I don't want to drag this person so I cut out their name, but I keep seeing tweets and comments like this and all I wanna do is say we know EXACTLY why there are deniers.

*STARES IN CLIMATE CHANGE*

No climate change scientist or communicator is the LEAST BIT surprised to see there are Covid-19 deniers. The reasons are the exact same as denying climate.

There are three:

1) Denialism is often a result of fear. One way to handle being terrified is to deny you're in danger.

2) Capitalism. In order to fully address the danger to people on this scale, powerful people in government and in industry will have to spend money. Instead, their propaganda machine sews doubt and denial because money is more important to them then lives.

3) Racism. The people most in danger are black and other POC. Marginalized groups and poor people. This ties into capitalism. The system is racist. The people at the top of the system are racist. And their followers are racist. They deny because they don't care about who is dying

This is why I always say fighting climate change has to start with social justice. Because this is all deeply tied together. And this is why we had massive protests for racial justice in the middle of a pandemic. Because fighting Covid-19 is also a fight for social justice.

Anyway let's not be surprised anymore that a society literally designed to exist by using oppression would breed deniers when faced with disasters on a worldwide scale that would require upending the entire system in order to survive.

We've seen this all before.