Tucker Carlson is certainly no stranger to bizarre claims of conspiracy, but his new theory about why the Biden administration has instituted a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the United States military sure is a doozy.
Carlson claimed that the motivation for requiring members of the military to be vaccinated isn't, as one might assume, to protect them from the virus—it's to single out "sincere Christians [...] free-thinkers, and men with high testosterone levels" to force them to quit the military.
During Tucker Carlson Tonight, he said:
"The point of mandatory vaccination is to identify the sincere Christians in the ranks, the free-thinkers, the men with high testosterone levels, and anyone else who does not live Joe Biden, and make them leave immediately."
He continued:
"Its a takeover of the US military."
Got that?
Justin Baranoga of The Daily Beast shared the clip on Twitter...
Tucker Carlson: "The point of mandatory vaccinations to identify the sincere Christians in the ranks, the freethinkers, the men with high testosterone levels, and anybody else who doesn\u2019t love Joe Biden and make them leave immediately. It\u2019s a takeover of the U.S. military!"pic.twitter.com/omOMx1fJet— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1632183332
...and the internet proceeded to do its thing.
Maybe I\u2019m just old fashioned and pragmatic, but perhaps the point of mandating vaccinations in the military is to minimize the likelihood that our armed forces get ill all at approximately the same time and render them ineffective?— pistilstamen (@pistilstamen) 1632184716
Several people brought up George Washington requiring troops to be inoculated during the Revolutionary War.
So George Washington\u2019s mandate of vaccination during Revolutionary War isn\u2019t worth noting, @TuckerCarlson ?— Brian Not Brain (@Brian Not Brain) 1632184207
Many questioned his assertion that "sincere Christians" would want to avoid vaccination because of their faith.
Leviticus 13:45 would indicate any preventive measures to stop infection of others is good.\n\nBut Tuck likes to pull his own philosophy out of his behind instead actually checking the book for confirmation. @TuckerCarlsonpic.twitter.com/E8xhtJ8HFh— Blue away (@Blue away) 1632189094
Sincere Christians already got vaxxed, because "love your neighbor."\n\nEverybody knows being in the military is not about being a freethinker, but they've already taken it too.\n\nWhat the hell does testosterone have to do with it?!\n\nAnybody got a list of vaccinations military get?!— Syzygus is \u270caccinated \ud83d\udc89\ud83d\ude37 (@Syzygus is \u270caccinated \ud83d\udc89\ud83d\ude37) 1632184316
Carlson's rant comes almost a month after the full approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by the FDA in August, and the subsequent mandate by the Pentagon for all military personnel to be vaccinated.
Carlson asserted:
"This was specifically designed to separate the obedient from the free. Can't have any of the latter category."
He insisted that members of the military were at "extremely low risk of dying from COVID," completely ignoring the effect that an outbreak of the virus could have on the military'sability to respond to a crisis.
"To this day, only 46 members of the entire U.S. military have died from the coronavirus over the last year and a half."
Carlson did make a good point about the prevalence of suicide among members of the armed services, but he managed to invalidate it by using the point to mock Democrats.
"Suicides, by contrast, kill many, many times more. In just a few months last year, 156 service members killed themselves."
"So, military suicide is an actual crisis that the Pentagon might want to address. Lloyd Austin might want to look into that."
"But, no, that would get the Democratic Party notIhing."
While it is true that suicide prevention and mental health care are essential, it's not an either/or situation. The Pentagon can mandate vaccines and also provide mental health care to troops.
Though Carlson continues his crusade against the vaccine and other pandemic control measures, Fox Corp. has implemented measures to protect its employees.
These include having employees self-report vaccination status (over 90% of full-time employees are vaccinated, according to a memo from HR Chief Kevin Lord), and will soon entail regular testing for those who remain unvaccinated or refuse to disclose vaccination status.
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