Sunday, October 12, 2014

Why Ebola triggers massive right-wing hysteria

"Their worldview makes it nearly impossible for them to react with compassion instead of fear..."

 Amanda Marcotte
Thursday, Oct 9, 2014 06:30 AM EST
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Objectively, the disease is a nonpartisan issue. That hasn't stopped Fox News from blaming its spread on Obama

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This article originally appeared on AlterNet.
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Of all the issues that you would think would be non-partisan, Ebola should be at the top of the list. The disease is just a mindless germ that doesn't check your race, gender, social class, sexual orientation or party identification before it strikes, suggesting both liberals and conservatives have a stake in treating people exposed to the disease with compassion and care. And yet, to flip on Fox News or turn on any conservative media at all, you'd think that ebola was some kind of plague designed by the Democratic party in order to wipe out Republicans.
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Blowing the threat of ebola out of proportion and trying to link it to Obama has been a constant theme on the right in recent days. Elisabeth Hasselbeck of Fox News literally demanded that we put the country on lockdown, banning all travel in and out. In a bit of race-baiting, Andrea Tantaros of Fox suggested that people who travel to the country and show symptoms of ebola will "seek treatment from a witch doctor" instead of go to the hospital. Fox host Steve Doocy suggested the CDC is lying about ebola because they're "part of the administration". Fox also promoted a conspiracy theorist who is trying to claim the CDC is lying when they caution people not to panic.
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Other right wing media joined in. Tammy Bruce blamed ebola on the "Obama legacy". Laura Ingraham said Obama was prevented from doing more to stop the disease because of his "core ties to the African continent". Rush Limbaugh even went as far as to accuse Obama of letting the disease spread because he supposes liberals believe "we kind of deserve a little bit of this".
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Even politicians are getting in on the act. Former South Carolina Republican Party executive director Todd Kincannon tweeted, "The protocol for a positive Ebola test should be immediate humane execution and sanitization of the whole area." Republican presidential hopefuls stopped short of wishing death on people who have the disease, but are nonetheless crawling all over each other to make a bigger deal out of ebola than it really is. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan and Bobby Jindal have all suggested that we ban travel in and out of the country, at least some travel, in order to keep a lid on ebola.
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None of this is even in the realm of reasonable, of course. There's only been one case of ebola in the entire country and the CDC has a well-practiced strategy for tracking and containing the disease. PBS science correspondent Miles O'Brien denounced the coverage as "irresponsible" and asked people to "take a deep breath" before fear-mongering about ebola.
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With the threat being so small, why are conservatives going crazy like this? Part of it is pure political opportunism, trying to hitch their anti-Obama obsession to whatever scary news story is making headlines. Part of it is cynical fear-mongering for its own sake, as conservative pundits know that when people are afraid, the are more open to reactionary ideas. But a large part of it might be that conservatives are just far more prone than liberals are both to getting wound up over the fear of disease and being compelled by the idea that people who are not themselves are undeserving of care.
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