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Column: Mocking anti-vaxxers’ deaths is ghoulish, yes — but necessary
Los Angeles Times ^ | January 9, 2022 | Michael Hiltzik

Posted on 01/10/2022 2:05:16 PM PST by KingofZion

Among all the ways that COVID-19 affects our lives, the pandemic confronts us with a profound moral dilemma:

How should we react to the deaths of the unvaccinated?

On the one hand, a hallmark of civilized thought is the sense that every life is precious.

On the other, those who have deliberately flouted sober medical advice by refusing a vaccine known to reduce the risk of serious disease from the virus, including the risk to others, and end up in the hospital or the grave can be viewed as receiving their just deserts.

That’s even more true of those who not only refused the vaccine for themselves, but publicly advocated that others do so.

*** That brings us back to the tenor of the online reaction to the deaths of Ernby and her fellow anti-vaxxers. Some of those who object to the tone of the commentary are merely voicing a variation on the “civility” argument that was commonly raised against critics of the intemperate and inhumane policies of the Trump administration.

As I observed then, pleas for “civility” are a fraud. Their goal is to blunt and enfeeble criticism and distract from its truthfulness. Typically, they’re the work of hypocrites.

*** It may be not a little ghoulish to celebrate or exult in the deaths of vaccine opponents. And it may be proper to express sympathy and solicitude to those they leave behind.

But mockery is not necessarily the wrong reaction to those who publicly mocked anti-COVID measures and encouraged others to follow suit, before they perished of the disease the dangers of which they belittled.

Nor is it wrong to deny them our sympathy and solicitude, or to make sure it’s known when their deaths are marked that they had stood fast against measures that might have protected themselves...

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: chat; chatforum; covid; covid1984; losangelesslimes; losangelestimes; michaelhiltzik; nonvaccinedeaths; notnews; vaccination; vaccinedeaths; vaccines; vaxtardsluvdeath; whatshisfrnick
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The LAT has some sick puppies
1 posted on 01/10/2022 2:05:16 PM PST by KingofZion
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To: KingofZion

Can we mock that young guy on Brazilian TV who bragged about getting a booster and then collapsed a few days later?


2 posted on 01/10/2022 2:09:31 PM PST by Dr. Sivana ("There are only men and women."-- George Gilder, Sexual Suicide, 1973)
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To: KingofZion

It’s the Left Coast


3 posted on 01/10/2022 2:10:16 PM PST by Jaded (Pope Francis? Definitely NOT a fan... miss the last guy )
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To: Dr. Sivana

How about that NYT editor?


4 posted on 01/10/2022 2:10:52 PM PST by freespirit2012
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To: KingofZion

The upshot is that if you disagree with them then you deserve to die and be mocked for it. Never mind an even handed report on the risks associated with the vaccines, the number of deaths and complications from the vaccines and making an informed decision.


5 posted on 01/10/2022 2:11:15 PM PST by No Party Affiliation
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To: KingofZion

6 posted on 01/10/2022 2:13:26 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: Dr. Sivana

How about all the people getting myocarditis? Can we jeer those people?


7 posted on 01/10/2022 2:13:27 PM PST by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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To: No Party Affiliation

“The upshot is that if you disagree with them then you deserve to die and be mocked for it.”

Much like how the powers that be and the people treated Christ.


8 posted on 01/10/2022 2:13:56 PM PST by JoanSmith
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To: KingofZion

Michael Hiltzik, you ignorant...


9 posted on 01/10/2022 2:14:10 PM PST by Jaded (Pope Francis? Definitely NOT a fan... miss the last guy )
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To: KingofZion

This is extreme gaslighting

Being opposed to this specific, not a vaccine, but experimental dna modifying gene therapy,

Is not being opposed to actual historically scientific- defined vaccines not made from aborted fetuses.

The opposition does not come from that.

Its being opposed to a totalitarian state demanding you take an experimental gene therapy treatment with unknown long term side effects, and the real, negative results we are seeing happen in the vaxxed, yet dismissed and ignored and u der reported by TPTB.


10 posted on 01/10/2022 2:14:11 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: KingofZion

So, is turnabout fair play? Mocking those who get the needle?


11 posted on 01/10/2022 2:14:16 PM PST by NTHockey (My rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: KingofZion

We have ways to deal with ghouls.


12 posted on 01/10/2022 2:14:40 PM PST by Noumenon (Black American flag time. KTF)
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To: KingofZion

My sympathy for “the other side” is all gone.


13 posted on 01/10/2022 2:15:00 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (The experts are liars. The conspiracy theorists are the people who have figured out the Truth.)
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To: KingofZion

Cursing and/or speaking badly about the dead does nothing positive for your own image. My mother said, “You listen to how people speak about others. Chances are, that’s how they talk about you, because that’s how they talk. That’s the kind of people they are.”

Anytime you open your mouth you are giving others a view into your mind and possibly your soul. Your words are a reflection of who you are. Upon the death of an evil, vile man who had done much damage to me and others the most I could bring myself to say, and it was after long thought, was, “Some men improve the Earth by their presence and others by their absence.” Despite the massive agreement I got I still wonder whether I should have said anything.


14 posted on 01/10/2022 2:15:23 PM PST by Gen.Blather (Wait! I said that out loud?)
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To: KingofZion

Ok, but then it is fair game to mock the deaths of the vaccinated. Goose and Gander and all that.


15 posted on 01/10/2022 2:15:23 PM PST by taxcontrol (The choice is clear - either live as a slave on your knees or die as a free citizen on your feet.)
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To: Dr. Sivana

‘Can we mock that young guy on Brazilian TV who bragged about getting a booster and then collapsed a few days later?’

why should anyone mock anybody else’s demise...? the writer of this article is full of crap, and so are people who breathlessly and joyfully report others dying after vaxxing...


16 posted on 01/10/2022 2:15:36 PM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: KingofZion

Conversely, is it appropriate for the anti-vaxxers to mock the suffering and death of the vaccinated?


17 posted on 01/10/2022 2:16:44 PM PST by Silentgypsy (In my defense, I was left unsupervised.)
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To: KingofZion

“...refusing a vaccine known to reduce the risk of serious disease from the virus”


Remember back in the days when vaccines prevented diseases?


18 posted on 01/10/2022 2:16:55 PM PST by hanamizu
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To: KingofZion

This is why I root for COVID when it comes to AOC and Jerry Rivers who both took experimental drugs.

I am waiting for the LA Times to start demanding that Fully Vaccinated people are REFUSED treatment for COVID because they are vaccinated


19 posted on 01/10/2022 2:17:05 PM PST by eyeamok (founded in cynicism, wrapped in sarcasm)
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To: KingofZion

Since I exult when libs kick the bucket it’s only fair if they do the same in return. If I got upset about it I would be a liberal hypocrite.


20 posted on 01/10/2022 2:17:07 PM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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