“We’re not claiming that the coronavirus vaccines are dangerous,” Fox News host (and person I’m not saying is mentally deranged; I’m just asking questions) Tucker Carlson said, just before stating a series of unsubstantiated dangers about the coronavirus vaccines.
“But we are telling the truth,” Carlson lies, “which is, there are unsolved concerns about their long-term effects on some people, including their effects on female fertility. That is not a conspiracy theory; that is true.”
Well… no. It *is* a conspiracy theory, given that no legitimate study has shown any effect of any of the coronavirus vaccines on female fertility. Carlson cites a St. Louis public health researcher who said she didn’t expect some unspecified symptom after getting the vaccine. (Carlson’s careful not to cite specifically what the researcher’s symptom is.) He then refers to a Twitter thread.
After going through his typical uninformed hysteria–“Maybe the symptoms amount to nothing; that’s often the case. Maybe they amount to something. We don’t know.”–Carlson again give the “That does not mean the coronavirus vaccine is dangerous. There’s no proof that it’s dangerous. There doesn’t need to be.”
In Tucker Carlson’s world, Tucker Carlson lies. That’s not a conspiracy theory; that’s the truth. Tucker Carlson doesn’t need to actually have facts to start a panic about the coronavirus vaccine as he propagates conspiracy theories. Does he want to stoke public doubt? Is it part of his desire to make people paranoid? Is he trying to leveraging the stupidity of his viewers? I’m not starting conspiracy theories; professors are asking the same questions. And these are questions that need to be asked.
Does Fox News endorse Carlson because he makes them money, even though they don’t think people should believe what he says? Is he a moron, or is he just an idiot? Are the Murdochs hoping the moron and the morons who watch him line their pockets with money so they keep him on the air at the risk of public health? There’s no proof that Tucker Carlson is just a cynical lying scumbag who stokes fear for money.
There doesn’t have to be.