Eric Boehlert: The press fawned over Trump voters in diners. Now they're Covid zombies

[babylonsister]

The press fawned over Trump voters in diners. Now they're Covid zombies
Brainwashed
Eric Boehlert
3 hr ago


snip//

Committed to the idea that Trump's white voters were the most important, and most authentic, voices in American politics, the media spent years celebrating them, marveling at their loyalty in the face of Trump's erratic behavior.

It was relentless. Over the span of just four days in early 2017, the New York Times published a long profile on women who voted for Trump, a piece on Trump fans who traveled to the inauguration, and an adoring profile of a Trump voter who lied about Hillary Clinton during the campaign and profited from his fake news business. Later, even a Trump supporter who had nice things to say about Nazis received a gentle Times profile. (Actual Trump voter Times headlines: "These Guys Really Like Trump"; “Trump’s Fights Are Their Fights. They Have His Back Unapologetically&quot

Today, those Trump voters have mobilized as Covid zombies and gone from insisting the pandemic was a hoax in 2020, to embracing every illogical anti-vaccine trope that Tucker Carlson regurgitates. And they still think the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus.

Trump voters have collectively lost their minds as the virus runs wild in red states. Even as some prominent anti-vaccine zealots kill themselves off, the close-minded hysteria intensifies as fanatics now physically assault local school board members, lodge countless death threats, and cause chaos for teachers and students. This is a kind of cult-like mania rarely seen in modern American history.

There have been unhinged right-wing political mobs before — think back to the Tea Party movement, which flourished as soon as America elected its first Black president. That however, was fueled by a willful misreading of Obama’s economic policy and bailout strategy. The current day right-wing madness is more akin to the Salem witch trials, where hysterical, organized mobs conjure up imaginary demons and then set out to administer vigilante justice.

“Community groups within our conservative stronghold thought they could buck the Fox News narrative and persuade reluctant Republicans to get vaccinated,” explained Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency room physician in western Michigan. “They recruited local Republican leaders to encourage their supporters to get their shots. But instead of getting more people vaccinated, these public servants got death threats.”

Yet the press is still normalizing the insanity. After documenting several instances of Trump voters storming school board meetings and comparing mask mandates to sex trafficking and to Hitler’s rise to power (“This is what Hitler wants. Hitler wants everybody divided. If we all stay divided, who wins? Hitler wins”), the New York Times’ Michelle Cottle insisted that what the Covid Zombies are doing “is nothing new.” In reality, it’s unprecedented.


more...

https://pressrun.media/p/the-press-fawned-over-trump-voters

[underpants]

1. Yep. They loved them some "Cletus safaris"

That’s the nickname for the press going into Red Country to get their honest humble opinions.

[SharonClark]

2. Go to GQP diners to get an opinion and you get GQP opinions.

What a shock!

[liberalla]

3. That line, "the current right-wing madness is more akin to the Salem witch trials..." is right on!

What a perfect analogy!

[StarfishSaver]

4. This didn't start with Trump voters

The press spent the previous 8 years fetishizing the tea party and other Obama haters as "the forgotten Americans ho only wanted to be heard.

Funny how when Obama was president, the media insisted it was critical that voters who didn't support him be heard. But then when Trump became president, that same media insisted it was critical for his supporters to be heard.

And even more interesting, The Obama haters and Trump supporters were pretty much to the same people - making these folk the loudest and most visible unseen, unheard Americans in history.