The pandemic at this point may be overwhelmingly targeting those who aren’t vaccinated, but don’t think all anti-vaxxers are on the right. There’s plenty on the left. Jordan Klepper — who’s poked that particular bear before, and the bear that’s against masks — decided to broaden his scope, in turn showing that the movement to not get safe and effective and free protection against a highly transmissible virus is bit more diverse than you’d think.
The Daily Show correspondent headed to Southern California, where he found a different breed of vaccine resistors — who, actually, weren’t all that different. Some of them may swear they don’t identify as “anti-vaxxers,” but when asked what they do believe in, some of them arguably make even less sense than their Trumpist variant.
One heavily pierced and tatted gentleman tells Klepper that, like the Red Staters whose politics he likely doesn’t share, he believes in “freedom of choice.” Why? Because mandates are a slipper slope from “Step 1” to “Step 2.” When asked what “Step 2” entails, he admitted he didn’t know but professed to not be a “conspiracy theorist.” He then made curious claims about polio vaccines, saying he’s fine with that mandate because, with polio, “we’ve known what it’s done.” To which Klepper could only reply, “We don’t know what COVID’s done?”
Wild theories fly left and right in the always sunny progressive paradise. There’s the guy who claims vaccines are all part of Bill Gates’ plan to wipe out a billion people for population control. There’s a woman who claims, mysteriously, that the vaccines are “snapping the DNA in half.” Multiple people sing the praises of staying healthy, all but repeating claims made by far right commentator Dennis Prager, who, after testing positive and probably coming very close to death, bragged about catching the virus on purpose.
And don’t think ahistorical and offensive comparisons to Nazi Germany are only regulated to Marjorie Taylor Greene. One progressive-minded woman, a native of Germany and health fanatic, claims “history is repeating itself” with vaccine cards. “‘Where are your papers? Where are your papers?’ It’s very similar to the Hitler times,” she asserted.
“So Jewish people are fleeing Poland because they can’t get into gyms?” Klepper responded.
You can watch Klepper talk to SoCal anti-vaxxers in the video above, and weep.
(Via The Daily Beast)
Source: https://uproxx.com/tv/jordan-klepper-anti-vaxxers-southern-california-progressives/