This is too much of a top-down account of what happened. In reality anti-vaxxers were an organic social movement & the crucial moment was pre-Covid: Trump's decision (based partly on opportunism but also partly on belief) to court them as part of his coalition of the aggrievedhttps://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1423621715364618241 …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
I believe Trump's anti-vaxxism was long-held and sincere. He needed an explanation for a family situation that cast doubt upon his belief in his Ubermensch genetic inheritance. Then anti-vaxxism became useful again as part of a deny-it-and-it-will-go-away COVID strategy in 2020
8 replies 10 retweets 73 likes -
Replying to @davidfrum
Right, Trump's anti-vaxxing is sincere but it also fit into his 2015/2016 strategy of forming a coalition of groups estranged from mainstream (alt-right, anti-immigration, protectionists, isolationists). He was a good demagogue because he believed in what he sold.
3 replies 3 retweets 27 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
The question under debate though is: were right-wing elites constrained *from the start* to be anti-vax? I answer No. Now they're trapped, though, by the political realities they themselves created when they had more options.
4 replies 8 retweets 40 likes
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