In the Land of the Boy Who Cried Wolf

Tucker Carlson has an audience of around 3 million viewers, which is more than any other news program and most other programs generally. It is still only 3 million people out of a nation of 330 million people. In the grand scheme of things, Tucker Carlson is influential in the way many others are -- he has a core fan base that listens to him, generally trusts him, talks to other people and posts on the internet.

Nielsen ratings showed Rush Limbaugh had tens of millions of listeners, but the TV networks rarely focused on him. They focused on Carlson and Bill O'Reilly before him, etc. TV news has a way of influencing how people cover the news because the news is covered by people who are on television -- and those who want to be on television.

To blame Carlson or Fox News for vaccine hesitancy is for them to be given more influence and clout than they already have by people who are convinced that they themselves, by virtue of being on television, have influence and clout.

Yes, Carlson and Fox News and even someone like me can influence others, but that influence only extends so far. It does not extend to the orders of magnitude more people beyond Fox News's audience who have not gotten the COVID-19 vaccine.

But what does extend beyond that is a sustained cacophony of government and media hubris over two years that sent mixed messages without the humility to decently explain changes. That cacophony now morphs into hubris and blaming Trump voters for a failure of the Biden administration to reach a vaccination goal.

First, we were told to not buy masks so first responders could buy them and that masks would not protect the general public from the virus. Then, we were told to get masks. Then, we were all lectured about following the science. Then, the science showed kids really weren't a vector, but we shut schools down anyway.

Next, we were told being outside in sunshine was the best disinfectant, but the media shamed people at the beach while not shaming people at protests -- unless the protests were to reopen businesses. Then local governments insisted that, while following the science, masks needed to be worn outside even if you were alone.

Then, the British variant was going to kill us. Then, the South African variant was going to kill us. Then, the Brazilian variant was going to kill us. Then, the Indian variant was going to kill us. Then, it was racist to call the variants by their nation of origin, so the delta variant was going to kill us.

Then, COVID-19 may have come from a lab -- after the very same people reporting that told us we were all racist for thinking it might have come from that lab.

The countries with high vaccination rates saw vaccinated people get the virus and the media hyped all of this while downplaying that those people were all asymptomatic. hen, mainstream media outlets, via their social media feeds, hyped people dying after getting the vaccine, despite those people dying from other causes.

Then, mainstream media outlets started shaming people for pointing out deaths post-vaccine, which they themselves had done.

Between media monomania and government irresponsibility and hubris, a lot of people don't know what to think; many think they'll wait because the media has also overhyped shortages of the vaccine, without later going back to give adequate coverage to the vaccine being in stock everywhere.

So now, let's blame Trump voters and correlate it to red-state and blue-state dynamics when the data also correlates to areas of high concentrations of minority voters and areas where employers do or do not give time off.

We live in the land of the boy who cried wolf, and when the wolf comes, there's going to be a big body count that those who cried wolf will blame on everyone but themselves.

The proverbial boy who cried wolf never believed there was really a wolf.

The current “boys who cry wolf” believe with all their being that there is a wolf, until they shift 180 degrees and believe there cannot be a wolf and anyone who says otherwise is an anti-science insurrectionist. They do this dance, constantly shifting back and forth, believing they do so out of virtuosity, entirely unaware that they are the bees whose brains have been overtaken by parasites.

So... the analogy doesn’t quite fit.

Guys on TV (and who WANT to be on TV!) who complain about other guys on TV. It’s like... high school cheerleader chicks fighting over some football player who’s just a big mindless jerk and you totally don’t care but you have to be around them fighting all the time.

Except instead of cute, fit suntanned young gals with their panties showing as they whale on each other, it’s pasty-faced, overweight, older white dudes with high-pitched voices.

I think it fits perfectly. Yes, the "useful idiots" who follow the 'rat party believe the fake science. But they are led by cynical controllers who believe in nothing but power. The "mask Karens" you see are true believers. The news people and manipulators, like Soros, Gates, MSM and the 'rat party leadership only believe in achieving and maintaining power by any means necessary.

I have to side with Sans-Culotte on this.

I usually divide the Left into three groups:

Group 1-The Liberals: Liberals are your run of the mill people who watch television, read newspapers, take in Oprah Winfrey and read her books. They just accept as fact most of all that. They have busy lives, and don’t dwell too deeply into issues. They are the people whose kids come home from school with a Black Lives Matter or “In This House We Believe” signs and ask if they can put them in front of the house, to which the parents agree without giving it much thought. These people in this group have the capacity to “get mugged” or otherwise escape from this ennui and become an informed citizen, even a conservative. You can often talk to these people. These people are similar to the Proles in 1984, or perhaps more accurately, the lower party members.

Group 2-The True Believers: These are the Leftists who give the ideology a great deal of thought (or, to what is to them a great deal of thought) They buy into all of the Leftist ideology, no matter how contradictory, wrong, or self destructive. And they defend it ferociously with bulging eyes, spittle-lipped feverish faces. They are at the front of all the Leftist protests, and they not only believe, it is religion for them. From vegetarianism to environmentalism to gun control, they are there at the front. These are people we avoid for good reason. It is unlikely they will ever be convinced they are on the wrong side of issues. These are the Leftist Cannon Fodder.

Group 3-The Movers and Shakers: These are the ones who know what they are doing. They may or may not believe in specific components of Leftist Ideology, but...they all have one one thing in common: They understand power, and what it means to be IN power. They will do whatever it takes to stay in power. They have contempt for everyone but themselves (and oftentimes, even themselves too) and view their own “True Believers” and “Liberals” with as much contempt and dismissiveness as they view “The Deplorables”. And they will sacrifice or eliminate them with equally as much forethought, meaning...not much, as long as it advances or maintains their power structure. To them, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE else is an egg to be broken in the making of their Leftist Totalitarian Omelette.

So in that sense, Sans-Culotte has it framed perfectly, IMO.

You both cite different categories of people on the Left, which I think is correct and gets to the point of my criticism.

The boy who cried wolf was a lone actor. If the fable instead included a large team of useful idiots, it would be a more apt analogy to today’s events.

But the moral of the original story doesn’t fit a world with fellow travelers and useful idiots. This is why I say it’s a poor analogy.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.