The Three Stooges – Rush, Bill-O, Beck Politicize Ebola Fear

After considering naming Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Glen Beck “Idiots of the Day” I decided that The Three Stooges was far more appropriate because it would be a real leap for any of these three to rise to the level of an idiot using any intelligence measuring technique. Their latest salvo into tin-foil hat conspiracy theories even has some of them inferring that President Obama wants the disease Ebola to spread in the USA. That is definitely Three Stooges worthy!!

The Three Stooges try to turn Ebola into a political conspiracy

Not for a minute do I believe either of these Three Stooges actually believe that the President wants Ebola to spread in the US but that’s never stopped any of them from spreading fear and hatred. It’s what they do. Along with other right-wing nutbars like Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin and Michael Savage, the Three Stooges have been spreading quite a tale of woe and misguided info over the airwaves of America. Here’s just a few of the lowlights spewing from the mouths of these blowhards:

• “The people in Liberia only went there because they had to get out of here 'cause they were slaves...Therefore if Ebola ends up here, it's only payback, folks...Unfortunately we have elected people in positions of leadership who think this way. The president is one of them."
• “You want a reason to have gold? You want a reason to have guns? You want a reason to have God? It's called 'Ebola.'"
• “There is not a sane reason to take three or four thousand troops into a hot Ebola zone, without expecting at least one of them to come back with Ebola, unless you want to infect the nation with Ebola.... This actually exceeds any level of treason that I've ever seen."
• “There is no reason on earth, on this earth, that right now we should be accepting anyone in this country with a West African passport."

The actual truth is that a deadly disease is set to hit all of North America in the coming months just as it does every year. It’ll swamp hospitals, sicken millions including some reading this blog. This annual illness will kill between 250,000 and 500,000 worldwide, thousands of them in the US and Canada. It won’t be Ebola that lays us low. Instead it will be seasonal flu. Not even so-called swine flu or bird flu but plain old garden variety influenza.

Each year the Flu sickens millions and kills thousands of people

Ebola on the other hand has yet to kill one person on the North American continent. (UPDATE: Oct. 8, 2014 7:51am: Dallas Ebola patient Eric Duncan has died, via Texas Health hospital). The actual fact is that it’s not all that infectious: direct contact with bodily fluids of a visibly infected person is required, meaning that, compared with many illnesses, it’s easily contained. It can’t be spread through the air simply by coughing or sneezing. If one had to compare it to a disease in terms of the probability of becoming infected that disease would probably be Aids. We should all chill a bit.

This is what almost all of us have to watch out for

The media, in general, is overhyping the threat of Ebola too. Sure, it’s a horrible disease but the most likely effect on us, if we let it, will be fear and stigma. Like Sars and the H1N1 “swine flu” it seems like Ebola is now the disease of the year. In the coming months, I’m betting none of us will catch the Ebola virus. Many of us, though, will get fevers, headaches, shivers and more. If you’re concerned – get a Flu shot.

What differentiates the media overhype from the Three Stooges in talking about Ebola? It’s simply that these radical right-wing wackos are politicizing Ebola and making outrageously ridiculous claims that the President of the United States is guilty of treason for allegedly wanting to see Ebola spread within the US. The scary part of this is the known fact that some people, mostly elderly Caucasian males, actually listen to their garbage and believe it’s true.

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