More On Death Threats…this time about vaccines

 


How long before the violence gets real?


A while back I wrote about how Trump supporters have been threatening state officials about the supposed “Big Steal” in the election of 2020. Which, of course, is both terrifying and absurd.


But there’s more. The other group of Right-wing nutcases threatening people are the anti-vaxxers. Case in point, Fox anchor Neil Cavuto, who recently urged his viewers to get vaccinated against Covid. 


And some of them responded by threatening to kill him.


Cavuto, according the news reports I’ve read, has had a variety of serious health issues. Then, he tested positive for Covid. Fortunately, he had been vaccinated so his symptoms were relatively mild.


He then went on the air and urged all his viewers to also get vaccinated, if they weren’t already. The result? A barrage of hate and loathing from the Right.  There were suggestions that maybe Mr. Cavuto should die.


He won’t, of course, or at least not from Covid. But you have to ask yourself, how did we get into this position? How did we come to be in a situation where death threats are just part of the normal discourse? And anyone, from media figures to members of local school boards, simply have to live with such hateful, violent rhetoric all the time?


And more…


How long before it ceases to be rhetoric, and moves into actual violence?


That is the question we all need to ask, and the answer to which we must all fear.



~mjt



Source: “Fox anchor Neil Cavuto urged viewers to get vaccinated. Then came the death threats,” Rachel Treisman, NPR, Oct 27, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/10/27/1049664531/fox-anchor-neil-cavuto-covid-19-vaccine-death-threats

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