Let's see if I can post in the right order.
You’re struggling to understand why some people are vaccine hesitant. The “let me help you” megathread:
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Imagine you’re a normal person. The year is 2016. Rightly or wrongly, you believe most of what you see in the media.
Imagine your shock then, when Brexit, which you were assured won’t happen because it’s a fringe movement led by racists for racists, happens. The polls, which widely predicted it wouldn’t happen were completely wrong.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Some experts say his opponent has a 99% chance of winning. https://t.co/Qa3KwuHFro
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Imagine waking up on the morning after the election to discover that pollsters, media experts and politicians you still trusted were wrong again.
“The Russians did Brexit and they got Trump elected too”.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Imagine that for the next 3.5 years you watch as the media and the political class run with the Russia collusion narrative. They tell you the how, when and where.
Evidence of foreign meddling in the 2016 election and Brexit is coming to save your unsettled mind.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Imagine your shock then, when you discover that Brexit and Trump had little to do with foreign meddling. The screaming about Russians and Brexit dies down as well.
Again, you ask “How could this happen?” and again the media has the answer: racism. “Your country is racist”, they tell you. If you’re white, this seems strange to you. Other than a handful of idiots, you’ve never met a racist.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
But the evidence is right there on your TV screen. Imagine your horror as a gay black actor is assaulted by MAGA hat-wearing thugs who racially abuse him and put a noose around his neck. He cries while talking about it: https://t.co/nron2IwoXr
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Imagine that for days you watch coverage of these events, with expert after expert, pundit after pundit, sharing and fuelling your outrage about them. With every word, your belief that you are a good person and that your country is a good country wavers.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
“If this is such a racist country,” you ask yourself… “why would they need to make up stories of racism?” As you ponder this, you remember that for years now, you’ve been expected to go along with other make-believe.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Imagine reading that the experts at the American Psychological Association say that traditional masculinity is “pathological and harmful”. https://t.co/O2f6vrD4NB
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
You are initially unconcerned, but as scenes emerge from Italy and other countries, it is clear that something big is happening.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
You watch nervously as politicians give press conference after press conference, flanked by experts, to explain the situation.
Shortly after, Nancy Pelosi, a respected Democrat visits Chinatown in San Francisco to explain “there's no reason tourists or locals should be staying away from the area because of coronavirus concerns.”
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
“Nonsense,” you think to yourself as you wonder how best to protect yourself and your family from this deadly disease.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
You consider getting masks – you’ve seen visitors from Asian countries wear them.
You are proud to be doing your part.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Thanks to you and millions of your fellow citizens the first wave of the pandemic does not overwhelm the healthcare system. While thousands sadly die, you’ve helped to protect the NHS.
As you cautiously go to the supermarket, you notice that masks have made people far less likely to socially distance.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
You turn on your TV to learn that shoppers at your local supermarket aren’t the only ones who have been ignoring the rules.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Boris Johnson’s chief advisor, Dominic Cummings, drove half way across the country to ensure he had a better place to isolate. The journalists who berate him for this are later found to have attended a birthday party in breach of the rules. https://t.co/njY2dmd8lK
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Imagine your horror as you watch an officer of the law kneel on another man’s neck until he passes out and later dies. “This is disgusting,” you say to yourself. “I hope they throw the book at him”. Overnight, a huge campaign for racial justice springs up around the world.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
The fact that an identical incident happened to a white man called Tony Timpa is never mentioned for context.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
While the lockdown rules remain in place, the protests against injustice spill out onto the streets. Tens of thousands of people crowd into major cities.
The media describe these events as “mostly peaceful protests” as their reporters stand in front of burning buildings. After months of harsh restrictions, the media and political class offer no criticism of protests which violate every element of lockdown. pic.twitter.com/zZoWp19zZS
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Big Tech companies go into overdrive to stop the spread of disinformation. All discussions of alternative points of view regarding the efficacy of masks and lockdowns, as well as the origins of the virus are censored.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Kamala Harris, who is later elected Vice President, says that she would not take the vaccine if Trump told her to:https://t.co/w2d6bNhASp
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Meanwhile, the numbers of COVID patients and deaths turn out to have been wrong. For some time, anyone who died at any point after a positive COVID test was counted as dying of COVID, even if they were killed by a drunk driver.https://t.co/jCZD8IBtYR
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Imagine your horror as you learn that the reason thousands of people died in the first wave of the pandemic was that elderly patients with COVID were allowed to be released back into care homes.
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
Meanwhile, Texas and Florida which remained open continue to thrive. https://t.co/IB9sJU2wtZ
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
In the UK, the Health Secretary, the person responsible for saving lives, is found to be cheating on his wife with a married aide in breach of social distancing rules.
The same people who told you Brexit would never happen, Trump would never win, that when he did win it was because of Russian collusion, then because of racism, that you must follow lockdowns while they don’t, that masks don’t work and then that they do work, that protests…
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021
…from a lab and then that it probably did, that closing borders is racist and then that it’s the most important thing to do, that the Hunter Biden story is Russian disinformation and then that it’s not, that they would not take Trump’s vaccine and then that you must take the…
— Konstantin Kisin (hee/haw) (@KonstantinKisin) August 2, 2021