The Anti-vaccine Con Job Is Becoming Untenable (What some GOP are doing now)

[applegrove]

Last edited Wed Aug 4, 2021, 08:52 PM - Edit history (1)

The Anti-vaccine Con Job Is Becoming Untenable

Why targets of deliberate deception often hesitate to admit they’ve been deceived

By Brooke Harrington, The Atlantic

AUGUST 1, 2021

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/vaccine-refusers-dont-want-blue-americas-respect/619627/

"SNIP.....

To outsiders, the social dynamics of the con appear peculiar and irrational. Those caught up in it can seem self-destructive and, frankly, clueless. But to sociologists, including me, who study fraud, such behaviors obey a predictable logic.

The seminal text in the field—Erving Goffman’s 1952 essay “On Cooling the Mark Out”—observes that all targets of con artists eventually come to understand that they have been defrauded, yet they almost never complain or report the crime to authorities. Why? Because, Goffman argues, admitting that one has been conned is so deeply shameful that marks experience it as a kind of social death. The victim, he writes,

has defined himself as a shrewd man and must face the fact that he is only another easy mark. He has defined himself as possessing a certain set of qualities and then proven to himself that he is miserably lacking in them. This is a process of self-destruction of the self.

Goffman notes that other life events, such as being fired or dumped, can evoke similar feelings of humiliation. But people targeted by con jobs can save their pride by denying the con as long as possible—or claiming they were in on it the whole time. This saves face and cheats social death, but allows the con to continue unchecked, entrapping others. In doing so, marks prioritize their self-image over the common good.

.....

Framing vaccine refusal in terms of sociological theory isn’t just an intellectual exercise. On the contrary, it can help public-health experts and government officials figure out how to react when marks collide with the reality that COVID-19 is serious, the vaccines work, and not getting vaccinated is dangerous. Goffman points out that con artists employ specialists to “cool” marks down when the deception is finally revealed. A cooler, he writes, “has the job of handling persons caught out on a limb—persons whose expectations and self-conceptions have been built up and then shattered.” Coolers prevent blowback from angry marks—encouraging them to blame themselves, not the con artist. They help marks rebuild their social identity, retain their self-respect, and preserve their affiliations with their reference groups.

......SNIP"


Here is how the GOP is 'cooling the mark down' and why:

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/4/2043850/-Republicans-suddenly-make-vaccination-push-after-party-spent-months-stoking-doubt-in-GOP-voters

[RockRaven]

1. All of these big companies insisting their employees be vaccinated is a parallel function to these

coolers -- it gives the marks a way out without having to face up to their stupidity/failure.

There are going to be a hell of a lot of loud anti-vaccine shit-talkers who get the jab anyway. Now they don't have to lose face by admitting they were wrong, they can frame it is a prudent business decision (not only avoiding admitting stupidity, but adding an opportunity to claim to have done the smart thing).