The MSM aren’t the biggest fans of intellectual honesty and consistency, which probably largely explains why they have such a hate-on for Ben Shapiro.
Here’s what the Washington Post had on offer today:
Ben Shapiro claimed that omicron had vindicated those who “have been saying all this for months and most of it since May 2020. … We chose data and freedom. You chose alarmism and unearned moral superiority.”
This is nonsense on stilts, @MaxBoot writes https://t.co/uDtD90neq7
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) January 4, 2022
As Max Boot correctly points out, the omicron variant is not the same model of COVID that kicked off the pandemic. That’s pretty much the only thing Boot is right about. It’s all downhill after that:
This is how science is supposed to work: Public health recommendations change as the nature of the threat changes. But many on the right are being willfully dense about the changing character of the pandemic. They are claiming, with trademark illogic, that because omicron doesn’t require the same response as the original version of the coronavirus, the measures taken in 2020 were unnecessary.
Fox News, for example, wrote an article crowing: “Liberal journalist shift on coronavirus as omicron variant surges: ‘We don’t orient our lives around the flu.’” Radio host Ben Shapiro posted a lengthy Twitter thread claiming that “once it became clear that covid was not in fact a pagan god visiting vengeance on the unwashed Trump voters alone, the media and Democrats are now willing to admit the following” and went on to list various assertions such as “the death rate is comparable to the flu,” “we have to take into account societal needs, not just spread prevention,” and “we should not shut down society.”
Shapiro triumphantly concluded that omicron had vindicated “those of us” who “have been saying all this for months and most of it since May 2020. … We chose data and freedom. You chose alarmism and unearned moral superiority.”This is nonsense on stilts. It would be more accurate to say that Shapiro & Co. chose populist ideology while the rest of us chose science. It takes only minimal scientific literacy, after all, to realize that two very different versions of the same disease call for two very different responses. Strict public health measures, including lockdowns, were needed in early 2020 when the country was being swept by a terrible new virus that no one was vaccinated against. Those measures paid off in keeping the death toll far below the worst-case estimates of 1.7 million people dead. A more relaxed approach to omicron makes sense now not only because it is a milder variant but also because 62 percent of Americans have been fully vaccinated.
The danger from omicron would be reduced even further — and the death toll would be a lot lower — if more people were vaccinated and wore masks regularly. One of the main reasons that is not happening is that so many people are listening to right-wing agitators like Ben Shapiro who champion a misguided idea of “medical freedom.” Shapiro’s media company, the Daily Wire, even sued to stop President Biden’s well-warranted vaccination mandate for companies with more than 100 employees.
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You know what’s nonsense on stilts, WaPo? The fact that you guys are still in business. You clowns keep sliming Ben Shapiro despite getting busted repeatedly for making crap up in order to do it.
At some point, it’s time to pack it up and call it a day. Because seriously, of all people “on the right” for Boot to be calling out for misleading on COVID and COVID vaccines, Ben Shapiro ain’t it.
"Refused to take the coronavirus seriously"? I am perhaps the foremost proponent of vaccination on the right. I was even okay with masks until the vaxx was widely available. But I don't support vaxx mandates and useless masking and lockdowns. So I'm bad. https://t.co/I8Iw07g9r0
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 4, 2022
The irony of Max Boot calling Ben Shapiro a liar in the Washington Post is not lost on us.
I didn't even have to click to know it was Boot. https://t.co/yrS176zR6J
— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) January 4, 2022
Maximum Boot.
I guess legacy media forgot all the headlines they pushed about COVID was nothing, Trump vaccine was dangerous, travel bans related to Wuhan Flu were racist, etc. https://t.co/h23OM1IVjg
— Lynn Ferri (@RockinASkirt) January 4, 2022
There is no room in The Narrative for anyone who individually follows the science but objects to government-enforced compliance for everyone else.
This should be setting off more alarm bells than it is. https://t.co/DhHhNKjzRR
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) January 4, 2022
Singling out @BenShapiro — the leading proponent of vaccines on the right — as the posterboy of right-wing COVID malfeasance tells you all you need to know about WaPo for running this garbage column.
This isn't about science or health for them. It's a political game. https://t.co/DC9SRowwVr
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) January 4, 2022
It’s not Ben Shapiro who’s been intellectually inconsistent. It’s not Ben Shapiro who’s been gaslighting millions of Americans. It’s not Ben Shapiro who’s refused to follow the science on COVID and vaccines.
No, that honor belongs to Max Boot, the Washington Post, and media and Democrats who repeatedly chose partisan politics over common sense and scientific facts.
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