A recent Los Angeles Times piece claimed mockery is “not necessarily the wrong reaction” to the deaths of those who “publicly mocked anti-COVID measures and encouraged others to follow suit.” The author described pleas for civility as a “fraud” and stated “there may be no other way to make sure that the lessons of these teachable moments are heard” than by mocking such deaths.
The Times essay, titled “Mocking anti-vaxxers’ COVID deaths is ghoulish, yes — but may be necessary,” was penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning Times columnist Michael Hiltzik and published on Monday.
The essay begins by considering the “profound moral dilemma” the pandemic presents.
“Among all the ways that COVID-19 affects our lives, the pandemic confronts us with a profound moral dilemma: How should we react to the deaths of the unvaccinated?” Hiltzik writes.
The writer then describes his apparent conflict between valuing human life and viewing individuals who died after having chosen not to vaccinate as having received their “just deserts.”
“On the one hand, a hallmark of civilized thought is the sense that every life is precious,” he writes. “On the other, those who have deliberately flouted sober medical advice by refusing a vaccine known to reduce the risk of serious disease from the virus, including the risk to others, and end up in the hospital or the grave can be viewed as receiving their just deserts.”
“That’s even more true of those who not only refused the vaccine for themselves, but publicly advocated that others do so,” he adds.
Those who have “voiced public opposition to the vaccines” should be treated differently, according to Hiltzik.
“It should be clear that opposing vaccine mandates as a substitute for opposing vaccination itself is a fundamentally incoherent position,” he writes. “It’s little more than the garden variety small-government Republican ideology.”
Regarding the “tenor” of the reactions to the deaths of “anti-vaxxers” online, Hiltzik claimed that some “who object to the tone of the commentary are merely voicing a variation on the ‘civility’ argument that was commonly raised against critics of the intemperate and inhumane policies of the Trump administration.”
“As I observed then, pleas for ‘civility’ are a fraud,” he writes. “Their goal is to blunt and enfeeble criticism and distract from its truthfulness.”
“Typically, they’re the work of hypocrites,” he added.
Seeking to determine the “proper response to the deaths of anti-vaxxers or other determined foes of public health,” he claimed mockery is “not necessarily the wrong reaction.”
“It may be not a little ghoulish to celebrate or exult in the deaths of vaccine opponents,” he wrote. “But mockery is not necessarily the wrong reaction to those who publicly mocked anti-COVID measures and encouraged others to follow suit, before they perished of the disease the dangers of which they belittled.”
He concludes by claiming that such mockery may be the only way to teach others the lesson their deaths teach.
“There may be no other way to make sure that the lessons of these teachable moments are heard,” he writes.
Hiltzik’s piece sparked furious backlash from many prominent voices online for its “disgraceful” call to mock the COVID-associated deaths of vaccine opponents.
“This is disgraceful, disgusting, and evil,” wrote former U.S. Congressman Justin Amash.
“Appallingly heartless take,” wrote former TV news host-turned-political commentator Piers Morgan. “Nobody’s covid death should ever be mocked.”
“This isn’t a marginal voice,” wrote independent journalist, author, and filmmaker Mike Cernovich. “He’s a Pulitzer winner speaking in the LA Times.”
“They are truly evil. All of them. Scum of the earth,” he added. “I will stop now. Don’t want to get banned.”
“Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and writer suggests that, yes, we should offer a heartfelt mockery of the dead and dying,” wrote conservative political commentator Ian Miles Cheong.
“This walking comorbidity,” wrote radio host Dana Loesch.
“Mocking someone’s death is never acceptable,” wrote Republican U.S. Rep. Young Kim (CA).
“This absurd commentary is outrageous and should be beneath the standards of any publication,” she added. “No one deserves this treatment nor do mourning families.”
“How does a piece laughing at Covid deaths, and thus the pain their loved ones go through, make it through the @LATimes editing process?” asked GOP strategist and former Republican National Committee (RNC) staffer Doug Heye. “Awful.”
“You’re sick, go get help,” wrote author and political commentator Nick Adams.
“Hiltzik is demented, hateful, gutter trash. He is devoid of humanity like his fascist buddies,” wrote Dan Gainor, a vice president at Media Research Center.
“Could this be a gateway drug for mainstream culture to rediscover humor, or is laughing at dead anti-vaxxers the best they can do? The argument isn’t even that it’s funny, but that the mocking is ‘necessary,’” wrote author and journalist Matt Taibbi.
“As an obese elderly man, now is probably not a good time to be mocking anyone for dying,” wrote commentator Matt Walsh.
“Imagine writing any of the following: ‘Mocking overdose deaths is ghoulish, yes – but necessary’ to stop people from doing drugs,” wrote reporter Brianna Lyman. “‘Mocking women who die at the hands of a domestic abuser is ghoulish, yes- but necessary’ to stop people from staying in abusive relationships.”
“If only more people had mocked AIDS deaths, we could have curbed the HIV/AIDS crisis…,” wrote author and journalist Chad Felix Green.
“Literally one of the worst people in all of media,” wrote conservative pundit Ben Domenech.
“And he’s getting brutally ratio’d… maybe receiving his just deserts?” wrote former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis.
Some noted the site’s URL which still reads (in part) “Why Shouldn’t We Dance On The Graves of Anti-Vaxxers?”
“Serious yikes vibes from this @hiltzikm column, with the URL ‘why shouldn’t we dance on the graves of anti-vaxxers,’” wrote media personality Steve Krakauer.
“The original version was called ‘Why Shouldn’t We Dance On The Graves of Anti-Vaxxers?’” wrote conservative commentator Paul Joseph Watson.
“Hans, are we the baddies?” he added.
“Original URL was even worse than the column,” wrote journalist Dan McLaughlin.
The essay comes as those opposing vaccines or vaccine mandates are vilified by many on the left and the media.
On Friday, Mother Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn stated that COVID-19 deaths of the unvaccinated were deaths of choice.
Last month, Republicans were described as “pro-death” as well as “anti-science and anti-rational thought,” by a Vanity Fair piece that blasted them for being “all in on eradicating Biden’s vaccine mandates for businesses,” while charging they will persist “until every American has the right to get COVID-19.”
In August, former President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan compared people who exercise their freedom to make health decisions regarding COVID-19 to the Kabul airport suicide bombers who slaughtered more than 100 people, including 13 U.S. service members.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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