You want polling data? We can show that.
You want factual reports from reputable sources? We can show that.
You want anecdotes? We can sure as hell provide that.
No matter where you go, not matter who you frame it, getting vaccinated is the safest best thing for the general population to do. Not getting the vaccine is unnecessarily reckless for anyone who hasn't had the virus already. Millions of people are continuing to ignorantly roll the dice on their health because of an irrational fear of some phantom, unknown long term effects when the virus is literally killing, maiming and ruining people's lives and, oh yeah, HAS LONG TERM SIDE EFFECTS AS WELL!!!!
Let me put this in a different perspective for you Jayrod. I have nothing against you personally. But I believe there's another way to look at this situation.
What is the core demographic of regular posters on the FBG forums? Certainly it's not exhaustive, but I'd wager Caucasian, liberal, college educated, male, above average earning power, mid 40s to mid 50s, maybe some previous pathway towards organized sports in their youth.
Is that everyone? Of course not, but I suspect it's a range of where some of the tone deafness comes from in real life.
Imagine someone is a minority and previously lived in another country where the government pulled no punches in exploiting them and culling their freedoms. Raping their daughters, executing their school teachers, crushing free speech and freedom to exercise religion and few to none methods to gain upward mobility. They come to this country and they have no marketable job skills, they don't speak English very well and they are past the age where a formal education will likely help them. They live in poor neighborhoods where there is likely high crime and mediocre to horrible schools. They are prime targets for criminals because the cops aren't really coming to save that neighborhood. They do what they can so their kids can get an education and some opportunity.
Some start a small business. It's the American Dream. Then they are told they have to lock down if they live in a Blue stronghold. It's not like they are suddenly immune to things like rent and utilities and taxes and the rest, but they are told to lock down. Then the rioters and looters come. They call the police and no one comes to help them. They see clearly that the same group of politicians are encouraging the violence and bailing out the looters and rioters. They buy a gun like many of the 40 million American civilians who bought firearms in 2020 because they know no one is going to come save them. No one is going to help them. Some might have poor insurance or no insurance at all for their businesses. These are everyday people, they don't have "FBG Money", almost all of them didn't get a chance to go to college, they are just trying to get by and protect their children and build some kind of real legacy for themselves.
If these people we are talking about are black Americans, then they've been told over and over and over that the "system" hates them for being black and the police are coming to execute them and their children. And that the government is lying to them and has treated them like cattle for untold generations. What do you think Stacey Abrams was telling these black Americans in Georgia as she was ballot harvesting and ballot chasing at a record pace?
If these people we are talking about are Latino/Hispanic, they watched their own people get herded like feral animals into cages and watched their own people be told America will welcome them only to be told no you need to go away. They watched their own people, their own children, get gang raped by mules and criminals and Cartel members. They see the namesake for their daughter's hope, to be the next AOC, get trashed by the establishment Democrats in the current administration to no end. The message is clear - you are just good enough to clean the bathrooms for the rich smug tone deaf elitist politicians like a Gavin Newsom.
If these people we are talking about are Asian Americans, they watched their own people get attacked in the streets with close to no actual response from the current administration and government. They are "perfect minority" but who cares if they get massacred in the streets. They see all kinds of social justice screaming out in sports, in Hollywood and in the MSM, but nothing is said about the Uighurs in China. Who are being tortured, raped, forcibly sterilized, having their organs harvested and being wiped out in open genocide. But they live in a country where no one wants to talk about it since those tiny Uighur children in concentration camps are assembling IPhones while a gun is being shoved down their throats.
Take the perspective of these minorities, who are vaccine hesitant. Who see lie after lie told to them to their faces. Then the Whataboutism, the cheap deflections, the blame game and the virtue signaling that looks nothing more than condescension.
So try this - For those here who are liberal college educated Caucasian males with above average earning power in their mid 40s to mid 50s, how close are you to the reality of people who are nothing like you and are struggling check to check, hand to mouth and feel the weight of the world crushing in on them?
Do some of you realize how smug, tone deaf, elitist, myopic, condescending and cruel you sound to many of these people?
You want these people to understand the rage of many people here. Did you and others here every stop to ask yourselves if you've done your part to actually understand their perspective, what they are going through and how they might see the world around them differently than you. When you demand submission without any tolerance nor empathy and reduce actual human beings into cannon fodder, it just makes you a tyrant.
The gift of freedom has no real value to a tyrant.
Nearly all of you were born into freedom. And some of you, not all, but far too many, clearly don't actually deserve it.
