“Speaking of blowhards picking fights, have you been following the Twitter feud between Ted Cruz and Big Bird? Conservatives like Cruz truly believe sentiments like the one he shared: 'The elections are rigged, the deep state runs the world, and Big Bird is working for Merck now.'”
– Jimmy Kimmel, host of late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
"I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it'll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy," Big Bird's tweet reads.
On Twitter, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz accused Big Bird – the fictional yellow bird children have watched on "Sesame Street" since the 1970s – of pushing "Government propaganda … for your 5 year old!" after the Muppet tweeted about getting the COVID-19 vaccine in his wing.
The spat comes less than a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Pfizer's pediatric vaccine for children ages 5-11 on November 2. The tweet was meant to ease any fears young children may have about getting the shot.
On Saturday, the popular children’s character also appeared on a CNN town hall, “The ABCs of COVID Vaccines,” with the network’s anchor Erica Hill and chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta to explain the vaccine to children ages 5-11, who are now eligible to get the shot.to answer questions about the vaccine. CNN and health experts "answered children's questions about the COVID vaccine and staying healthy, and coping with big feelings as they continue to face unprecedented challenges in their young lives." Several other characters also got "vaccinated."
Big Bird himself said he had just learned that he had been getting vaccines since he was "a little bird." An account called "Muppet Wiki" backed up those claims with a series of video clips from a 1972 episode in which Big Bird gets vaccinated against measles.
President Biden and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky were among those who offered their thanks and praise.
In Texas, where Cruz is from, a minimum of seven vaccines are required for kids to attend elementary school – public or private. Like most states, Texas requires vaccines for polio, measles, hepatitis and several other diseases – sometimes before a child even turns 1.
(Caitlin O'Kane. “Ted Cruz called Big Bird getting COVID-19 vaccine "propaganda." This isn't the first time Sesame Street encouraged kids to get important vaccines.” CBS News. November 8, 2021.)
WTF?
According to the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation Health System Tracker, Covid-19 was the 6th leading cause of death among kids aged 5 to 14 in September. The same was true in August.
Now, of all people, Ted Cruz is speaking out against Big Bird? His lunacy is well-documented and calling out a beloved fictional character fits his modus operandi. I guess we shouldn't be surprised.
However, consider Cruz graduated cum laude from Princeton, went to Harvard Law and clerked on the Supreme Court. In his ambition, he understands fictionalizing America’s crisis moments is dramatically successful – and don't we constantly experience these moments as we negotiate our way through post-Trump and COVID times?
Political experts say Cruz has mastered the “useful gaffe.” He play to the heel of the media because he knows he can outrage enough to disseminate his comments, riding his name and statement for page views for a three-day cycle: outrage, interpretation, contrarian defense. And he’s playing face to the fans at home in Texas.
Recent history shows Cruz is one of the main conspirators who helped spread the Big Lie that led to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and tried to escape to the Four Seasons in Cancun when his home state was in the midst of a deadly weather crisis. He also chose Rep. Steve King, who was already known for his long history of racist remarks, to be a national co-chairman for his 2016 presidential campaign.
Back in December of 2015, Jeb Lund of Rolling Stone wrote “Ted Cruz isn't crazy. He's much worse.” Lund said that Cruz has a favorite line he likes to use: “For a long time, the left has had two caricatures of conservatives: that we are either stupid or evil. I take it as a backhanded compliment that they have, to some extent, invented a third category for me: ‘crazy.'”
In the article, Lund reported …
“In no particular order, Texas senator and Republican presidential aspirant Ted Cruz has: said acts of Christian terrorism stopped centuries ago, forgetting the Ku Klux Klan and the shooting in Colorado last week; claimed he has never met an anti-abortion activist who advocates violence, despite being endorsed by one just days before; dismissed the need for Planned Parenthood because there isn’t a shortage of 'rubbers' in America; and made an offhand comment that Colorado mass shooter Robert Dear could be a 'transgendered leftist activist.' All this in just the last week.”
(Jeb Lund. “Ted Cruz Isn’t Crazy – He’s Much Worse.” Rolling Stone. December 04, 2015.)
Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large, puts the Big Bird tweet in perspective and explains the latest “Crazy Cruz” moment …
“See, Big Bird is part of a conspiracy to get your 5- to 11-year-olds vaccinated against Covid-19! That damn yellow bird wants your kids to get a vaccine that will not only protect them from a virus that has killed more than 750,000 Americans but also keep them from unintentionally spreading it to parents and grandparents who may well be more susceptible to more serious infections even if they are vaccinated …
“Taking on Big Bird – I can't believe I just wrote that – is pure virtue-signaling by Cruz. Rather than take Big Bird's tweet on vaccination at face value – it was done in conjunction with a CNN Saturday morning townhall dedicated to answering parents' (and kids') questions about the vaccine -- Cruz decided that it offered him an opportunity to score points with the Trumpist wing of the party that he desperately needs for his future national ambitions.
“While Cruz is just posturing for political gain here, he's also wrong on the merits of his opposition to vaccines -- summarized in another tweet over the weekend as the 'right to make your own medical choices' …
“So, no, Ted, this isn't about 'government propaganda...for your 5 year old!' It's about using every tool at our disposal – including an 8 foot tall bird – to remind people that we are all in this together and that we have a shared responsibility to protect the most vulnerable among us. Simple.”
(Chris Cillizza. “Ted Cruz has found the real vaccine enemy: Big Bird.” https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/08/politics/ted-cruz-vaccines-big-bird/index.html. CNN. November 08, 2021.)
As Vanity Fair reported “Ted Cruz doesn't want Big Bird (or your kids) to get vaccinated.” He wants to spread this bullshit like Newsmax host Steve Cortes did when he tweeted, falsely, “This kind of propaganda is actually evil. Your children are not statistically at risk, and should not be pressured into a brand new treatment. Do Not Comply!”
For God's sake, people, don't be so gullible. The line between reality and fiction has never been blurred by more vindictive conservative politicians seeking political gain.
The anti-vaccine movement is not about the risk of potential allergic reactions and not about mistrusting pharmaceutical companies. It is all about people occupied by extreme rage who are threatening to exert violence against whoever they deem as “outsiders” and “traitors.” This agenda has been hijacked by far-right groups and spread by cable news and social media.
The phenomenon is known as “red-pilling” – a reference to a scene in The Matrix where Keanu Reeves’ character chooses to take a red pill and discover the hidden truths of the world – and it affects those whose once-rational skepticism swallows them whole, pulling them into a networked community of like-minded conspiracy theorists.
Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone says …
“While the public record does not indicate Brandenburg traveled this far, many find a home in the big-tent conspiracy of QAnon, whose members increasingly see vaccination as part of a diabolical plot by the 'deep state' to enslave humanity …
“Ethan Zuckerman, who formerly directed the Center for Civic Media at MIT, describes the QAnon cult as a reservoir at the bottom of that slippery slope. 'Q is what happens when you take that mistrust in a really damaging direction,' he says. 'It’s usually people who lost trust in one institution and then found a coherent worldview that says, ‘Don’t just mistrust this one institution – mistrust all the institutions. All of them are in it together.’
“This full rejection of confidence in doctors and drug companies, in media and philanthropy, in politicians and government agencies, Zuckerman says, is 'how the anti-vax movement underwent almost a merger with QAnon.'
“Zuckerman argues that what’s required to reach the far edges of the anti-vax and QAnon communities resembles cult deprogramming. 'The question that I think everyone would love to have a definitive answer to is, Can people be unpilled?'he says.'”
(Tim Dickinson. “How the Anti-Vaxxers Got Red-Pilled.” https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/qanon-anti-vax-covid-vaccine-conspiracy-theory-1125197/. Rolling Stone. February 10, 2021.)
Let the “unpilling” begin. Now! For the sake of Big Bird and Sesame Street and children everywhere. Start with Ted Cruz. Get that “Smart? Crazy?” posturing, manipulative son-of-a-bitch to act his age. He should know better. Maybe he didn't watch PBS educational television as a kid. After all, his bosom buddy Donald Trump famously proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities and privatizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Birds of a feather against Big Bird and friends … the irony.
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