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The Left’s Other “Vaccination” Campaign

Posted on Friday, October 6, 2023
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by BC Brutus
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AMAC Exclusive – By B.C. Brutus

Close-up of a doctor`s hand in protective gloves, hands holding a syringe with coronavirus vaccine in a muzzle

The Biden administration has recently embarked on yet another PR push to urge Americans to get the latest COVID-19 booster shot. But while you won’t hear about it in the media, Biden and his Democrat allies have for years been engaged in another campaign to “inoculate” their followers against what they view as a far more dangerous disease – conservatism.

The leftist project to “protect” people from conservative ideas focuses in on something called “inoculation theory” – a term coined by 1960s psychologist William J. McGuire. Just like doctors use a weakened form of a virus (a vaccine) to prepare the body’s immune system to fight the actual virus, inoculation theory suggests that people can be inoculated against persuasive messages or counterarguments by exposing them to a weakened form of the opposing argument.

In politics, inoculation theory can be a powerful tool to reinforce someone’s initial beliefs about certain issues or elected officials.

For instance, Democrats have a long history of claiming that any tax increases as a result of their policies will be shouldered by the wealthy. By adding the caveat that the rich will (supposedly) pay more in taxes, Democrats aim to psychologically condition people to dismiss Republican arguments about higher taxes, even when those arguments are far more substantive (and, often times, accurate) than the version Democrats present.

A more concrete example of inoculation theory in action was the battle over the border wall during former President Donald Trump’s tenure. Even though Trump and his Republican allies always made clear that the wall was only one part of a more comprehensive border security strategy, Democrats and the mainstream media characterized the “build the wall” slogan as the entirety of Trump’s immigration platform.

Democrats then pointed out the inherent flaws of just relying on a border wall to stop illegal immigration – a strategy that Trump never suggested. But in doing so, Democrats conditioned liberal partisans as well as many more moderate-minded Americans to associate any border security strategy that even mentioned “the wall” with the straw man strategy they themselves invented.

While the left has been engaging in this type of narrative distortion for decades largely under the radar, Mike Benz, the founder of censorship watchdog Foundation for Freedom Online, recently began calling out the trend. In a tweet earlier this summer, Benz pointed to publicly-available “scientific studies” where researchers funded by the National Science Foundation and Department of Homeland Security openly discussed producing “attitudinal inoculation” videos to “enhance COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.”

Benz also discussed inoculation theory in an appearance on conservative podcaster Tim Pool’s show this week. “[Inoculation theory] is being funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars by the State Department, the DOD, and the National Science Foundation,” Benz said. “They literally say that the goal is behavioral modification and psychological inoculation against misinformation… it’s the world’s most indefensible form of straw-manning.”

In August of last year, the National Institutes of Health also published a paper on how “psychological inoculation can reduce susceptibility to misinformation” – which as we now know is defined as anything that runs counter to the liberal bureaucracy’s preferred narrative. Around the same time, left-wing academics at Cambridge University touted another study that revealed “potential to inoculate millions of users against misinformation.”

Some liberal media outlets refer to the strategy as “pre-bunking.” In an article from October of last year, NPR detailed examples of how “experts” in Big Tech and government agencies like the FBI and CISA – a notorious secretive government censorship agency – are “show[ing] people the tactics and tropes of misleading information before they encounter it in the wild — so they’re better equipped to recognize and resist it.”

In other words, the government is working hand-in-glove with Big Tech to tear down a caricature of conservative viewpoints.

The left’s increasing control of the media and virtually every major cultural institution, from academia to Hollywood, means that their inoculation efforts have been especially effective in recent years. Their cultural largess has also made their inoculation campaigns far more blatant, egregious, and harmful to the health of American democracy.

Take, for example, the ongoing effort to run cover for freshman Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman who, by his own admission, struggles to “process language” and speak clearly following a stroke during his campaign last year. The left has rushed to Fetterman’s defense, arguing that stroke victims deserve compassion and that any criticism of him is nothing but a mean-spirited partisan attack.

In doing so, Democrats have hoped to inoculate the public against legitimate arguments about why Fetterman should resign; primarily, that while stroke victims do indeed deserve compassion, Americans also deserve elected representatives who are able to fully process language and debate legislation with their peers.

The left is also engaged in a desperate effort to inoculate the public against the stream of evidence pointing to rampant corruption within the First Family. A constant refrain in the mainstream media is that Republicans have no evidence of “direct payments” to Joe Biden from Hunter’s foreign business partners.

Again, much like a traditional vaccine introduces a weakened or disabled version of a virus into the body, the left is presenting a weakened form of their opponents’ arguments – acknowledging that there are some suspicious payments to Hunter’s businesses, but suggesting that the only way to prove corruption is through showing evidence of direct payments to Joe Biden himself. In doing so, Biden’s allies hope the public will simply dismiss the mountain of evidence implying Joe Biden was involved with Hunter’s schemes because there is no “smoking gun” showing a payment directly to Joe himself – yet.

One major potential pitfall of employing inoculation theory is that once someone knows they’re being fed an incomplete or misleading version of an argument, all trust between the inoculator and the inoculated is broken. As the left’s web of lies grows ever larger and more difficult to maintain, even a hint of skepticism and critical thinking could bring the whole thing tumbling down.

B.C. Brutus is the pen name of a writer with previous experience in the legislative and executive branches.

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Rik
Rik
1 year ago

So very true, the Communist wannabe Democrats are very proactive in innoculating by brainwashing our young by their Comrades posing as teachers!
What angers me is that this is happening right under Republicans noses and they never stopped it from happening!
It seems only now that they are aware of it and how do you stop it going against the all powerful teachers union?
I can’t accept any blame because I am not married nor do I have any children. But nothing surprises me anymore when you realize that all politicians seem to only be consumed with holding onto their power!
Majority Rules and in this case the majority of teachers are Evil Communist wannabes!

J. FARLEY
J. FARLEY
1 year ago

He and the rest of the Demonrats are to late to prevent my wife and me from getting Conservatism, we got it 50 years ago and haven’t been able to get rid of it (not that we want to) we got it so bad we gave it to my Parents and other family members.
Although the news yellow rag newspapers keep trying to and Network TV keep trying to infect us, we have conservatism so bad we are infecting others, and they too are sick to the point they are infecting others also.
God Bless America long Live Freedom!

tofbs
tofbs
1 year ago

I FORTUNATLY WAS INOCULATED AGAINST THE CURRENT DEMORAT PROPOGANDA AND FLAT OUT BULLSH*T.EVER HEARD OF THE NAME JOESEPH GOEBBELS YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO BEWARE OF THE CURRENT ILLEGITIMATE INCOMPETENT BUNCH OF BOOBS IN THE WHITE HOUSE

johnh
johnh
1 year ago

Every person has the right to get a vaccine shot or to not get the new booster shot. That is a personal choice that we have as one of our American Freedoms & that is my opinion .

Melinda
Melinda
1 year ago

As the last paragraph mentions skepticism, I’d like to add that I have been a skeptic about news shows and government for many years. Thinking people, of whom there are a few, cannot be inoculated. And the rest are difficult, if not impossible to persuade. The left is having an uphill climb, what with tech’s ability to spread the word, despite their efforts to shut us down.

Robert Zuccaro
Robert Zuccaro
1 year ago

I don’t need a COVID shot because I keep 6 feet away from infected pangolins and wear three N45 masks at all times. It also helps to only travel in large mobs of BLM and ANTIFA protesters because everyone knows COVID is woke and will leave you alone. But stay away from those MAGA rallies… they’re Petri dishes for COVID!

Donna
Donna
1 year ago

Excellent article, Mr. Brutus.

Granny26
Granny26
1 year ago

Never had a Covid vax and never will. Everyone that did have it that I know also caught Covid and were way sicker than I was when I got it. I’ve had worse cases of the flu. They can stick their vax’s they know where and it’s not in my arm.

johnh
johnh
1 year ago

Is BC Brutus a real person & real name? Seems odd to me.

Rik
Rik
1 year ago

Punkydoodle spews his HATE AMERICA and ALL CONSERVATIVES because he believes in Communism and WE DON’T!

Stephen Russell
Stephen Russell
1 year ago

Goes Both ways OK Make=

Cb
Cb
1 year ago

Call me a deplorable, a domestic terrorist or a white supremest and I should be detransitioned according to that old wrinkled windbag hillaB. But realistically we, the right conservatives shouldnsee to it that the left is exterminated like the cockroaches that they are.

exoticdoc2
exoticdoc2
1 year ago

The brain dead should not be running the country. Yet they are, from the top down.

Smike
Smike
1 year ago

Sorry guys, when I joined AMAC I thought I was going to get factual articles without all the political rhetoric and personal interpretations that CNN, AARP and others put out. I want the facts, I don’t want you to tell me what to believe or what you believe; I want the facts so I can make a rational decision. All the articles I’m reading are; this is what is happening according to me, I think this way about this and so should you. If you don’t you’re one of them. “inoculation theory” – a term coined by 1960s psychologist William J. McGuire. Really, 1960 was like 60 years ago, the guy wasn’t even a real medical doctor, he’s a nut cracker. And this article has nothing to do with Covid, it’s analogy. AMAC does a lot of good stuff and provides a lot of very good services but this newline bog isn’t one of them. And since you changed the format it’s more difficult to get to things that seniors need and want. I want straight forward news, I don’t want someone’s political slant on it or their opinion.

Sue
Sue
1 year ago

I will let Biden and his cronies have my turn at the vaccine.

Steven
Steven
1 year ago

I want to see a huge number of people in prison for the COVID nightmare. Government you can keep your phony vaccines…

Don Wong
Don Wong
1 year ago

Lets start the tumbling down. Maybe someone should read Alinskis, how to destroy a country. Rumored Taught in classes to Obama and Clinton in Chicago. So you can get a step ahead of this corrupt government that continues to grow.Most of us know the media is owned by leftist billionaires like Bluomburg and Fink. Lies, Misdirection, Misinformation etc.etc. Catch on, they blame others for everything they are doing, and continue doing it themself, while you chase your tail trying to show they are wrong, over and over again

Robert Zuccaro
Robert Zuccaro
1 year ago

Nobody likes you. We just let you hang out because your Momma makes us pizza rolls afterwards.

Michael D Sadler
Michael D Sadler
1 year ago

Inoculation theory from the 60s – beware…. Really, we can do better than this.

They know it
They know it
1 year ago

Covid: I was happy to get more republican votes then trump lol

jim nicholson and kamala harris with bible and rosary behind them about her anti-catholic acts
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