Beginning on March 10,
all Coronavirus restrictions will
be lifted in Texas.
The governor, Greg Abbott, decided
that even though the mask mandate
was loosely enforced anyway,
it doesn't matter, just going to
lift that restriction and
we're also going to allow as many
people to go into restaurants or
indoor businesses as these
businesses want.
Now, if businesses want to
implement mask mandates, they can
do that of course, but the whole
point here is that Abbott, much
like other red state governors,
like in Mississippi, for instance,
have decided to prematurely lift
these restrictions as soon as we
start noticing numbers going down.
This is a disastrous decision.
But I think it's really really
important to differentiate between
lawmakers in a given state or
lawmakers in the United States, and
what the people should get and what
the people should, essentially,
how the people should be treated,
right?
I've been seeing some stuff on
social media and
I'm very happy that there's been
backlash to this kind of rhetoric.
That's just not okay.
Because we need to understand that,
first of all, Coronavirus is
a public health issue.
It's a rapidly spreading virus and
we need to get as many people
vaccinated as possible.
And with that context,
I'm going to give you the tweets
that I don't like.
From Michael Moore, to begin with,
who said this.
Texas we hear you, you didn't want
to be part of our electrical grid,
and now you've removed your mask
mandate and are allowing large
crowds to gather, we hear you,
COVID is a hoax, so you don't need
our precious vaccine,
we'll send it to people who
are saving lives by wearing masks.
So already I hate this, I think
this is the wrong way to go.
You're punishing the people of
Texas even though we probably
disagree with many Texans
politically, it doesn't matter.
Punishing them for the decisions
made by their moronic governor in
my opinion, doesn't make sense.
Michael Moore decided to
then double down.
Yes, we must and we'll find
a way to vaccinate the poor and
people of color in Texas,
to Texans who say hey, it's not me,
it's the governor,
well then impeach and remove him,
we're tired of this, don't mess
with Texas, happy to oblige.
There's more from Moore, which I
can get to if you'd like me to.
But Cenk, I don't know if you
disagree with me,
if you agree with me.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
>> Yeah, no, look, I think this
requires a little bit of nuance.
So, first of all,
whether it's Keith Olbermann or
Michael Moore, I am positive
they're making a rhetorical point.
I'm positive
that if they were president,
they would actually ban the people
of Texas from getting it, right?
So and hence, I think people are
overreacting online a little bit to
a point that's supposed to draw
attention and not be practical.
So I'm happy to be corrected
on that.
And if they say no, it's practical,
I actually don't want them to get
the vaccine, obviously that would
be a different equation, right?
But in terms of
the rhetorical point,
Anna, I like that they're drawing
attention to the fact that that
people are making these decisions.
So it doesn't mean all the people
are, and of course a lot of people
voted against Abbott and Cruz and
all those folks in Texas.
But overall, the people of Texas
picked these republicans.
And they deregulate their energy,
they unplug it from the rest of
the country and it causes disaster
and it causes people to die.
And then they asked for
a federal government handout.
Happy to oblige,
as we do with every state, but
can I get an apology that you guys
were wrong, and now you're asking,
pleading, with the rest of
us to give you money.
We're good guys, so
we're going to give it.
But I'd like an apology,
that would be great, right?
Now this idiot turns around,
just as we're getting Coronavirus
under control, and
there's a reason why he's doing it.
This is really important,
he's doing it for,
I mean you're mad at Moore and
Olbermann, I get it.
Another thing, you should be 1000
times, and I know most progressives
are obviously,
but 1000 times more angry at Abbott
because he's willing to endanger
the lives of his citizens to remove
the mandate early so
he can draw more attention.
If he removes the mandate in the
middle of everyone else removing
it, he will not make as much news.
Abbott is trying to make news.
Remember I'm among the biggest
republican jerks in the country.
And that's what Republican
voters love.
And they're like, yes,
he's willing to kill us,
we love that guy, right?
So he's going out early on purpose,
to make a political point and
that one is practical.
That one actually affects people's
lives, as opposed to
a tweet from Olbermann and Moore.
And so the asterix here, Anna is
that I like to Olbermann and
Moore are drawing attention to,
hey, your votes matter, and so if
you don't want to have these guys
kill you through deregulation or
anti mass mandates, anti science,
then don't vote for them.
>> I get that it's rhetorical,
although Olbermann is a different
case, I don't think Michael Moore
would actually withhold the vaccine
from the state of Texas.
I only say that about Olbermann
because he seems to be
particularly cantankerous.
But anyway, look, I just think that
even if it's rhetorical, and I do
believe that's the case, that that
type of communication does nothing
to persuade someone who might
disagree with you politically to
maybe consider the perspective that
you're trying to put out there.
Because what it does is it
automatically demonizes people and
it automatically pits you against
the people that you're talking
about, right?
And that tough love rhetoric very
clearly does not work.
And I just don't think that it's
a welcoming message,
I don't think that it's a message
that actually resonates with people
who could be persuadable.
So I hear what you're saying.
>> No.
>> I just think that the tactic
needs to be a little smarter, and I
don't think that's a smart tactic.
>> Yeah. >> because essentially
what you're saying is, and by
the way, and you're also assuming,
not you specifically, but
the assumption is that, hey, it's
Texas, they have free, and fair
elections, there's no issue there.
And so these people,
these government officials,
they got elected fair and square,
and that's just not the case.
We know that's not the case.
So it's just that rhetoric and
that rhetorical comment is actually
what lacks quite a bit of nuance,
and I do think it turns people off.
That's my take on it.
>> Yeah.
>> And by the way, real quick,
let me give you Olbermann's tweet
because we keep talking about it,
we haven't even shared it
with the audience.
Olbermann tweeted something
very similar.
Why are we wasting vaccinations on
Texas if Texans have decided to
join the side of the virus?
That's his argument.
>> If Texas has decided to join.
It's an important distinction,
he didn't say Texans.
>> I'm sorry, Texas, Texas, yes.
>> Yeah.
So, look for
the folks who are saying, but
there's lots of good,
honest decent people in Texas, yes,
even some of them for
have voted for Abbott, but
certainly a lot that voted for
democrats, people of color,
you name it, right?
To which I say of course,
of course,
that's why it's rhetorical,
it's not real.
But the more we talk about it,
the more I agree with Moore and
Olbermann.
Because, Anna, what does it do?
It draws attention to the fact that
Abbott is endangering the actual
lives of Texans.
So, it puts them in a situation
where I think that
they are playing defense.
But the problem is we always attack
our own.
And I get it,
I get what you're saying, I get why
people are upset about it.
But instead of going, hey,
wait a minute, strong attention to
what the terrible things that
Abbott's doing, almost every
progressive and liberal and
democrat online is attacking Moore.
And I feel it's almost a show
of, yeah,
look at how compassionate I am.
I don't want to say virtue
signaling.
>> No.
>> Because that's such an annoying
and wrong thing to say.
>> Hold on. >> I don't believe
in that framing, but
there is a little bit of, yeah, I'm
going to stand up to Michael Moore.
Michael Moore doesn't actually have
any power, so it's not that big
a deal to stand up to him.
>> I'm not really interested in any
type of, for lack of a better
phrase, virtue signaling, right?
If people think I'm compassionate,
cool, if they think I'm not
compassionate, that's fine,
I am who I am.
My point here is, I want to win,
right?
We need to rethink our approach to
things.
And so I know how I react
when people come at me the way that
Michael Moore is coming at Texans,
or Keith Olbermann is coming at
Texas, right?
If someone came at me that way,
I get more defiant,
I'm less likely to listen to
whatever the message is.
And I understand what you're
saying, Cenk, it draws more
attention, negative attention,
to Greg Abbott and what he's doing.
But that negative attention already
exists.
The question is how do we persuade,
how do we persuade people who might
not be fully aware of how
devastating Abbott is as their
governor, right?
And you don't persuade them by,
even rhetorically speaking,
threatening to
withhold the vaccine from them.
I think that's just a bad
messaging tactic.
>> Yeah, last thing on this.
I want people to understand,
I don't know that Olbermann and
Moore did this on purpose.
And, and
in terms of those two guys,
there's a giant difference,
just to be clear.
Olbermann has got a lot of issues.
Moore is generally a good guy,
you might disagree here or there,
but I think he has good intent.
But, Anna, the fact that nobody
talks about is that the press will
almost never give progressives
positive attention.
So it almost forces either
someone looking for
the spotlight like Olbermann, or
someone just desperately trying
to get people to focus on the right
issues like Moore, and maybe I'm
wrong about Moore, or maybe he did
it for good intent too,
I don't know their intent, okay?
But it forces them to say
provocative things,
because the press is never going to
cover them saying, hey,
Abbott did something terrible here,
you should actually look out for
the people of Texas and
you should listen to science.
They'll say, boring,
that's not an issue.
The only way, and it is particular
to progressives because we're
invisible to the mainstream press.
And so the only way we're ever
going to get press is by getting
negative press.
I don't know that Moore and
Olbermann know that consciously,
but they might know it's
subconsciously, and
hence they do something provocative
like that to get people to
focus on the real issue, which is
that Abbott's going to get a lot
of people killed, just to help his
political career by a little bit.
And by the way, isn't it sad that
in the Republican Party, being more
incompetent, being more selfish,
getting more people killed is
a positive, not a negative?