By Dustin Rowles | Politics | April 27, 2021 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | April 27, 2021 |
I continue to be of two minds when it comes to Tucker Carlson. There are some who wisely choose to ignore Tucker Carlson, because expressing your outrage is exactly what he wants. Every time we share a Tucker Carlson clip, we elevate his bullsh-t.
On the other hand, it’s impossible to battle misinformation if you don’t expose the misinformation. Tucker Carlson clips are regularly the most viral on Facebook, and even if the only people who watch those clips are your crazy, Q-loving aunts, we have to push back, otherwise you end up in situations where private schools in Florida are literally keeping their vaccinated teachers/employees away from the students because the school believes that vaccinated people pose a danger to them. Why? Because of Facebook. And this is a school where parents pay $25,000 a year in tuition, only so that their kids can be filled full of anti-science lies.
This is the Tucker Carlson effect. Meanwhile, here’s Carlson telling folks to call the cops or child protective services if they see kids wearing masks outside. Literally. He is telling you that it’s your duty because asking a kid to wear a mask outside is literal child abuse and “you are morally obligated to attempt to prevent it.” Carlson equates wearing a thin piece of fabric over your nose and mouth to being “punched in the face.”
Tucker Carlson is now telling his audience to harass people who wear face masks outside.
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 27, 2021
If they see children wearing masks, Tucker says the response should be no different than when you see a kid being abused — "call the police immediately, contact child protective services" pic.twitter.com/4svVH0JY3s
I don’t know where to start. First off, it is my understanding that the CDC is going to update its guidance on masks today. I believe the new guidance will be that masks are not necessary outside if you are vaccinated and if you are more than six feet away from unvaccinated people. Cool, cool, cool. There’s no need to wear a mask if you are fully vaccinated and you’re hanging out with your other fully vaccinated buddies outside. Sounds good, although tbh: The whole mask-wearing thing has been kind of nice in the way it has prevented colds and the flu and strep and a whole host of other viruses and illnesses my family comes home with every year. I’m not advocating the continued use of masks around your buddies, but I would not be opposed to wearing masks in public spaces all year long, or at least during the winter months.
But whatever. That’s not the point. The point is: The CDC guidance is for fully vaccinated people not to wear masks outside. Kids won’t be fully vaccinated possibly until 2022. People under the age of 30 — including kids — are also the biggest sources of infection in most states now. One infection can shut down a whole preschool for a week, or shut down an entire school district for a week because a bus driver was exposed to that kid, and that bus driver exposed himself to the other bus drivers (a nearby district in Maine had to go fully remote this week because too many bus drivers were in quarantine). Moreover, in places like Michigan, it’s young people who are filling up the hospitals.
But sure, Tucker: You should call child protective services because we’re trying to protect our kids from a COVID infection.