"They treat you like you're just too dumb to make good decisions for your family,"...

[MissMillie]

...she says. "How many people do you see laying around on the sidewalks and in their yards dying of COVID? Nowhere."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/07/31/1022877843/theres-vaccine-drama-in-arkansas-where-rates-are-low-and-everyone-has-an-opinion

Apparently the shoe fits, lady.

[Renew Deal]

1. She proved them right.

[Pinback]

2. "Do you really believe that?"

Once, at a grocery store, a woman told her she was nervous about getting the vaccine because of a rumor on the internet that it can make you magnetic.

"I said, 'Do you really believe that?' And she said, 'Well, I'm not sure.' " Kellebrew recounts.

So she found a magnet in the store and demonstrated on a person to whom she had just given the shot. "The magnet kept falling off her arm, and I said, 'Is that what you needed to see?' And she said, 'Yes. I think I'll get a shot.' "

Kellebrew now travels with a magnet.

These people exist.

[greenjar_01]

6. Holy Jesus

Our entire education system has failed us. Utterly and completely failed us.

[sarcasmo]

19. Teaching for the test has wrecked our public education system.

[Kid Berwyn]

20. That's a feature, not a bug.

Oligarchs don’t like educated slaves.

[WhiteTara]

9. They live all around me.

I don't leave my property unless I just have to. Even people I thought were friends are that stupid. We're not friends anymore.

[milestogo]

3. When the virus hit South America last year there were dead bodies in the streets of Ecuador.

Just because people in the US die in hospitals doesn't make it any less dangerous. Maybe someone should make a video of dying Covid patients for these people to see.

[greenjar_01]

8. She must have missed the overflow refrigeration trucks and mass graves in New York

For fuck's sake.

[Wingus Dingus]

15. That's fake news and crisis actors and New York is full of liberals so who cares.

[irisblue]

4. MissMillie, when I heard that I hollered out loud several choice words.

That woman is an overly assured Dunning–Kruger example on foot.
The contempt in her voice was palpable
(The Dunning–Kruger effect is a hypothetical cognitive bias stating that people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. --Wikipedia)

[Hortensis]

5. Well, professionals working to convince people to get vaccinated

say it's important to be respectful and listen courteously. That seems obvious, even or especially for people on the defensive and still hoping the spoon will finally stick to someone.

[Solly Mack]

7. "rugged individualism"

Snort.

Fucking idiots.

[Silent3]

10. Even when trying to give the right message...

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson:

"I'm a Trump supporter and I am a Republican, and I got both vaccine [doses]," Hutchinson stated at another meeting on July 28 in Heber Springs, a lakeside retirement and resort community in the Ozark foothills. "It's not about politics. It's about my health."

...this is the wrong fucking message.

The best reason to get the vaccine, first and foremost, is EVERYONE ELSE'S HEALTH, not your own health. Talking about the vaccine as if it's about the health of the person getting the vaccine just feeds the stupid idea that getting the vaccine or not is a purely personal decision.

[Me.]

11. Why Don't WE Give Up On Arkansas

and send those shots to Haiti?

[Wingus Dingus]

14. They shouldn't go to waste--I agree.

[Chainfire]

12. Arkansas is a symptom of the larger national disease.

We have a significant proportion of the population that embrace ignorance and hate. They prefer a big lie to a small truth. They don't trust anyone with a "liberal" education. (which is education beyond high school) They look for a big daddy figure to look after them. These people look for the same thing in government that they look for in church. They want to be led, not to lead. They want a straight, white, Christian man to lead them, because that is what their god looks like. They want Fascism even if they do not know how to define it.

It is the result of years of a Republican fight for power by fighting basic education by failing to fund good public education. Ignorant people are easier to lead than thinkers. Serfs do not need a good education, it makes them uppity and harder to control. The only way we will save our country is by educating ourselves properly. It took a long time to get where we are today, and it will take a long time to fix. It may be time that we don't have.

The next three years will determine our fate

[Wingus Dingus]

13. Let 'em go.

I don't care about these people.

[greenjar_01]

16. Letting the virus rip is a strategy and a decision

It's not the decision we should make, but in some states, it is the decision that they voted for and are currently engaging in, with much popular support.

There's not much we can do here. Arkansas's people want to let the virus rip, and consider the public health protections against the virus to be onerous and less desirable than the virus washing over the population. That's their vote. At a certain point, you have to allow people to live out the consequences of their belief systems.

[Wingus Dingus]

17. Yep. How long are we supposed to fret, cajole, threaten, plead, bribe, etc.

Done caring about these folks. They're making their bed.

[greenjar_01]

18. It is a strategy

At this point, we have to assume that it is the strategy they are selecting, knowing the costs.

Not much we can do about that.