Masks were Not Always Hated by Rightwingers
This photo has been circulating on social media this last week:
This is the cover of the July 1983 Moral Majority Report, a newsletter conceived and published by Jerry Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority, a Reagan era mouthpiece of what has now morphed into the American Taliban. At that time, the HIV crisis was arising, and predictably, right-wingers were judgmental about the outbreak, but worse, even then they got the virology wrong, donning masks in an effort to scare the shit out of people about a virus that didn’t transmit through the air, but by bodily fluids.
Back then, the mask was used as a weapon against science and one of their targets, the gay community. Today, once again masks are being used as a weapon against common sense and science, but in the opposite of the use in 1983. Back then, right-wingers donned masks to push their message; today they accost people wearing masks and rail against mask mandates to push whatever their message is today. The obvious conclusion is that conservatives are not only totally corrupted; they have been corrupted for decades, moving facts around to fit their narrative. Add the cancer of Donald Trump, and the corruption is complete, and political conservatism becomes a toxic soup of lies, distortions, disinformation, and cruelty for the pure sake of cruelty.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, but in the case of the American right wing, it gets worse.
Truth!
1Interesting history, El Jefe. Republicons practicing medicine without a license since forever. Same memes, too. “only homos get AIDS, not healthy men” “healthy people don’t get Covid.”
Back when the CDC had linked HIV to blood pathogens, Reagan’s reticence stalled public education/information until the truth of contracting HIV at the dentist or ‘healthy’ men transmitting the virus by sharing needles with other drug addicts or visiting prostitutes who had shared needles became too widespread to deny that was not an isolated disease. Yeah oops same with Covid is no different than any flu, etc.
Like Trickle Down, science denial has been a failing conservative strategy since 1980.
2I think the evolution cartoon showing the progression from ape to man is only half complete, neglecting to show our species reverting backwards.
3I know, this is a serious topic and I should not be making light of it. But I’d love to get and read that whole newsletter, it’s got to be a real hoot.
Also, who were those Masked Idiots? Where are they now? Is it bad of me to think that the Mom long ago dumped Dad and joined a lesbian commune in southern California? Little Timmy with the hostile arm-crossing; did he have a lot of Steve Reeves posters in his bedroom and did he eventually discover that he liked boys more than girls? The little girl, did she go on to have two divorces and three abortions because she was taught birth control is evil? Without the mask, would we recognize a much older and fatter Dad among the Proud Doofuses at the Jan 6 hoe-down?
… and has the Surly Professor been reading too much George Carlin lately? [answer: No, you can’t read too much George Carlin when it comes to the Moral Majority, which was neither]
4Professor, you’re my kinda surly.
5I recommend the Wickersham’s Conscience entry for today:
https://wickershamsconscience.wordpress.com/2021/08/22/lets-apply-swifts-solution/
6Early in Covid, Republicans were saying, “We didn’t have to mask up during AIDS — so what’s the big deal now?”
Seriously, I saw it on some site that claimed to disseminate actual — you know — facts.
Yeah, AIDS is transmitted through blood and sex. Makes me wonder how those people wearing masks do sex. Just sayin.
7Hell, conservatives have NEVER had a problem with masks.
8https://mynbc15.com/resources/media/85bfa477-e41c-4a26-b3c1-30a556290c93-large16x9_kkkrobeweb.jpg?1539308817071