Facebook is a menace. COVID-19 is a menace. Conservatism is a cesspool. Together, those three ingredients have created a toxic stew of malevolent death and devastation. We can talk about all those things in the abstract, look at the numbers and statistics, and catch the occasional whiff of seditionist right-wing rhetoric. But I hadn’t really fully understood just how horrifying that combination of right-wing extremism, Facebook, and a killer virus was until I became a regular at the Herman Cain Awards subreddit. This series will document some of those stories, so we are aware of what the other side is doing to our country.

Today’s cautionary tale is Roy.

“Missing context”? This claim is false. False. False. The warning label obscures the rest of the meme, which states that the head of NIH bio ethics is Dr. Anthony Fauci’s wife. USA Today’s fact check concluded: “Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Fauci’s wife is involved with the FDA’s vaccine testing and approval. Grady teaches medical ethics and is the chief of bioethics at the NIH. She has no role in approving vaccines, which is done within the FDA.”

The missing context could be the fact that the FDA doesn’t actually do the testing. That’s done by the pharmaceutical companies. But it’s the FDA’s job to review the findings and render any approval. In the case of the Pfizer vaccine, that was 340,000 pages worth of material. But that’s the case with all drugs. So conservatives are delegitimizing every drug ever made, including all of the other ones they’re happy to take, in their bizarre vendetta against the COVID vaccines. 

He seems nice.

Who doesn’t agree with this cowboy code? Don’t steal! Don’t lie! Verify the truth of anything you say, and do what’s “right.” Sounds awesome! He should’ve started with that “Fauci’s wife” meme.

Crap, we’ve got a violation of the cowboy code. There’s nothing “right” about obstructing efforts to save people’s lives. 

Quite the common theme: The idea that their faith protects them.

None of these people ever said that. Bill Gates, in particular, is constantly accused of this shit. This is another good fact check.

Another Cowboy Code demerit. 

I mean, there are lots of ways to die, and most of them wouldn’t be prevented by a mask or hand sanitizer, that much is true. 

But … if you die of COVID, odds are that a mask would’ve dramatically increased your chances of survival. A vaccine would have increased them even more. 

Or put another way, no seat belt will ever save my life if I decide to drive my car off a cliff. 

What stupid logic. 

Nice tautology. “Every car accident involved a car.” 

But as always, notice they aren’t attacking the drugs they like to take, like Tylenol or opioids. It they actually believed this shit and lived their lives without hypocrisy, they would forgo all pharmaceutical drugs, because they were all approved by the FDA. 

This is about justifying their ridiculous refusal to take the jab. It’s become an ideological battle for them, and they won’t budge. So if the FDA says it’s safe, then they have to attack the FDA to maintain their ideological position.

Foreshadowing.

OMFG. This guy is racist as shit!

The Cowboy Code is shattered, strewn in pieces. 

Wut.

When the shit hits the fan, we’ll need Shia LeBouf and Tom Hardy helping us run moonshine in a jalopy. How else will we get drunk? 

Usually there’s some boilerplate about how nice and kind and amazing the deceased was, how s/he would give you the shirt of their backs, yada yada yada. But this guy … 

Not gonna lie, sometimes it’s hard to feel sorry for these people. We asked them to vax, and they gave us the middle finger while posting the most racist shit possible. And not even your niece can pretend to be broken up about it. Okay then. 

He should’ve lived by the Cowboy Code.