Belief in 'Eternal Life' Why Southerners Don't Fear Covid

[left-of-center2012]

Mississippi’s Republican Governor Tate Reeves said southerners are “a little less scared” of Covid-19 because they “believe in eternal life.”

“I’m often asked by some of my friends on the other side of the aisle about Covid… and why does it seem like folks in Mississippi and maybe in the Mid-South are a little less scared, shall we say,”

“When you believe in eternal life — when you believe that living on this earth is but a blip on the screen, then
you don’t have to be so scared of things,” the governor told the crowd during a Republican Party fundraiser in Tennessee this week.. During a Thursday, Aug. 26, fundraiser at the Eads home of Shelby County Election Commission Chairman Brent Taylor, Reeves spoke to several dozen Republicans. Because the event was outside, masks were not required ... and there was little social distancing.

“I’m often asked by some of my friends on the other side of the aisle about COVID … and why does it seem like folks in Mississippi and maybe in the South are a little less scared, shall we say,” Reeves said. “When you believe in eternal life — when you believe that living on this earth is but a blip on the screen, then you don’t have to be so scared of things,” he said, but added: “Now, God also tells us to take necessary precautions.

Earlier this month, with another school year about to begin, he refused to issue a new school mask mandate ...
Reeves also called new guidance on the Delta variant,
which recommended masking, “not rational science.”

Also at the rally Republican U.S. Rep. David Kustoff of Germantown
praised Reeves for cutting the federal unemployment supplement to the jobless in Mississippi, saying the $300 federal supplement, which Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee also ended in July, “gave people the incentive not to go to work.”

https://dailymemphian.com/article/23792/mississippi-governor-tate-reeves-covid-response-impacted-faith

Mississippi’s Governor Tate Reeves (R)


U.S. Rep. David Kustoff (R)

[Walleye]

1. OK then, why are they terrified of the vaccine?

[EarlG]

7. It makes no sense at all

My pic from a month ago:

[Walleye]

14. Good one! I hadn't seen that. Exactly what I've been thinking

[Rebl2]

11. Good question

[Texaswitchy]

2. Wrong religion for me.

I got thrown out of Sunday school.

Their God is not helping now.

[Dream Girl]

3. It is a kind of death cult. To make it worse, life is very cheap to them.

[misanthrope]

4. He's right about one thing

Our time on this Earth is but "a blip on the screen," as compared to the history of our species, our genus, our class. Even more so compared geologically, or cosmologically.

That has nothing to do with someone's superstitions or what a shame it is that our species is as destructive as it is.

[Scottie Mom]

5. Not afraid to leave widows, orphans and financially struggling families behind.

Self-centered nut-job evangels at their most selfish.

[andym]

6. So they have death covered but Covid creates a "hell on earth" for some and leaves some percentage

with serious chronic health problems such as brain fog, cardiac inflammation or circulation problems.
What does the governor think about that.

[PirateRo]

8. Let's remember our Voltaire

Eternal life after death, huh? What contemptible nonsense!

Voltaire: “Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities, Can Make You Commit Atrocities”

Just imagine the fallout from these contemptible ideas on family and friends. Imagine allowing this poison to kill you and the kind of memes this perpetuates, leaving your family vulnerable. If i am a child denied my parent in this way, I will never think twice about walking away from this bullshit.

I would never pander to this, either, trying to use the language of their superstition to talk them back from the ledge. I will reach out in no uncertain terms to express my disgust and make a strongly worded reprimand to bring them back off the ledge. It is a service I owe them as a fellow human being and traveler.

After that, I’m buying popcorn.

The real evil here is that they have likely bred to pass genes to a subsequent generation.

[Duncan Grant]

27. Excellent post.

I can’t accommodate their selective morality. Their belief system is indefensible during a public health emergency.

[PirateRo]

29. Great point!

It's never the hurricane killed 2300 and left 100,000 homeless in contaminated, flooded areas.

No, it's the one kid that was saved by a parent who put it in a tree at the cost of their own life as they were swept downstream by the flood.

Show me a great big hand popping out of a cloud with the fanciest cufflink in the universe stopping the hurricane before it makes landfall and then we'll talk. Otherwise, as you suggest, their belief system is indefensible.

[OAITW r.2.0]

9. Well, Tate, it cuts both ways. If you believe in eternal life, you also have to

believe in eternal damnation. And, you, being in a position to kill and ruin many lives....you might ought to dial that into your magical thinking.

[shrike3]

10. Oh, for heaven's sake, religious people fear death just as much as anybody else.

And most of the religious folks that I know got the shot as soon as it was offered to him.

This is ridiculous.

[Hortensis]

12. The main reason was an @ 1% or even less risk of death,

and they were comfortable riding those odds into their factional battles, while also claiming the protection of God's grace.

But not "southerners" over 65 who didn't like the odds their God offered them so much and tended to get vaccinated in FAR higher percentages.

91% of all over-65s having gotten vaccinated, usually with the approval of their children, is very revealing.

[Walleye]

15. I think because we remember polio

[Hortensis]

16. Yes, must be. Older people have known for decades.

We were vaccinated, vaccinated our own children, and expected vaccination of our grandchildren as a matter of course.

[Mariana]

24. Polio was less deadly than Covid-19, yet it was taken very seriously.

Most people who get infected with poliovirus (about 72 out of 100) will not have any visible symptoms.

About 1 out of 4 people with poliovirus infection will have flu-like symptoms that may include:

Sore throat
Fever
Tiredness
Nausea
Headache
Stomach pain
These symptoms usually last 2 to 5 days, then go away on their own.

A smaller proportion of people with poliovirus infection will develop other, more serious symptoms that affect the brain and spinal cord:

Paresthesia (feeling of pins and needles in the legs)
Meningitis (infection of the covering of the spinal cord and/or brain) occurs in about 1 out of 25 people with poliovirus infection
Paralysis (can’t move parts of the body) or weakness in the arms, legs, or both, occurs in about 1 out of 200 people with poliovirus infection

Paralysis is the most severe symptom associated with polio, because it can lead to permanent disability and death. Between 2 and 10 out of 100 people who have paralysis from poliovirus infection die, because the virus affects the muscles that help them breathe.

https://www.cdc.gov/polio/what-is-polio/index.htm

[MineralMan]

13. Ironically, they'll never know they're wrong.

[lindysalsagal]

22. How else can a scam rip-off all the gullible marks?

Promise unverifiable shit.

[NickB79]

17. But they're armed to the teeth for self defense

Yeah, makes sense 🤔

[smirkymonkey]

25. Yeah, that had me scratching my head too.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. What a raw deal. Eternal life without 40 virgens?

The Taliban strike a better offer.

[harumph]

19. Southern Baptists actually are very afraid of death -

That's why they're the loudest whistlers through the cemetery motherfuckers there ever was.

[Maru Kitteh]

20. Oh BULLSHIT. Do they go to the hospital when they get sick? YES, they do.

That is why the hospitals are CLOGGED with these assholes.

They are just playing the odds, in hopes of owning the libs.

FUCK. THEM. ALL.

[3catwoman3]

21. Representative Kustoff is a very strange-looking...

...human.

[lindysalsagal]

23. No one ever wonders why gawd kills his believers with nature

Not really someone I can worship or believe in. Sorry.

[mackdaddy]

26. They are just common clay of the new (south). What did you expect?

[Under The Radar]

28. With faith so strong, who needs hospitals or even health insurance?

It is only going to hurt for a short time, heaven is forever, like your Golds Gym membership