Anti-vaxers came from the collapse of the perceived legitimacy of liberal institutions. They’re wrong about vaccines but right to distrust neoliberal institutions.
It came from wave after wave of disinformation, first via institutions that have been hijacked by the private sector and then by mercenaries looking to shill phony panaceas to a desperate and gullible audience.
This isn't simply people growing more skeptical. I wish it was a legitimate increase in national skepticism. It is, instead, a group of media institutions that have made a game of calling each other "Liar!" to accumulate additional media market share, and then monetizing that market share by selling quack remedies. It is, if anything, an increased frequency of gullibility fostered by media consolidation and coordination.
You are describing the very erosion of institutions that I’m talking about. It’s not that people wrongly perceive that institutions have eroded, they rightly do, though most don’t understand the reasons for it. Grifters are getting away with grifting under eroded institutions, and grifters are taking advantage of people’s legitimate distrust in the institutions that are failing them to shill their grift.
It’s not that people wrongly perceive that institutions have eroded, they rightly do
The hysteria over masks and vaccines are entirely fabricated. And they are the result of increased faith in institutions - particularly, popular faith in right wing media outlets - which have also been peddling hoax remedies for health and safety in tandem with their fearmongering aimed at proven preventative measures.
Grifters are getting away with grifting under eroded institutions,
Con-men must necessarily build up confidence in their own brands before they can execute their scams. And the consolidated, coordinated media markets make confidence-building exercises easier than ever before. One of the more nefarious aspects of the right-wing media gambit is in how each individual institution will denounce the others, while they all repeat the same underlying message. "COVID came from China" was a message you could hear directly from the Trump WH, from FOX News, from pre-Elon Twitter, from the NYT, from Alex Jones, and from Joe Rogan, all while these various individual outlets claimed they were the only ones you could trust. Similarly, Fauci's CDC was telling people that masks were unnecessary long before OAN or the Televangelicals got in on the game. Liberal pundits questioned the efficacy of vaccines while Trump promised "Operation Warp Speed" would deliver a panacea, then started naysaying the necessity of quarantines and masks as soon as Joe Biden was in the White House. Meanwhile, conservative and liberal media alike used the pandemic to justify immigration bans and school privatization bans, while complaining that their rivals weren't going far enough.
Polarization decreased the overall faith in institutions, but it cultivates fanatical devotion to individual shards. When these institutions are all being fed the same slop by a handful of coordinated news power brokers, the end result is people believing the same silly bullshit while convincing themselves their Sinophobia / Racist Hysteria / Vaccine Skepticism is different from all the crazy people who listen to different media vendors.
The hysteria over masks and vaccines are entirely fabricated. And they are the result of increased faith in institutions - particularly, popular faith in right wing media outlets
The growing faith in those new alternative institutions didn’t spring out of nothing, it came from the erosion of purportedly legitimate institutions. It came from the FCC revoking the Fairness Doctrine, for instance. FOX news previously wasn’t even possible to create. It came from neoliberalism stripping away the New Deal’s working class gains. It came from jobs being offshored, the Rust Belt being just one result. It came from pensions becoming a thing of the past, or at best replaced with the finance industry’s predatory 401(k)s. From crumbling infrastructure, and not things like bridges but also public education.
When these institutions are all being fed the same slop by a handful of coordinated news power brokers
Again you’re describing the erosion of liberal institutions. The labor press is long gone, and even the labor section of corporate newspapers is dead. Late stage capitalism’s continued media consolidation is an erosion.
Similarly, Fauci's CDC was telling people that masks were unnecessary
Another institutional failure among many in this pandemic. The institutions don’t even seem to care about the social reproduction of the proletariat anymore, only the short-term profits of the bourgeoisie, even at the expense of long-term ones. The capitalist class is a parasite that is killing its host, the working class.
Even liberal Chris Hedges has long perceived this: his book Death of the Liberal Class came out 14 years old.
Edit to add: Liberalism is in decay, which is why we’re lurching toward fascism. When you scratch liberalism, fascism bleeds. It’s capitalism’s last stand.
It's the same in many places where anti-vaxxers got more popular 4 years ago, which is everywhere
Anti-vaxers came from the collapse of the perceived legitimacy of liberal institutions. They’re wrong about vaccines but right to distrust neoliberal institutions.
It came from wave after wave of disinformation, first via institutions that have been hijacked by the private sector and then by mercenaries looking to shill phony panaceas to a desperate and gullible audience.
This isn't simply people growing more skeptical. I wish it was a legitimate increase in national skepticism. It is, instead, a group of media institutions that have made a game of calling each other "Liar!" to accumulate additional media market share, and then monetizing that market share by selling quack remedies. It is, if anything, an increased frequency of gullibility fostered by media consolidation and coordination.
You are describing the very erosion of institutions that I’m talking about. It’s not that people wrongly perceive that institutions have eroded, they rightly do, though most don’t understand the reasons for it. Grifters are getting away with grifting under eroded institutions, and grifters are taking advantage of people’s legitimate distrust in the institutions that are failing them to shill their grift.
The hysteria over masks and vaccines are entirely fabricated. And they are the result of increased faith in institutions - particularly, popular faith in right wing media outlets - which have also been peddling hoax remedies for health and safety in tandem with their fearmongering aimed at proven preventative measures.
Con-men must necessarily build up confidence in their own brands before they can execute their scams. And the consolidated, coordinated media markets make confidence-building exercises easier than ever before. One of the more nefarious aspects of the right-wing media gambit is in how each individual institution will denounce the others, while they all repeat the same underlying message. "COVID came from China" was a message you could hear directly from the Trump WH, from FOX News, from pre-Elon Twitter, from the NYT, from Alex Jones, and from Joe Rogan, all while these various individual outlets claimed they were the only ones you could trust. Similarly, Fauci's CDC was telling people that masks were unnecessary long before OAN or the Televangelicals got in on the game. Liberal pundits questioned the efficacy of vaccines while Trump promised "Operation Warp Speed" would deliver a panacea, then started naysaying the necessity of quarantines and masks as soon as Joe Biden was in the White House. Meanwhile, conservative and liberal media alike used the pandemic to justify immigration bans and school privatization bans, while complaining that their rivals weren't going far enough.
Polarization decreased the overall faith in institutions, but it cultivates fanatical devotion to individual shards. When these institutions are all being fed the same slop by a handful of coordinated news power brokers, the end result is people believing the same silly bullshit while convincing themselves their Sinophobia / Racist Hysteria / Vaccine Skepticism is different from all the crazy people who listen to different media vendors.
The growing faith in those new alternative institutions didn’t spring out of nothing, it came from the erosion of purportedly legitimate institutions. It came from the FCC revoking the Fairness Doctrine, for instance. FOX news previously wasn’t even possible to create. It came from neoliberalism stripping away the New Deal’s working class gains. It came from jobs being offshored, the Rust Belt being just one result. It came from pensions becoming a thing of the past, or at best replaced with the finance industry’s predatory 401(k)s. From crumbling infrastructure, and not things like bridges but also public education.
Again you’re describing the erosion of liberal institutions. The labor press is long gone, and even the labor section of corporate newspapers is dead. Late stage capitalism’s continued media consolidation is an erosion.
Another institutional failure among many in this pandemic. The institutions don’t even seem to care about the social reproduction of the proletariat anymore, only the short-term profits of the bourgeoisie, even at the expense of long-term ones. The capitalist class is a parasite that is killing its host, the working class.
Even liberal Chris Hedges has long perceived this: his book Death of the Liberal Class came out 14 years old.
Edit to add: Liberalism is in decay, which is why we’re lurching toward fascism. When you scratch liberalism, fascism bleeds. It’s capitalism’s last stand.