Rhetoric & Public Affairs Dec 2023

Secrecy and Pseudoscience in the “Real Battle” of COVID-19 Anti-Vaccination Arguments

E. Johanna Hartelius ; Olivia S. Gellar

Abstract

Abstract The Center for Countering Digital Hate in 2021 identified Rashid Buttar, Joseph Mercola, and Ben Tapper as members of the “Disinformation Dozen,” responsible for pseudoscientific social media content and vocal advocates against the COVID-19 vaccines. Despite regulatory efforts to de-platform them, these influential entrepreneurs (two osteopathic physicians and a chiropractor) persist. Analyzing their messages, this essay demonstrates how anti-vaccination arguments in the wake of the pandemic align pseudoscience and masculinity using the logic of secrecy and revelation. This contrasts significantly with pre-pandemic arguments against vaccines, notably childhood immunizations such as the MMR and MMRV, which drew on feminized discourses of maternal instinct. The insights of our essay inform two areas of inquiry, primarily: the study of anti-vaccination advocacy, specifically its gendered assumptions and warrants; and the study of contemporary rhetorics of secrecy, specifically the political alignments of pseudoscience and gendered public aggression.

Journal
Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Published
2023-12-01
DOI
10.14321/rhetpublaffa.26.4.0095
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Topics
modern rhetorical theory social media gender and writing
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