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143

Why MAGA Is So Obsessed With Fauci (www.theatlantic.com)

submitted 1 week ago by vegeta@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[–] arotrios@lemmy.world 120 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's not about Fauci. It's about sending a message that if you don't toe the MAGA line, the federal government will be weaponized against you and drag you through the mud.

Fauci made Trump look a fool by simply telling the truth. This was his sin, and this is what he's being punished for now.

And make no mistake, this message is not just to government officials. It's directed squarely at me and you, and it's coming straight from the KGB's playbook.

Don't ask me, ask the ghost of John McCain what he thought of Rand Paul.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 67 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They need a scapegoat because whenever they complain about the covid lockdowns, the left reminds them that that was Trump.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

And man, they love to Karen the fuck out about lockdowns. I mean, how many years ago were the last lockdowns?

They were so pissy about lockdowns at the time. Even the Karens that never left the house anyway. But that goes to the core personality flaw of so many conservatives: "you cannot tell ME what to do!!" And I still hear them going on about it (in my personal life that is). That performative bullshit that the conservatives just put Fauci through was just wild, too.

Those stupid apes like Josh Hawley (of Haulin' Ass fame where he was recorded bravely running away from the very terrorists he encouraged) sitting there and lecturing a prominent man like Fauci? What a fucking world. I'm sure that Josh the chickenshit dumbass pussy thinks he's a real funny and brave guy.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Also, if you want to get a taste of just how thirsty the dumbass magameatbrainz are for trying to "get" Fauci, scroll down on the comments on Josh "Haulin' Ass" Hawley. The idiotic comments on this are wild. They really think Fauci killed millions. And that people die from the Covid vaccine.

Fucking morons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V230A00X44A

Remember Hawley, he's this guy, bravely running away away, Brave Sir Hawley!

[–] Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

We need to get better at driving people to these comments and just fucking trolling the ever living fuck out of them until their voice is drowned

[+] anon_8675309@lemmy.world -6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

A lot of those comments look like what the left write when it’s the other way round.

Seriously, read them but with the context of this being Miller or even Trump.

Examples: The rich and political never go to jail. Nothing will ever come of this. Pleading the 5th he MUST have something to hide.

Those could all be said about the people in this current admin.

The left and right both know they’re getting fucked. And no matter what you believe, both sides are getting fed constantly with propaganda to keep us from fighting against the real issues and not this bullshit theater.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think people treating health and things like a pandemic with adult seriousness is more than bullshit theater. The cons are just throwing out red meat to their base and trying to get Fauci with some kind of dumb "gotcha".

Even the biggest idiots like Josh probably know that Fauci did everything right, but they are serving this up for the stupidest people - their base.

The commenters on this really believe that there was some grand conspiracy, that Fauci is the bad guy, that the Covid vaccine kills people, etc. I don't think it is at all like what you see leftist commenters tending to post.

[+] anon_8675309@lemmy.world -10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The mouth frothers on both sides do have similar talking points. Makes me think they have the same disease. Fortunately the majority of people are saner than that. Unfortunately, they’re more complacent as well.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In order to convince me that the "both sides" argument has any merit whatsoever, I'd have to see some examples of something on the left that is similar to: Pizzagate, Qanon, or the amount of stupid denialism during and after Covid when it comes to things like vaccines.

In fact, I see an insane amount of the right wing, right now, giving themselves cramps from clapping their own backs over their claim that "the only difference between a conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact is six months" kind of thinking over the Epstein Files and Pizzagate/Qanon, FFS.

I mean, LOLOLOL, everyone knew about Epstein, if they were paying attention. The guy went to prison the first time, before Obama even took office. Eight years later, the Pizzagate bullshit started up.

That doesn't vindicate any of the Pizzagate or Qanon bullshit, at all. Their claims revolved around Hillary and company running a child sex ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor with no basement. But seriously, you'll see the right wing going around congratulating each other on being right, LOL - meanwhile, almost no one went to prison.

And that's without going into the insane rabbit hole the right went down during Covid over things like Fauci, masks, vaccines and various nostrums like Ivermection and HCQ. I'd love to see where the equivalent to anything even close to this exists on the left.

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world -4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I don’t think you understand what I am saying. I am not making a both sides are the same argument. I’m saying how they argue sounds the same. Im saying that if you take some of the arguments from that original video link, swap the context to be Miller and it could easily have been the left making those moments.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Oh, I would agree that one could easily erase all the relevant context, and point at two groups of people objecting to the pleading of the Fifth and say it's virtually the same argument.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That is literally exactly what you fucking said. Are you for real right now? We can all read it.

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

I said they have the same talking points. They have the same disease. That does not mean both sides are the same. That means they use the same way of arguing. They don’t believe the same stuff. They just argue their point the same way

So no, that’s not what I said. There’s a distinction there you’re not picking up.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This comment literally includes the words "both sides"

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Both sides as HOW they argue. It what they believe.

There’s the distinction.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago

Fauci was a career public servant, he was not wealthy by any means

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 28 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It's just Rand Paul fanning the flames all because Fauci called him stupid, on record. That's it. Don't try to make this bigger than it is.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago

And since Rand Paul has a justifiable case of Imposters Syndrome, he knows it's true, and is desperately trying to cover it by destroying Fauci, instead working on improving his own weirdness.

[–] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They want to make clear, once and for all, that we live in a post-factual age. Reality is what MAGA says it is. No ifs, ands, or buts.

[–] Beero@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Reality gives 0 shits about what anyone "believes"... the inevitable karmic "fuck yous" that reality unleashes for this bullshit will be epic. May God have mercy on the innocent.

[–] TransNeko@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

may "god" not have mercy on every last fucking MAGA and Israeli abomination.

lets go old testament with "god" and his wrath.

[–] kylie_kraft@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

because when the science doesn't agree with your worldview, you change it by force.

the next pandemic is going to make COVID look like a vacation

[–] SlippiHUD@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 week ago

I bet on Kalshi it'll be Ebola /s

[–] Floon@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Remember, none of the GOP politicians spewing their crap actually believe what they're saying. They're just lying to inflame their base. They have no principles at all, and are the most cynical people on the planet.

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Epstein files. That's why.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Trump hasn't done ANYTHING for conservatives. Many have watched their wives and neighbors get kidnapped by ICE. Many have watched gas prices increase, and grocery receipts increase. Many watch again and again as Trump bends over for Iran.

If not this, it would be Hunter Biden's laptop, or Hilary's emails.

[–] Zabjam@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago

But with Trump, they feel like they are winning. Does not matter how much they lose in reality, they beat the others and the others "hate them for winning". This is all that matters.

[–] FahrenheitGhost@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

MAGA guy I work with swears the Fauci funded reasearch for diseases that killed millions.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

It's weird how these people are so keen to pursue conspiracy theories about Fauci from six years ago, meanwhile, they don't give a fuck about Donvict making BILLIONS right now while letting Elon kill millions of people.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also: you should ask him for the evidence. Where is it?

[–] compostgoblin@piefed.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It doesn’t matter. They didn’t reason themselves into these beliefs, so there’s no reasoning them out of them.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I still like to plant the seeds by asking questions. I assume in most cases they won't really bother to question, but there is always a chance that some question asked as innocently and as non-confrontational as possible may burrow in there and shake them loose.

[–] pishadoot@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Similarly, big MAGA ex-coworker was utterly convinced that Fauci had done terrible research experiments on babies.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago

But like... Why

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

one of the men who helped end the pandemic that was ravaging the world

The author does realize that the WHO still recognizes the COVID pandemic as ongoing, right?

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I just saw an article about how there are surges in cases: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/covid-summer-2026-cases-uptick_l_6a68c6c9e4b02c67a5ae1326

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

COVID is the number 5 killer in the US elderly. We just decided the best way to deal with it was denial.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago

He was also instrumental in gaining control of AIDS, and creating medications that allow those with HIV to relatively normal lives.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The author of this should probably watch this video if he's trying to figure it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eexbPn5u8uo

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Good video. TLDW: Republicans are fucking stupid and hate having that thrown in their stupid faces, so they lash out.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Because he tells the truth and doesn’t stop telling the truth. So now he gets to be sent to the gulag.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

When anthrax spores arrived in the mail in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Fauci led the federal research response

Wasn't that a disaster where they targeted the wrong guy and destroyed his life?

Edit: it does say "research response". Assuming that research was biological and not criminal, then he wouldn't have been part of that major fuckup

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world -2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Rand Paul is so hard to read, he has some decent views and some batshit crazy ones too.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

he has some decent views

No he doesn't

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

He's transparent. Just like his asshole father, he's a racist right-winger pretending to be a libertarian. Libertarians are cultish, brainless sacks of shit. Rand Paul's pretending to be one because what he is is even worse. And all of the views he promotes are in bad faith. Just another snake-oil merchant contemptuous of his electorate.