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Nevilledog

(50,687 posts)
Mon Jan 24, 2022, 02:40 PM Jan 2022

Insurrection by other means: The far right is using anti-vaxx sentiment to radicalize



Tweet text:

Amanda Marcotte
@AmandaMarcotte
The anti-vaxx movement is terrifying enough as is, but the situation is getting worse — it's being used to help radicalize Republican voters, turn their anti-Biden fervor towards outright fascism and violence.

salon.com
Insurrection by other means: The far right is using anti-vaxx sentiment to radicalize Republicans
The weekend's anti-vaccine rally in D.C. was heavy on violence-inspiring rhetoric and fascist recruitment
11:21 AM · Jan 24, 2022



https://www.salon.com/2022/01/24/insurrection-by-other-means-the-far-right-is-using-anti-vaxx-sentiment-to-radicalize/

The "Defeat the Mandates" rally on Sunday in Washington D.C. was not exactly the blockbuster event, size-wise, organizers had hoped to turn out. The event's planners had predicted 20,000 people, but more reasonable estimates suggested it was fewer than half that who actually showed. But despite the paltry turnout, the event was deeply troubling to experts who monitor the far-right.

The tone and tenor of the occasion were so hyperbolic and self-aggrandizing, creating exactly the sort of conditions that will further radicalize ordinary Republicans and stoke more right-wing violence. Disgustingly, one of the main speakers was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the Democratic scion who was assassinated in 1968. Kennedy has spent the past few years becoming an increasingly unhinged anti-vaccine activist — but his presence on Sunday was even more alarming considering the role that the Kennedy family plays in the imaginations of the QAnon cult.

Many QAnoners believe that JFK and JFK Jr. — Kennedy's deceased uncle and first cousin, respectively — are still alive and secretly supporting Donald Trump. Simply by showing up, Kennedy validated these kinds of fringe beliefs. The situation got much worse when he actually spoke and told the crowd that anti-vaxxers have it worse than Jews did during the Holocaust.

"Even in Hitler Germany (sic), you could, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland. You could hide in an attic, like Anne Frank did," Kennedy said. "I visited, in 1962, East Germany with my father and met people who had climbed the wall and escaped, so it was possible. Many died, true, but it was possible."

*snip*


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