In September of 2021 I published a post about the strengthening alliance between the most
vociferous anti-vax/anti-mask/"alt-health" factions and
the American right. The post, which is
arguably even more useful for the offsite links list at the end
than it is for my own contributions in the body, was framed
around an October 2021 event at the famous Gaylord Opryland Hotel
in Nashville, Tennessee: "The Truth [sic] About Cancer
Live" convention. It was promoted as a health symposium, the
type that features the expected denigration of conventional
medical treatments (in this case, for cancer) and provides a
platform for anti-vax propagandizing -- but the political
component was undeniable.
True, the speaker lineup at that Gaylord Gullibalooza included
some of the loudest and daftest (or most cynical) alt-health
luminaries working the sucker circuit today, such as discredited
doc and anti-vaxtivist Andrew Wakefield; nutcake Dr.
Sheri Tenpenny, who believes COVID vaccines are a plot to turn us all
into trans-humanist cyborgs; and
conspiracy peddler/health-frauducts pusher/right-wing rabble-rouser Mike "The Health Ranger" Adams, the latter of whom has a money-grubbing finger in both
the political-punditry and the alt-health pies. But the main
attractions seemed to be incendiary right-wingnut political
figures: most notably, top-listed keynoter Eric
Trump, and Eldertrump toady and
convicted-but-pardoned felon Roger Stone.
The following month, Rolling Stone published a good
report/commentary on the event,
sounding the alarm, as I and others had, about the marriage
between health-nuttery and right-wing politix.
Right-wing figureheads like Trump and Stone aren’t chemo deniers, but they can’t resist a speaking fee, or an opportunity to rile up gullible conservatives already punch-drunk on grievance politics. As Oren Segal, Vice President of the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism and host of the podcast Extremely, tells Rolling Stone, gatherings like “The Truth About Cancer Live” are breeding grounds for bad ideas.
“This has been quote-unquote ‘mainstream’ now for a while,” Segal says. “These narratives [have brought] what some would consider legitimate voices together with more fringe [figures] throughout the country for some time, and so obviously the big concern is the more that you have people who have a significant reach or a voice, who are giving voice to conspiracies that seek to undermine democratic institutions, the more that disinformation gets normalized and the more potential for polarization there is.”
My only quibble with Mr. Segal is that bit
about "legitimate voices." While he qualified his
statement by including "what some would consider,"
the truth is that there really aren't that many legit voices in
the alt-health movement these days. But his point, and those made
in the Rolling Stone piece, are well taken, and are
congruent with the points I tried to make in my own post in
September.
I just don't think that the perils of these unholy alliances can
be overstated. The evidence is everywhere. On January 23, 2022,
for example, there was a big march in Washington, DC protesting
(COVID) vaccine and mask mandates. The next day, The Daily
Kos published a piece about the event,
observing that even though the anti-vaccination/"holistic
health" movements began life as largely
left-wing/liberal/hippie phenomena, things have changed:
As this Sunday’s “Defeat the Mandates” march in Washington, D.C., however, showed us, there’s no longer anything even remotely left-wing about the movement. Populated with Proud Boys and “Patriot” militiamen, QAnoners and other Alex Jones-style conspiracists who blithely indulge in Holocaust relativism and other barely disguised antisemitism, and ex-hippies who now spout right-wing propaganda—many of them, including speakers, encouraging and threatening violence—the crowd at the National Mall manifested the reality that “anti-vaxxers” now constitute a full-fledged far-right movement, and a potentially violent one at that...
Indeed, promotions of violence, as well as vile displays of antisemitism and Holocaust trivialization, were everywhere.
Many of the rally attendees wore yellow replicas of the Star of David badges that were forced upon Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and many of them carried signs referencing both that horrific episode of history and the German Nazi regime that inflicted it. So did other speakers, such as Del Bigtree, CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network, who added a threatening tone directed at journalists.
"Unlike the Nuremberg Trials that only tried those doctors that destroyed the lives of those human beings, we're going to come after the press,” Bigtree told the crowd.
Violence was also an undercurrent in the audience, some of whom carried signs suggesting a lethal response: “Shoot those who try to kidnap and vaccinate your child.” Another agreed with Bigtree, calling for “Nuremberg Trials 2.0.”
I have zero patience with those who trivialize the
Holocaust by comparing vaccine and mask mandates to the
atrocities committed by the Third Reich last century against 6
million Jews (and more than 5 million non-Jews).
Yet making this comparison seems to be a common rhetorical tactic
among right-wing "freedom fighters" who should know better and should be ashamed of
themselves.
And by the way... Memo to the ignoranti:
Vaccine mandates do not violate the Nuremberg
Code.
When you parrot that "Nuremberg Code/Geneva
Convention violation" narrative you are diving into
dangerously stupid territory. And I'm talking about the level of
stupid occupied by the likes of cancer quack/fake
doctor/fraudster/neo-Nazi Leonard Coldwell, as
evidenced in this copy-and-paste post on his Facebook timeline on
January 20, 2022. [Click on the pic to enlarge it if you need to, but be warned that the time it takes you to read this screed is time you will never get back.]
The coalescence of the anti-vaccination movement with other far-right conspiracist movements—particularly the authoritarian QAnon cult—has been an ongoing phenomenon since COVID-19 broke out in 2020, and the radicalization of its believers has been gathering steam increasingly since. Likewise, the inherently violent nature of many of these movements has resulted in an increasing drumbeat of real-world violence directed at health care workers, local authorities, and anyone who supports the pandemic measures.
Yep, and it's pretty scary.
Of course, the phenomena we're discussing are not limited to
American culture and politics. All across Europe, for instance,
there's a growing anti-mandate movement that is attracting
far-right groups and is fomenting violence. It's been happening
in Germany, and in Austria (and Belgium and the
Netherlands and France), and in Italy... and it just seems to
be getting worse.
And closer to home, if your home is in North America, witness the
yuuuge march on Ottawa this past weekend, attended by Canadian truckers and apparently thousands
of non-trucker allies who clogged up and bogged down Canada's
capital city in order to protest COVID mandates. Originally the
purpose of the protest was to rail against a rule requiring
truckers to show proof of vaccination upon returning to Canada
from the U.S.; those that don’t are required to quarantine for
14 days. But the event soon evolved into a more sweeping protest
against COVID mitigation mandates in general. And while overall
it has reportedly been a "peaceful" event for the most
part, there have been reports of swastika flags, desecration of a
war memorial, and threats of violence.
Unsurprisingly, #NeverWasMyPresident Donald John Trump, in Texas
during the same weekend for a couple of fascist rallies, praised the Ottawa protesters, claiming that they were "doing more to defend American freedom
than our own leaders by far." Trump's coked-up elderspawn,
Donald J Trump Jr., also endorsed the protest,
describing one of the truckers as a heroic fighter against
"medical tyranny."
Also unsurprisingly, Canada's Conservative Party supported the protestors, who aimed much of their anger directly at Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (Trudeau and his family felt
compelled to leave their home in Ottawa that weekend, due to
security concerns.)
Notwithstanding the hoopla, vaccination is actually pretty
popular among Canadian truckers and the Canadian population in
general, according to Forbes.
Despite the large turnout, 90% of Canada’s cross-border truckers are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, along with 79% of the population overall.
So there's that. It's also noteworthy that the Canadian Trucking Alliance opposed the protest, saying this is "not how disagreement with
government policies should be expressed."
Now, I get that many insist that it's not vaccines that are the
problem; it's the mandates. People hate being told what
to do (though curiously enough, many of the anti-vaxxers have no problem with authoritarianism in general, as long as it's right-wing authoritarianism). For many others, however, it's the vaccines themselves
that are the problem. In any case, if a significant number of
people still refuse to get vaccinated because of their own
misguided beliefs, COVID will continue to win. Indeed, Canada is
currently in the middle of a spike in Omicron variant cases, and its hospitals and over-burdened healthcare workers are
strained to the max.
But the anti-mitigation maniacs on both sides of the
Canadian-American border, and both sides of the Atlantic, for
that matter, have shown time and time again that they don't care
about little things like that. For them, it's all about fighting
for their own "freedom" to go vax-less and mask-less --
never mind how many people, including themselves, they may be
endangering.
And unfortunately, they have been immeasurably emboldened by the
far right, even as they continue to throw their support behind
the craziest and/or most fascistic right wing politicians.
It truly is a marriage made in hell; too bad that the rest of us
have to suffer as a result.
