Just when @nytimes was starting to do better on their reporting about evangelical Christians, we get another classic, terribly-framed, schmaltzy and overly sympathetic piece about white Christians in middle America.

Every single excuse they bring up in this article is political https://twitter.com/rachel_w/status/1388242406609412105
Conservative Christians like white evangelicals love to claim they’re being “apolitical” when they transparently are not. The rhetorical move is an eminently political power grab—using the appeal of being “above politics” and “not being divisive” to gain moral authority
Also, how out of touch with middle America do you have to be up write a sentence like “Drug busts for heroin and methamphetamine sustain a humming cottage industry of lawyers and bail bonds services”? 🤦‍♀️

A lot of unscientific bunk is also left unchallenged in this article
In short, this is a terrible model for journalism, @nytimes, and it is high time to retire it. Instead of having your reporters parachute into these places, you could, you know, have the relevant issues covered by people who know the regions and subcultures in question 🤷‍♀️
But even more important than that, @nytimes, you’ve got to stop taking people’s stated motives for things like resisting the COVID vaccine at face value.

And doing that well requires applying a more sophisticated understanding of concepts like politics
It’s true that the people you cover in this article aren’t refusing the vaccine because they’re Republicans. It’s more the other way around—they’re Republicans because they’re the kind of unsympathetic (yeah, I said it) white people who won’t do their part for public health
But I don’t think anyone who read that statement would take it to mean “vaccine ‘skepticism’ isn’t about politics.” Refusing to understand things like herd immunity and to do right by your fellow humans in matters of public health IS OBVIOUSLY ABOUT POLITICS
I guess that’s all I’ve got for the moment. Thanks for coming to my TED talk
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