Today’s conservatives love false equivalencies. They love to derail debate by comparing two things that may share some similarities but aren’t meaningfully alike. A good example arrived Monday, and of course it came courtesy of repeat dunkable tweeter Ben Shapiro. He was none too happy to learn that 75 doctors in Florida had taken a stand, protesting the out-of-control numbers of unvaccinated people flooding their hospital, creating preventable chaos and death. And the only way he could attack, it seemed, was by likening it to something with a lot of differences.
If this is the new standard — that failure to take measures to alleviate your own health problems are punishable by doctors refusing treatment — the extension of this logic to obesity will certainly be something https://t.co/QBzLZyrOan
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 23, 2021
“If this is the new standard — that failure to take measures to alleviate your own health problems are punishable by doctors refusing treatment — the extension of this logic to obesity will certainly be something,” Shapiro tweeted.
This wasn’t just a false equivalency. It was another conservative-approved argumentative trick: It was a slippery slope argument. That’s where someone brings up a far-fetched end game that will almost certainly never happen. That often involves invoking false equivalency, because it’s a sleazy move.
When Shapiro fired off his latest self-owning tweet, people online were happy to point out his argumentative hiccup. The main problem: COVID is a highly transmissible disease that is overwhelming hospitals. Obesity is doing neither.
Conservatives realize that communicable diseases are not like obesity or car accidents challenge https://t.co/tJy27GByET
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 23, 2021
*If* obesity was contagious, rapidly overwhelming our intensive care capabilities, often fatal within days of acquiring, *and* the risks of transmission, hospitalization, and death could be dramatically reduced with a free shot, then yes, we would mandate that too.
But it's not. pic.twitter.com/OIRnSWfcLR
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) August 23, 2021
Call me when obesity, heart disease and cancer are communicable diseases.
— David Crabtree (@David_Crabtree) August 23, 2021
To the anti-vaxxer loons who are insisting that obese people should be denied medical treatment:
1) There is no obesity vaccine. There is a proven COVID vaccine, you're just refusing to take it.
2) Obesity is not communicable.
3) Obesity doesn't fill ICU beds to 100% capacity.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) August 23, 2021
https://twitter.com/kazweida/status/1429871740843282433
https://twitter.com/BMReedLaw/status/1429869471464837123
I don’t think healthcare workers are at risk of contracting obesity from the obese patients they treat.
— Kelmac (@Capt3958) August 23, 2021
Is there a free vaccine for obesity? For drug addiction? For mental illness? For being a hack stooge like you? https://t.co/3VvfRjs7tt
— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) August 23, 2021
Perhaps next time Shapiro will think before he tweets. But his fans wouldn’t love him if he did that.