1. On The Media scaring Southern Republicans from getting vaccinated: I follow a number of mainstream sources and the only overall message that I've seen is that folks need to get vaccinated. That's presently The Message. Now, with the advent of the Delta variant, I am seeing some stories about how certain vaccines may or may not be as effective against the mutation, but the overwhelming takeaway has been to Get The Shot. You may still get infected, but you won't go to the hospital. Among my right-wing friends that I follow, the folks casting the shade on the vaccine are members of the right-wing media who use vax-skepticism to drive engagement dollars and fools in Congress like Chip Roy and Rand Paul who are trying to turn this common-sense public health measure into an issue that they can fundraise off of[1]:
"U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a San Antonio Republican, on Wednesday directed a tweet at Biden with a play on the 'Come and Take It' flag that shows an image of a syringe with the words 'Come Inject It.' In a separate tweet, the congressman said he thought a door-to-door push would be unconstitutional, as such an approach was 'only really contemplated in Constitution for the census.'"
2. On the issue of Republicans refusing to get vaccinated, it's a stretch casting this as a problem with bad elites as opposed to the hardheaded grassroots. The answer to this isn't to complain about Bad Elites, the answer is to tell folks in those areas to use their own common-sense, look around at what COVID's doing to their communities, and decide what to do as individuals. The problem that the Internet introduces is that there are so many different "elites" that someone can make up their own minds about a topic, and find an "elite" to cite that backs up the preconceptions that they started with. If self-preservation or responsibility to their communities are not sufficiently strong motivators to get the shot, no amount of "Good Elites" will change their minds either.
3. On the CRT/racism stuff, maybe it's just me, but it seems like we're on the downhill slope of this particular fracas, where pragmatic folks are pushing back on it where it's an actual issue. The proponents of CRT are finding less sympathetic listeners in the middle and beginning to eat each other, while folks on the anti-CRT side are ginning up more controversy to use it as a political tool in an era where the GOP gave up all the sticks they traditionally would use to criticize the Biden administration during the Trump tenure.[2] I could be wrong here, but the CRT panic is feeling like it's cresting, not unlike what happened during the Satanic panic of the '80s.
The key indicator to watch is to what extent minority communities support or ignore CRT. With the election of Eric Adams as likely NYC mayor, and crime emerging as an issue attacking the Democratic flank (largely from minority communities[3]), it seems CRT had its moment in the sun and is now receding back to legal and activist circles.
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At the end of the day, if you feel like it's the "elites" that are the problem, don't contribute to the problem by giving them attention - the only thing that makes them "elite" in the first place. (If an elite fell in the forest and nobody cared, would they still be elite?) Find better people to promote as "elites" and the problem will largely solve itself. On the race issue, I promote the "elites" who are actually saying something useful (e.g. Carol Anderson) over the grifters who are in it for personal promotion or speaking gigs (e.g. Kendi & DiAngelo). Attention is a scarce resource - every time that I promote Anderson over Kendi and DiAngelo, it's depriving the latter duo of attention and mindshare that they need to sustain their grift. Complaining about the latter duo won't do a lot of good, so as the Chinese like to say, "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." Especially when it comes to elites.
When white southerners don't get vaxxed they are kooks and cray cray. When blacks and Latino's don't get vaxxed they are victims of white oppression. That's what I'm told anyway.
The interesting thing about some of these "elites", especially those that are elected officials, is that like anyone else, they generally operate with electoral longevity in mind. For the "elites" that aren't elected officials, their motivation is relevance. While of course it is disappointing, members of Congress who voted to reject certifying the slate of electors or push vaccine skepticism/anti-vax hysteria, are doing so because that reflects the thinking of large swaths of the GOP base. My belief is that many of these "elites" know that election and Covid trutherism is a bunch of baloney. But they indulge their constituents for the interests of electoral longevity. That is the kind of incentives that exist in a representative democracy. Don't get me wrong, I don't excuse what they are doing, but I believe a lot of the fault also lies with rank and file constituents who allow themselves to be played like a Stradivarius. While I'll concede that some among the bases of the hard progressive left and the Trump right are gullible to the core, most of the them are hardened in their beliefs(rightly or wrongly), and tend to seek out sources on the internet that confirm their biases. I think that where gullibility has its impact comes to the credibility of the sources they seek on the internet that gives them the confirmation bias they seek.
A couple bits of push back:
1. On The Media scaring Southern Republicans from getting vaccinated: I follow a number of mainstream sources and the only overall message that I've seen is that folks need to get vaccinated. That's presently The Message. Now, with the advent of the Delta variant, I am seeing some stories about how certain vaccines may or may not be as effective against the mutation, but the overwhelming takeaway has been to Get The Shot. You may still get infected, but you won't go to the hospital. Among my right-wing friends that I follow, the folks casting the shade on the vaccine are members of the right-wing media who use vax-skepticism to drive engagement dollars and fools in Congress like Chip Roy and Rand Paul who are trying to turn this common-sense public health measure into an issue that they can fundraise off of[1]:
"U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a San Antonio Republican, on Wednesday directed a tweet at Biden with a play on the 'Come and Take It' flag that shows an image of a syringe with the words 'Come Inject It.' In a separate tweet, the congressman said he thought a door-to-door push would be unconstitutional, as such an approach was 'only really contemplated in Constitution for the census.'"
2. On the issue of Republicans refusing to get vaccinated, it's a stretch casting this as a problem with bad elites as opposed to the hardheaded grassroots. The answer to this isn't to complain about Bad Elites, the answer is to tell folks in those areas to use their own common-sense, look around at what COVID's doing to their communities, and decide what to do as individuals. The problem that the Internet introduces is that there are so many different "elites" that someone can make up their own minds about a topic, and find an "elite" to cite that backs up the preconceptions that they started with. If self-preservation or responsibility to their communities are not sufficiently strong motivators to get the shot, no amount of "Good Elites" will change their minds either.
3. On the CRT/racism stuff, maybe it's just me, but it seems like we're on the downhill slope of this particular fracas, where pragmatic folks are pushing back on it where it's an actual issue. The proponents of CRT are finding less sympathetic listeners in the middle and beginning to eat each other, while folks on the anti-CRT side are ginning up more controversy to use it as a political tool in an era where the GOP gave up all the sticks they traditionally would use to criticize the Biden administration during the Trump tenure.[2] I could be wrong here, but the CRT panic is feeling like it's cresting, not unlike what happened during the Satanic panic of the '80s.
The key indicator to watch is to what extent minority communities support or ignore CRT. With the election of Eric Adams as likely NYC mayor, and crime emerging as an issue attacking the Democratic flank (largely from minority communities[3]), it seems CRT had its moment in the sun and is now receding back to legal and activist circles.
--
At the end of the day, if you feel like it's the "elites" that are the problem, don't contribute to the problem by giving them attention - the only thing that makes them "elite" in the first place. (If an elite fell in the forest and nobody cared, would they still be elite?) Find better people to promote as "elites" and the problem will largely solve itself. On the race issue, I promote the "elites" who are actually saying something useful (e.g. Carol Anderson) over the grifters who are in it for personal promotion or speaking gigs (e.g. Kendi & DiAngelo). Attention is a scarce resource - every time that I promote Anderson over Kendi and DiAngelo, it's depriving the latter duo of attention and mindshare that they need to sustain their grift. Complaining about the latter duo won't do a lot of good, so as the Chinese like to say, "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." Especially when it comes to elites.
[1] https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Not-on-my-watch-Texas-Republicans-buck-16299133.php
[2] https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-a-conservative-activist-invented-the-conflict-over-critical-race-theory
[3] https://yated.com/democrats-face-minority-revolt-on-the-crime-issue/
When white southerners don't get vaxxed they are kooks and cray cray. When blacks and Latino's don't get vaxxed they are victims of white oppression. That's what I'm told anyway.
The interesting thing about some of these "elites", especially those that are elected officials, is that like anyone else, they generally operate with electoral longevity in mind. For the "elites" that aren't elected officials, their motivation is relevance. While of course it is disappointing, members of Congress who voted to reject certifying the slate of electors or push vaccine skepticism/anti-vax hysteria, are doing so because that reflects the thinking of large swaths of the GOP base. My belief is that many of these "elites" know that election and Covid trutherism is a bunch of baloney. But they indulge their constituents for the interests of electoral longevity. That is the kind of incentives that exist in a representative democracy. Don't get me wrong, I don't excuse what they are doing, but I believe a lot of the fault also lies with rank and file constituents who allow themselves to be played like a Stradivarius. While I'll concede that some among the bases of the hard progressive left and the Trump right are gullible to the core, most of the them are hardened in their beliefs(rightly or wrongly), and tend to seek out sources on the internet that confirm their biases. I think that where gullibility has its impact comes to the credibility of the sources they seek on the internet that gives them the confirmation bias they seek.