One of the most despicable trends in left-wing media has been the curious joy and satisfaction writers are taking when previously skeptical right-wingers contract COVID-19. The more the afflicted suffer, the more ghoulish pleasure is gleaned by the lefties.
And when the right-winger dies, it’s as if a biblical reckoning had been visited by God on the right. “Told ya so” is childish and immature, but that doesn’t stop some writers from nearly orgasming in ecstasy when a vaccine conspiracy theorist dies.
Writer Laura Loomer has contracted COVID. The normal human response to the news that someone has contracted a potentially serious illness is a heartfelt concern. Or, if you don’t know the person from Adam, you fake it and still claim to be sympathetic. This is what normal people do — presumably, people with hearts, minds, and souls.
Then there’s Reza Aslan. The noted author and TV personality was quite succinct in his response to Loomer’s revelation that she had COVID.
Pray for Covid. pic.twitter.com/mHtAxoYLhv
— Reza Aslan (@rezaaslan) September 17, 2021
You can be sure Aslan had some other explanation beyond rooting for Loomer’s death. Not quite sure what it could possibly be, but I’m sure he’ll think of something.
The Daily Beast featured an article by Jamie Ross that seemed to celebrate Loomer’s comeuppance.
Last year, Loomer expressed a wish that she could catch COVID to show everyone that it was no big deal. She wrote on Parler in December 2020: “I hope I get COVID just so I can prove to people I’ve had bouts of food poisoning that are more serious and life threatening than a hyped up virus. Have you ever eaten bad fajitas? That will kill you faster than COVID.”
However, in follow-up messages on her Telegram channel late Thursday, she made it clear that she was suffering severe symptoms. “Just pray for me please,” she wrote. “Can’t even begin to explain how brutal the body aches and nausea that come with COVID are. I am in so much pain.”
Loomer is apparently someone of note on the right, running for Congress and being blackballed by several social media sites. But the satisfaction dripping from Ross’s article on her illness was evident.
She then posted more vaccine conspiracy theories, writing that the government “doesn’t want you to know what it really does,” despite the scientific fact that it would have offered her some protection.
I’m never moved to react to anyone else’s writing. But I sent Ross an email responding to his Loomer piece.
You must have made an error in your Laura Loomer piece. The usual procedure for Daily Beast Death Porn is to wait for the vaccine-denying right-wing wacko to croak. Then, you point your finger and laugh at the schadenfreude of a person dead from COVID who made some ludicrous claim about the vaccine, or the disease.
Loomer is not only not dead. She’s not even in the hospital, for God’s sake, much less on the critical list, gasping for air. Perhaps if we’re lucky. we’ll hear of her mea culpa right before she slips the surly bonds, yada yada, etc. etc. She’s spoiling our fun by hanging on and not repenting.
Jumping the gun like this is just bad form — like wearing white to a fall wedding.
The Daily Beast also carried the story of an anti-masking local Florida GOP leader who died suddenly of COVID. The schadenfreude was palpable in the writing when describing the problems caused by the official’s death.
Along with others in the Hillsborough County Election Integrity Committee, Prentice was a vociferous critic of the vaccine, mask mandates, and COVID-prevention measures. He railed against top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, vowing in a Twitter post to “end Faucism.” He also insisted the U.S. needs “more socialist distancing than we do social distancing” and that the pandemic was created to destroy small businesses.
A spokesperson for the Hillsborough Republican Executive Committee has reportedly said that Prentice’s wife and daughter have also caught COVID-19.
You can almost hear them rooting for COVID to take them all.
Cockburn, who coined the term “COVID Death Porn,” put it correctly.
Cockburn will concede that when a public figure stakes their life on a certain medical opinion and dies a preventable death as a result, the irony is enough to merit a news story. But he would be remiss if he didn’t observe that standards for this sort of thing seem a tad inconsistent. Losing weight is another entirely controllable way to reduce COVID risk, too, but the same publications that gloat over dead vaccine skeptics have published a Pravda’s worth of takes explaining that COVID-related fat shaming is not funny and not OK.
For certain people — repeat, certain people — COVID-19 can be a death sentence. I include myself in that group and have not only been vaccinated but will get a booster shot as well.
For those who believe otherwise, I sincerely wish you luck — and good health.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member