Brad and Dan discuss the dangerous rhetoric coming from the right that frames the COVID outbreaks as the result of "infestations" of undocumented immigrants. It is not founded in data. And it is dangerously dehumanizing.
They then discuss Madison Cawthorn's suggestion that masks for children = abuse. This is rich in a country where kids practice active shooter drills regularly.
They also discuss Tucker Carlson's framing of Ashil Babbitt as an unarmed protester who was executed.
The episode finishes with criticism of Joe Biden's American Empire discourse and Christian nationalism.
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What's up, y'all?
Brad here with some exciting news to share with you about Straight White American Jesus.
As you've probably noticed, we now have ads on our shows, and honestly, it's a way for us to keep the lights on and keep doing this show as we've been doing it for the last couple years.
I'm in a new place in life.
I've stepped away from my full-time position as a professor, and those ads simply are just a nice financial revenue stream.
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Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Onishi.
I am faculty this semester at the University of San Francisco, and I'm here with my co-host.
I'm Dan Miller, Associate Professor of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College, where I've been for, I think this is my 20th semester now, so I am not new there anymore.
So Brad, it's good to see you as you start a new term with some new stuff in a new place and things like that.
Yeah, it's, it's just, uh, teaching part-time, but it is, it is nice to be back with students.
Students are, are awesome.
Um, okay, Dan, we've got a bunch of topics this week.
Uh, I think there's, there's at first glance, they may not feel like they're thematically, uh, all that, uh, kind of adjacent, but, uh, in our minds, there are some through lines.
I'll put it this way.
I'll be curious to see what you think as we move on here today, but if you just accept that in this country, there's just a large swath of people who, I really do feel like the country should be a majority white country with majority white leadership, with majority Christian political and cultural leadership, and with, you know, kind of white landowning folks at the top of every hierarchy you can think of.
Then a lot of our politics make sense.
And, you know, not everybody's a Christian nationalist in that regard, but the Christian nationalism often is the thing that holds things together.
This is a Christian nation built by white people for white people.
Christianity is the religion, one nation under God, chosen as a special nation, and it should stay that way.
Any deviation from that leads to decline, it leads to apocalypse, and it leads to the country going down the drain.
That is why we have to make it great again.
So, if you start there, Dan, I think a lot of stuff not only makes sense, but things that don't look like they're related start to look related.
So, I'm going to throw something at you, and this is going to lead to material that is just like right at the heart of your new book.
Which came out this week, so congratulations, Dan Miller.
We'll have more on this.
We're gonna have a whole interview with Dan Miller on his book, Queer Democracy, but hey, congrats.
Book is out this week in good academic fashion.
How are you celebrating?
Probably just by getting guacamole on your Chipotle burrito, or what's going on there?
Yeah, I celebrated by opening my e-copy of it.
That was the exciting move.
No, it's take a minute and drink some coffee.
Do what academics do.
And I was asked to present to our board of trustees today.
So I was a show pony for a day for the college, which is always exciting.
I know you've done those kind of things, too.
What a great reward.
OK, so here we go, Dan.
There is a common theme on the right at the moment.
And that theme is that immigrants are coming to this country illegally and they are spreading COVID.
And as a result, they're leading an infestation of the United States.
So, July 27 on OAN, Dan Ball says that the number of, quote, illegals coming with COVID-19 is, quote, astronomical.
He gives some statistics about 26% of all undocumented folks having COVID.
In reality, the number is more like 8%, but nonetheless, that's what he says.
Okay.
Ball also says that one of the major causes behind the surge in COVID-19 outbreaks is due to the, quote, thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants coming into the country.
On July 29, Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich said the Biden administration is putting law enforcement at risk because they, quote, clearly don't care about American citizens getting COVID from illegal immigrants.
OAN host Natalie Harp blamed, quote, hordes of illegals pouring over the border for a 900% increase in positive COVID-19 cases in Texas.
Harp failed to mention that the 900% number is based on only 135 immigrants who were in Texas detention.
We're getting similar things from other folks on Newsmax and other outlets.
Ted Cruz, August 4, says to Sean Hannity that Americans who become infected, quote, can blame Joe Biden for COVID because the border is, quote, the biggest super spreader in the country.
Okay, so Dan, here's what we have.
We have folks spouting false statistics and concluding that undocumented immigrants are the leaders in the spread of COVID.
Now, this is not true if you look at numbers and you look at, you know, who is spreading COVID and where and how.
This just doesn't add up.
We could go through all that and debunk it.
I'm not going to.
I'm going to say, folks, if you want to look this up, these things just don't hold water, OK?
What's more interesting to me, as usual, and I think to you, is what's behind these claims and what is the function of these claims?
What do they accomplish?
So when you claim that illegal, quote unquote, you know, immigrants, undocumented immigrants is what I should say, are coming across the border and that they are signifying an infestation of the country, Dan, what do you see there rhetorically being accomplished in this kind of framing?
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