Well, the Republicans are getting banned from social media for spreading dangerous misinformation again, and boy are they hoppin' mad!
This time, it's Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, who's been kicked off of YouTube following an utterly fallacious video in which he claims to have scientific proof masks don't work.
So, Paul took to Twitter, seen below, to caterwaul about "leftwing [sic] cretins at YouTube" for hurting his feelings, or whatever.
See the tweet below.
Say it with us: "Triggered, snowflake?"
In his video, Paul claimed to have scientific proof from "2 peer reviewed articles" that cloth masks don't work. Paul has repeatedly spread misinformation and science denialism throughout the pandemic, often citing his own dubious medical credentials to cast himself as a trusted source on the subject.
Paul is an opthalmologist, which of course has nothing to do with infectious diseases or epidemiology.
In the past, Paul's claims about masks have often centered on their supposed lack of protection for the wearer. But experts, from the CDC to the WHO, have repeatedly stated from the start that masks' true efficacy is in protecting other people from the mask wearer's germs.
Ergo, if everyone would just stop the nonsense and put one on, we'd all be protected from each other. But giving a proverbial fig about others has never been the Republican Party's strong suit.
Anyway, Paul issued a very tetchy statement condemning YouTube's actions.
"I think this kind of censorship is very dangerous, incredibly anti-free speech, and truly anti-progress of science, which involves skepticism and argumentation to arrive at the truth."
Paul, for once, actually has a point here about the scientific method!
What's interesting, though, is that by way of the very process he describes, the scientific and the medical communities have already established, a long, long time ago, the efficacy of both masks and vaccines. So... not exactly sure what Paul is so upset about here!
But boy howdy, is he ever upset. He went on to snidely essentially call YouTube a state media outlet.
"As a libertarian leaning Senator, I think private companies have the right to ban me if they want to, so in this case I'll just channel that frustration into ensuring the public knows YouTube is acting as an arm of government and censoring their users for contradicting the government."
Rand, honey, we say this with all due respect: Please get a grip.
On Twitter, of course, Paul made very few friends with this ludicrous "why won't you just let me disinform people and make them die of a preventable virus as the forefathers intended?!" spectacle.
Paul's YouTube ban will last until August 17, by which point we can expect roughly another 3,300 people to needlessly succumb to a totally preventable death if the currently reported death rate holds.
Just go get vaccinated and wear a damn mask.
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