I had three friends on FB with whom I grew up in a small PA town.

[joetheman]

We all came from hard working families, poor but we didn't know how poor because not a lot of TV and no social media.
I was shocked and saddened to find out just how RW-racist, homophobic, and sexist they were...even the one woman among them. They all utterly despised Obama and posted very nasty, ugly sentiments and photos of him and Michelle. But they hated Hillary even more. So you know they were Trump lovers, anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, pro-guns, anti-govornment that wasn't run by Trump. I don't believe they really cared about abortion but they pretended to be strongly pro-life just to ow the libs.

Well, after months of protesting Biden's COVID efforts and plastering all kinds of false COVID info over FB, I am reporting that I just learned by going to their FB pages (I hadn't seen any FB posts from them lately so I assumed they had blocked me) that all three had died from COVID within weeks of each other. The End.

[Ocelot II]

1. I guess their karma ran over their dogma.

[brush]

3. Nice!

[Beatlelvr]

4. Ooooooo

that's a good one.

[Lucky Luciano]

5. My mother had that as a bumper sticker 30 years ago or so!

A good one indeed!

[dixiechiken1]

14. Eeeeeeeeeeeeexcellent!

[Ilsa]

21. Most excellent! nt

[lindysalsagal]

28. OK that's a keeper.

[Joinfortmill]

56. yup

[calimary]

79. OUCH!!!

That’s an oldie but a goodie. An oldie but a VERY GOOD goodie!

[Bucky]

84. Karma's got shitty aim

That 2-4% of covid-related moralities that are among the vaccinated keeps me from seeing the Darwin jokes as funny. The people dying from accidents and heart attacks, the people not getting needed cancer screens, cause the ERs are overcrowded take all the fun out of my smugness.

It's not just the people poking holes in the canoe who are gonna end up in the creek.

[Ocelot II]

85. That, unfortunately, is true. If it weren't for that I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over

these damn fools' bad karma.

[Sherman A1]

2. As the wise man once told me

Most wounds are self-inflicted.

[mnhtnbb]

6. The promotion of self destructive behavior

by Republican leaders is causing tremendous damage to this country. It really makes you wonder whether the followers of the orange one and his cronies will ever come to their senses. How many have to die before others in the cult realize just how badly they've been conned?

[Thomas Hurt]

7. Same here, I have extended family and high school, trumpers all...

and I don't think they have set foot in a church except for a funeral or wedding, not theirs.

Neither have they ever cracked a bible. The piety is ideological.

[orwell]

8. Sucks to be stupid...

...or so I've heard.

[COL Mustard]

45. I've Been Stupid Long Enough

To know that your statement is correct!

[hibbing]

9. Eventually we all sit down to a banquet of consequences

Robert Louis Stevenson

Peace

[Joinfortmill]

57. Love this.

[Diamond_Dog]

10. What a waste of human life. So sad.

[SouthernDem4ever]

52. Yes it was, living or dead

[KS Toronado]

68. What a waste of reQublicOn voters, not so sad.

[panader0]

11. Yikes. That's gotta hurt in spite of the people they had become since the old days.

I know the feeling too. My oldest friend is an anti-vaxxer--1500 miles away. I'd be very sad if he
passed away. We grew up together in the 60's and early 70's before moving miles from each other.
COVID does not care what you think, only if you can be a host. Get vaccinated.

[Comfortably_Numb]

12. Ok, they're going to need a bigger venue for the Herman Cain award spectacular.

[Sugarcoated]

46. I feel guilty for laughing my ass off at that

...kinda

[dreamland]

13. I'm sorry for your loss, it seems that you've grown smarter

..and wiser than them. It's a difficult thing to see how people can change for the worse especially when they're childhood friends. I doubt that they had any inclination to save themselves when they're down the MAGA hole.

[Sgent]

15. I'm sorry for your loss

even when its someone you have grown distant from, losing part of your childhood forever is never easy.

[viva la]

16. OMG.

Well, that sure showed us libs who is boss.

[Joinfortmill]

58. You said it.

[bucolic_frolic]

17. So sorry

for your cultural deprivation. I do understand.

[mitch96]

18. Aw man that sucks out loud. I can relate. I have two long time friends that are conservative

One that is on the right side of the fence and two that are liberal. One won't talk to me b/c I refuse to talk politics with him.. He lives for conservative foxnoise drivel. No matter what the politics they are all reasonably healthy. One right wing anti vaxer got COVID but thankfully only got a mild case.. He NEVER gets sick from anything.
And so it goes...
m

[AllaN01Bear]

19. false noize sinclair radio fb and other multimedea poisened them. hem

so, sorry.

[Kaleva]

47. They wanted to be poisoned or were already poisoned.

All of us here are immune to Sinclair radio, FB, Fox, OAN, Newsmax because what they put out conflicts to our world view so we reject it. But for those whose world view is reinforced by what Sinclair radio, Fox, FB, OAN and Newsmax put out, they'll get sucked right in.

[BadGimp]

20. Our Plan is working.

We just need more time.

[Piasladic]

22. Crap

I am sorry. I'm sure it still hurts.

[BigmanPigman]

23. THE END

How appropriate! I guess they also killed some of their hate filled, purposely ignorant friends and family.

[maxsolomon]

24. sorry for your loss?

i'm getting numb, all the deaths are becoming abstract, just numbers.

"one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic" - j. stalin, supposedly

[SoCalDavidS]

25. So, Do You Feel "Owned" Now?

If yes, then it was worth it to them.

May you live many more years, unlike them.

[Xolodno]

26. Sorry to hear that.

But, in the end, they did win. They owned the Libs.

The old axiom says that the price of victory is high, but so are the rewards. But I posit that the rewards are worthless if you are dead.

[Ziggysmom]

27. So sorry. The Republican Party is a cartel.

They only care about the pursuit of power for no purpose. They don't care about people, have never cared.

[Nictuku]

29. I lived in Altoona for a brief time

Coming from the SF Bay Area, I was kind of shocked at how lily white it was there. I worked for a company in State College which had over 800 employees, and they had only one employee who was Indian (from India) and only one Black person.

The family of my boyfriend were Democrats however (teachers, of course), and I didn't encounter any of this kind of right wing stuff, but that was back in 1999. A lot has changed since then.

Once I gave my boyfriend back to his parents (he was too young), and moved back to the SF Bay Area, I actually had tears of Joy as I crossed that Golden Gate Bridge.

Diversity is what makes our country great! (I also grew up in Hawaii, which is a great melting pot of people of all colors and creeds).

The point of my post is that while Altoona was not very diverse, there were good people there as well.

[FakeNoose]

30. Congrats, you made the cut

Live long and prosper!

[hunter]

31. On social media and in real life it's been many moments of pride...

... when I've been rejected first.

[ALBliberal]

32. Being from a small town myself this makes me sad

I have similar situations. Completely shocked that I was raised alongside some of these people. And even rekindled our friendships after our 30th reunion (2010).

I hope they didn’t leave young kids behind… spouses and so on.

I’m sorry for your sad news and probably shocking news as well!

[Crunchy Frog]

33. You may be interested in submitting them to the Herman Cain Award Reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/

It's sad that people you thought were friends turned out like that, but they can still benefit society in some small way by being object lessons.

The above site is beginning to get lots of posts from the formerly vax hesitant who have been moved to finally get vaccinated.

[certainot]

34. it's the radio

[Gore1FL]

35. I am sorry you lost friends to the two biggest plagues we face as a nation.

1> Covid 19
2> Disinformation

[JoeOtterbein]

36. I'll drink to that...

...Thanks for posting!

[Grumpy Old Guy]

37. I am sorry for your loss.

[orleans]

38. my first reaction after reading this was: oh my god!

how bizarre.
i'm really sorry.

[3Hotdogs]

40. Yuppers. That Jesus fella, he sure got himself a fine tuned sense of humor. N/t

[Joinfortmill]

59. OMG

[Sogo]

39. If this were a FB post, I'd mark it with the

WOW emoji....

The DU WOW is even more WOW:

[diane in sf]

41. That's stupid and very sad. They died of brainwashing. One of life's great displeasures is going on

FB and finding out people from high school and relatives have turned into frothing wingnuts.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

42. Gosh. Who could possibly have imagined?

[czarjak]

43. Just returned to Texas after a family reunion in your BEAUTIFUL state.

Could have been and probably will be someone we love. Just because, too.

[C Moon]

44. And in the end...

[left-of-center2012]

48. I grew up in western PA in the 50s and 60s

Back then it was a strong Democratic area but it has gone far right over the years.
I grew up in the area around Indiana County.

[ShazzieB]

49. OMG, all three?

Holy cow. That blows my mind. Because, you know, not every RWNJ actually gets covid, and not every one that gets it succumbs to it. Sounds like they beat all the odds, and not in a good way. I'm sorry for your loss.

[littlemissmartypants]

50. Wow. nt

[Dukkha]

51. Darwin 3 Tribalism 0

Once again Science and Nature prove they don't care about your beliefs. They are real whether you accept it or not.

[Dorian Gray]

53. This is bleak and depressing

And while some people are celebrating this, they were victims of disinformation for political gain.

It should enrage everyone in their town. It makes me angry.

I know people like this who it can happen to, and while I get very frustrated by my MAGA childhood friends on social media, I know them and their families. They love people just like we do. They are brainwashed into believing that taking measures for their own health and the health of the greater community is not a beneficial stance.

I'm enraged about this!

While they individually are at fault for not pushing past the misinformation, of course, they are human. Their deaths do not deserve to be celebrated. Unless they are a part of the media perpetuating the misinformation, they should be mourned, not condemned.

Each one of these cases will be an inflection point for a community, and while I don't want to change minds this way, this is going to be what it takes in our landscape. And I mourn the people being misled into giving their own lives to this nonsense.

[Joinfortmill]

60. You are kind.

But, assuming they were of sound mind, they made a choice. Choices have consequences, sometimes terrible ones.

[Dorian Gray]

71. I know

You're right, and they've suffered those consequences.

At best, they're a cautionary tale.

[twodogsbarking]

54. I have lived in Pennsylvania all of my life.

This is not a surprise.

[Joinfortmill]

55. That's the craziest part of all - GOP killing itself.

[NurseJackie]

61. Except that they're serving as mutation incubators... I'm all in favor of this.

[Hugin]

64. +1

I'm waiting for someone to find a monster variant brewing.

It should be called, Trump. He'd probably get a rush out of that.

[IronLionZion]

62. They are dying to own the libs

Some even post memes about that, as in they are unmasked, unvaxxed, and still alive so that proves it's all a hoax to take away our freedoms. Or that those of us who social distanced and masked have had a bad time while MAGA patriots have lived well and enjoyed freedom.

[2Gingersnaps]

63. My sister keeps up with the high school alumni,

funny back in the 70's we were all long hairs, rock n roll, and weed. It was rural Ohio, but where I grew up was a mix of farmers and off base Wright Patterson AFB housing. There were also about six campuses in the area even back then, so there was a broad transient population, you would assume people would be less narrow minded. Not so much. Apparently all that free thought was a fashion trend, not too many true believers. They are all hard core tRumpers, the only thing I see in common among them is the iron clad sense of entitlement and shocking lack of character. And if Mother Nature does the Darwin thing with these people, sorry, not sorry. When your one great aspiration in life is to kick down on the less fortunate, buh bye.

[appleannie1]

65. I live in a small, rural, PA town

That story does not surprise me at all. My daughter is an ICU traveling nurse now and rarely sees her family because she is not home much. She has been working in overrun hospitals for over a year, all in the south. She no longer even communicates with people she went to school with, some of whom were in her wedding party. They all seem to think that COVID was just a big city thing and they were immune because they did not live in the dirty city. They hate Gov. Wolf with a passion because he shut down the restaurants and bars where they all hang out. How dare he tromp on "their rights". They never wear masks unless forced to. Why should they? Then they use all their breath to complain they "can't breathe". I recently learned that at least two of them died of COVID. The county I live in is a hot spot now because they are not going to be test animals and get a shot that has "God knows what" in it. I have quit shopping at the local meat market and am looking for a new hair salon to get my hair cut because no one wears masks where I have gone for years. I even quit getting physical therapy recently for a problem I have. Even though the delta variant is spreading all over this area the PT place only put bottles of spray out and left it up to whoever was using the equipment to wipe it down when done. At least 75% were not doing that and no one, absolutely no one was wearing masks in a room full of sweating people doing exercises. I bought an exercise bike and other stuff and now do exercises at home. They all think I am crazy.

[mahina]

69. You hang in there and stay safe.

Aloha.

[joetheman]

86. Sounds so familiar. The other things that really angers me about them they were all "Christians"

and spent a lot of time reminding readers that the "Islamics" were coming here to turn us into an anti-Christian nation. i even went to the site of one of their churches. Everything was so warm and fuzzy about church activities. Then I began to read their community page where there were dozens of comments about praying for bereaved families who lost someone to COVD. From the videos of the church services the congregation is mostly unmasked and I bet unvaxxed.

[appleannie1]

87. Exactly. A neighbor invited me for "free soup" night at a local church last night.

Before Covid I would go with them because the soup was good and I don't make soup often since I am now alone. Last night I refused because I know I would have been the only one there wearing a mask on entry and would have to sit unmasked to eat in a whole room full of unmasked, unvaxxed people. And it would have been those same people that made the two kinds of soup and brought the desserts and served. I am not in any hurry to be a crossover and am looking forward to getting my booster.

[lagomorph777]

66. Oops.

[Baitball Blogger]

67. Shite! That's some testimonial.

Were they all still living in PA?

[leftyladyfrommo]

70. That's awful. So many people just like them. So many

families losing fathers and mothers and children and friends.

Somehow spreading misinformation purposely should be illegal. Especially when American citizens are dying as a result.

[Texin]

73. The End indeed.

[SWBTATTReg]

74. How fitting and poetic. Their hatred is what killed them, with COVID along as a nightcap, Ironic.

Thanks for posting.

In a way, posting this about one's ex-friends from one's childhood can't be easy for you, I'd be sad if such were my friends from my childhood, and then turn out to be so hateful, so RW, so sexist.

A true disappointment, especially when one is young, and the world is wide open to one's dream, and is so full of rich possibilities.

It would be somewhat interesting to see where this single minded hatred came from, but then again, I don't really want to know, for anything they say or try to explain would all be a lie, would be full of distortions and such, that one wouldn't learn anything other than the raw hate radiating from them.

Hatred seems to breed by itself, in isolated pockets/regions of the Country, perhaps it's a sign that these people have been forgotten by Society (or ignored most likely) and the only way they knew how to speak out was hate.

Thanks for sharing your story w/ all of us here on DU.

[brewens]

75. I'm waiting to lose someone on FB. Hasn't happened yet somehow. I'm 60 and am in my Idaho

home town. Not just any town either. We're like the COVIDiot HQ here. It's a miracle that none of my almost 400, mostly local friends are still alive. Many are flag humpin', FG lovin', morans too. It will be any day. No doubt about it.

If I see one of those COVIDiot deathbed conversions, it'll be hard to not say good riddance. Almost everyone real close to me is vaccinated, thankfully my sister too. Her husband would be an anti-vaxer if his daughter hadn't mandated it to see the grandkids. If he had convinced my sister to not get vaccinated and anything happened to her, his ass would be grass and he knows it. That may have helped too.

[dsharp88]

76. Whew, I was afraid this was going to end sadly.

Now they can't kill more Americans any longer. Darwin is always correct in the end.

[DownriverDem]

77. Wow

There are no words for this. repubs are killing their voters.

[LymphocyteLover]

78. Saw a meme on FB that shows Neil deGrasse Tyson saying that every 10 days, 8000 Republican voters

are dying of COVID.

Que sera sera...

[electric_blue68]

80. So sorry you lost them twice

[lunatica]

81. A sad end to a sad story.

But they may have left a wake of pain when they were alive, so my best wishes for the survivors, you included!

[Grammy23]

82. A sad story but not too surprising given how the past 18 months have gone.

I used to attend my class reunions fairly regularly. I graduated from a Mississippi Gulf Coast high school. After Facebook came on the scene, I decided to look at FB pages of some of the people I knew. I did NOT ask to be a friend with any of them. I also signed up on a FB page for my graduating class. I periodically check in to see what’s going on and to see who has died. Sad, but 55 years after graduation, many have died. I discovered that many are uber religious, right wing and prejudiced. (Not too surprised.) Not all are that way but most of the ones who never left are full on, right wing, religious zealots. So I have decided to not go to any more reunions. I have nothing in common with most of them other than graduating from the same high school a very long time ago.

So sometimes FB actually serves a good purpose. I could look at books they read, favorite TV shows and assorted other bits and pieces that told me a lot about their lives. They freely gave out that information and in some cases proudly declared their prejudices. It is disappointing to find out but it is a good thing to spare myself going to an event that was always stressful for me any way.

Sorry you had to learn of your former friends deaths. But it sounds like you would not be friends any more all these years later.

[Mike Nelson]

83. I just had...

... a friend die yesterday. Not in my exact year, but a classmate, too... very pro-Trump and anti-vax. He fit the profile so well, just like your three. Still, I am incredibly sad. He was a good kid, long ago...

[kairos12]

88. Darwin remains undefeated.

[maxrandb]

89. Please tell me this is Beaver County

the Dumbfukistaniest Dumbfuckistan in 'Murika