Last year, as the initial round of COVID raged and much of MAGA nation refused to mask or socially distance, it was common to hear folks refer to the Trumpian right as a suicidal death cult.
Most recently, MSNBC’s Joy Reid and Stephen Colbert agreed with the designation during a discussion on the latter’s program. According to both, refusal to get a vaccine as the Delta variant surges, and the seeming willingness of Trump’s followers to continue risking illness or worse, qualifies such persons as members of a death cult.
There were, of course, the requisite Jim Jones analogies.
But as much as I respect both Reid and Colbert (the former is a friend whose show I’ve been on several times), this position has always been wrong.
The truth is worse — and here I am speaking specifically of those who are resisting obtaining the vaccine, rather than those whose access is limited by location, poverty or issues with mobility to a vaccine center.
Stories are spilling out every day — outpourings of regret from persons who steadfastly refused to get the vaccine, now…
