In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. And among those diseases could be COVID-19.
A recent appearance on Conan by comedian Bill Burr utilized a slightly different approach, as Burr wielded a combination of humor and twisted logic to speak to vaccine skeptics.
Burr noted that if our evil overlords actually wanted to cause a mass extinction, than perhaps it wouldn’t be in their best interests to target the “sheeple,” i.e., the obedient, brainwashed masses who agreed to take the vaccine.
Burr compared anti-vaxxers to Fonzie, from Happy Days, being too cool to listen to “the man.” And if those rebellious, leather-jacket-clad vaccine skeptics are the only ones left alive, then perhaps those evil overlords might just have engineered a serious problem, by removing those helpfully submissive “sheeple.”
Burr, of course, is mocking vaccine skeptics, but by utilizing a perverse kind of logic that corresponds to their worst fears, perhaps Burr might prompt some to laugh at the idea, and maybe even themselves.
