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New York Times Goes to War Against Parents

New York Times Goes to War Against Parents

Amid the New York Times’ ongoing bewilderment at anyone opposed to the wholesale reorganization of Western civilization around prevention of a single respiratory virus, Sheera Frenkel has penned what may be the publication’s most embarrassing article to date: A full-on hit piece against parents whose politics changed during COVID out of antipathy to school closures and mandates.

Frenkel expresses her puzzlement at the basic instincts shown by these parents to defend and protect their children, even at the expense of other political preferences:

Almost everyone in the crowd of more than three dozen was a parent. And as they protested on a recent Friday in the Bay Area suburb of Orinda, Calif., they had the same refrain: They were there for their children.

Most had never been to a political rally before. But after seeing their children isolated and despondent early in the coronavirus pandemic, they despaired, they said. On Facebook, they found other worried parents who sympathized with them. They shared notes and online articles — many of them misleading — about the reopening of schools and the efficacy of vaccines and masks. Soon, those issues crowded out other concerns.

In the Times’ view, the protective instincts of these poor, benighted parents soon led them down a rabbit hole of QAnon-style anti-vaccine cultism:

Ms. Longnecker and her fellow objectors are part of a potentially destabilizing new movement: parents who joined the anti-vaccine and anti-mask cause during the pandemic, narrowing their political beliefs to a single-minded obsession over those issues. Their thinking hardened even as Covid-19 restrictions and mandates were eased and lifted, cementing in some cases into a skepticism of all vaccines.

Nearly half of Americans oppose masking and a similar share is against vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, polls show. But what is obscured in those numbers is the intensity with which some parents have embraced these views. While they once described themselves as Republicans or Democrats, they now identify as independents who plan to vote based solely on vaccine policies.

But worse yet, in their baffling zeal to prevent the state from using an indefinite state of emergency to terrify, harm, and indoctrinate their children, these parents have become radicalized, creating a fanatical and unpredictable new political movement that threatens the Democratic Party’s sacred cows and, even worse, the job security of its cadres:

Nearly half of Americans oppose masking and a similar share is against vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, polls show. But what is obscured in those numbers is the intensity with which some parents have embraced these views. While they once described themselves as Republicans or Democrats, they now identify as independents who plan to vote based solely on vaccine policies.

Their transformation injects an unpredictable element into November’s midterm elections. Fueled by a sense of righteousness after Covid vaccine and mask mandates ended, many of these parents have become increasingly dogmatic, convinced that unless they act, new mandates will be passed after the midterms.

To back up their beliefs, some have organized rallies and disrupted local school board meetings. Others are raising money for anti-mask and anti-vaccine candidates like J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for Senate in Ohio; Reinette Senum, an independent running for governor in California; and Rob Astorino, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York.

They’ve “organized rallies.” Oh, the horror!

In Frenkel’s view, these parents have embraced anti-vaccine fanaticism, regardless of whether they actually say so or even tell her as much in their interviews with her:

The Times has a long history of striving for excellence, and in this pursuit they’ve outdone themselves with an exciting new entrant in the competition for Worst Article of All Time. Apparently, the Democrats’ strategy going into the midterms is to gaslight their base into believing concerns over their children’s education, wellbeing, and safety during COVID are nothing but an initiation into a dark underworld of cult-like anti-vaccine radicalism. We’ll see how that works out for ’em.

This article is republished with permission from The Brownstone Institute.

Image Credit: JavierDo, CC BY-SA 3.0

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  • Avatar
    Margaret Owen Thorpe
    August 4, 2022, 4:28 am

    I think Ms. Frenkel missed what’s really happening – and she said it in her own words: "strikingly similar stories of feeling left behind by the government". Ms. Frenkel, that is what is going on. The masks, the vaccines, the scare stories about COVID are just the metaphor for the fact that the people now running government at the federal, state, and local levels are dishing up some very scary ideas that the majority of us want nothing to do with. We don’t want mass transit with tacky mid-rise apartments from one end of town to the other. We don’t want to be judged, classified, and stereotyped by the color of our skin. These parents are speaking for all of us who want to be left alone. For all of us who feel in our bones that Animal Farm and Brave New World are creeping up on us. For all of us who are tired of encountering the politically correct proudly still wearing their N-95 bumper stickers on their faces at the grocery store. They are making the statement, and the parents are rejecting it. Ms. Frankel needs to get out of New York City and see the rest of this nation.

    REPLY
    • Avatar
      RudyM@Margaret Owen Thorpe
      August 8, 2022, 7:53 pm

      No it’s not symbolic. You faux depth provides a failed interpretation. Covid-19 policies are serious issues on their own. If you don’t see that, you are probably as out of touch as Sheera Frrrrrrrrrrenkel.

      REPLY
  • Avatar
    Snowdog
    August 4, 2022, 11:08 pm

    In the ideological war we are in, there is no middle ground. And their isn’t because there’s no trust between those who have different, especially opposing, ideologies. It may be slightly more complex, but when basic trust in others is hard to come by, society divides along ideological lines. Trust allows the meaningful dialogue needed for others to see your point of view, and you to see theirs. Divided we fall.

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  • Avatar
    Robert L Moore
    August 5, 2022, 2:14 am

    Who ARE the Fascists? Who ARE the ones demanding conformity? And when did "science" become a weapon to subjugate those who disagree?

    REPLY

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