Cult of presonality? Check. Insurrection? Check. Mass insanity? Check. Martyrdom? Check.
But hey, if an anti-vaxxer is going to become a martyr for the Bleach King, why not have fun with it? How about throwing in some cosplay, too?
As if the anti-vaxx, MAGA death cult wasn’t weird enough (Insider):
In a nod to the “Harry Potter” series, some unvaccinated people are calling themselves “purebloods” on TikTok.
People have started using the hashtags #purebloods and #unvaxxed on the sharing platform and saying they want to be known by the former term. In J.K. Rowling’s books, the word “pureblood” is used to refer to wizard families with a “pure” bloodline, or an unmixed ancestry that has never intermarried with non-magical people. It also comes with a darker connotation of superiority over those whose bloodlines are a mix of magical and non-magical ancestries.
In its coverge of the phenomenon, USA Today reminds readers:
The trend comes as the U.S. deals with another surge of COVID-19 cases, most from the more contagious delta variant. Now 7 in 10 American adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, but the new rise in cases threatens to undo the country’s progress toward normality.
But sure, have fun while you don’t need a ventilator.
The TikTok trend may be a poor attempt at a joke, a reference to conspiracist rumors that mRNA Covid vaccines somehow alter one’s genetic code. It’s not the first time anti-vaxxers have employed pop-culture references in branding themselves on TikTok, reports the Daily Dot:
They previously used the audio of The Hunger Games whistle to “call out” to their un-vaxxed “brothers and sisters” and find out what state they were from. They have also used audio from Transformers (2007) in which Optimus Prime says, “I send this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars: We are here. We are waiting.”
But one would have to be clueless in the current political environment not to hear racist dogwhistles or worse in invoking “purebloods” in the real word. But cluelessness is its own epidemic. Rowling herself acknowleged conscious use of Nazi overtones in her writing. One critic on TikTok points out:
TikTok user @goodtrouble_ shows @kats.outta.the.bag’s video then says, “So first you were comparing yourselves to the Jews and the Holocaust, and now you’re the Nazis? Pick a fucking lane.”
Perhaps the government’s next free-drug program should involve dispensing antipsychotics. /s