Those links are just the tip of the iceberg!
As the Daily Beast reports, he also went on Joe Rogan, expressed admiration for Jordan Peterson, and blithely allowed Rogan to misgender Elliot Page with no pushback, and gave an interview to notorious transphone and general hateful bigot Pat Robertson on the 700 Club.
It’s not like he’s ever denied anything asserted by any of these articles. A Tweet like “I love vaccines!” or “trans rights are human rights!” would clear this up pretty fast. Yet, silence.
So… after some point, if it looks like an anti-vaxxing bigot, swims like an anti-vaxxing bigot, and quacks like an anti-vaxxing bigot… isn’t it just an anti-vaxxing bigot?
ivanafterall@kbin.social 11 months ago
_Many Shazam! fans were shocked this weekend when Zachary Levi, who stars in the popular DC superhero franchise, said he was in “hardcore” agreement that COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Pfizer “is a real danger to the world.” Levi followed up his tweet by doubling down and sharing a link to a Justice.gov press release about Pfizer paying $2.3 billion as part of a fraud settlement back in 2009. “Just one example of what I’m referring to…” he tweeted alongside the link.
...
But it’s not the first time that Levi, an affable presence previously lauded for his titular role on the NBC show Chuck, has raised eyebrows with his controversial takes. Earlier this month, the actor posted a clip of his appearance on the Shawn Stevenson podcast The Model Health Show in which he rails against American pharmaceutical companies’ advertisements.“We are carte blanche, ‘Do whatever you want, do the imagery of a guy and a girl on a date having a... throw that football through that tire, be in that tub, whatever it is, you know, and barely talk about the side effects,’” he says in the clip._
And one more piece for this truly perplexing puzzle:
Levi called (incel hero and lackluster human) Jordan Peterson “one of the deepest thinkers I’ve ever heard break down, like, human behavior.”
Another?
"I am no fan or supporter of Trump, and I find his behavior to be vulgar, callous, narcissistic, and lacking empathy. And while I’m not a Conservative, I know many who backed 45 not because they liked him, but because he was the only candidate they felt cared about their needs.”
He also appeared on 700 Club, founded by Pat Robertson.
snooggums@kbin.social 11 months ago
I am pro vaccines, but Pfizer is a threat just like Nestlé because of their general business practices. Medication ads are a whole other problem that is related as well. It is also true that a lot of stupid people do feel like Trump cares about their needs because how he says it lands even if his actions are the opposite. Those takes are all reasonable and not automatically antivaxx even if there is some overlap.
Liking JP and going on 700 club are both horrible and deserve criticism, but let's not assume criticism of pharmaceutical company practices means automatically antivaxx.
I won't be surprised if he is though.
Veraticus@lib.lgbt 11 months ago
I think it’s a constellation sort of thing. The individual data points form a line that is very troubling. If it were merely “I hate Pfizer” and he had good reasons for it like “HIV medication in Africa is just too costly” that’d be one thing. But the silence, combined with the other troubling stuff? Not sure why we should blindly assume good faith given what we can see.
ivanafterall@kbin.social 11 months ago
Your argument seems solid on paper, but it conveniently leaves out context and common sense, notably that he wasn't "merely" criticizing Pfizer. He nebulously criticized Pfizer--a COVID vaccine manufacturer, not pharmaceutical companies broadly, not Eli Lilly or Merck--in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and peak of antivax bullshit.
But let's just go even further. He was on the podcast of Shawn Stevenson. The first podcast episode of Shawn Stevenson regarding COVID cites, among others, Geert Vanden Bossche, who advised stopping all mass-immunizations for COVID and has written all kinds of crazy, grammatically-and-factually erroneous content on COVID.
This is prototypical conservative gaslighting bullshit. "Oh, but I didn't say that EXPLICITLY, I only confirmed I agreed with the antivax host of an antivax bullshit "health" podcast that cites bullshit antivax "sources" and, no, I never retracted my statement, and sure I went on 700 Club, and obviously I love Jordan Peterson. BUT I DIDN'T SAY I'M ANTIVAX, TECHNICALLY. WHY WILL NO ONE SEE MY SHITTY MOVIES!? _PERSECUUUUTIOOOON!!! _WAAAAH!?"
whatsarefoogee@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I don’t care about Zach Levi whatsoever, but this has to be the biggest reach I’ve seen.
So he was on a podcast, of which the host, in a different episode that did not include him, cited a person who has at some point advised stopping mass-immunizations for COVID (from what you said, I interpreted thats not the statement he cited).
When you’re 3 levels of guilt by association deep, it seems like you’re just grasping at straws to support your position.