individuals I’ve ever met. He truly would give anyone who needed it the shirt off his back. But, like so many white evangelicals, while he’s charitable, he’s not a deep thinker. He’s much more likely to succumb to groupthink than to diligently reason a matter through for himself.
This man recently emailed copies of his latest newsletter. He gave his lead article the headline “COVID-19: Judgement of God or Manmade Plan-Demic?” In it, my friend suggests that the government created the COVID virus as a means of usurping citizens’ freedoms and controlling us as pawns. In case you didn’t read my previous post referring to this friend, last year, he and his wife contracted the virus. He was ill for a couple weeks but recovered fully. His wife, on the other hand, was hit hard. She spent weeks in the ICU, on a ventilator, approaching death. Only recently have they been able to return to their home in Colorado’s high country where the oxygen levels are markedly lower than at sea level.
To continue reading, please click here: Grumpy’s Grumblings
On The Fence Voters 
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