'Dumbest metaphor I've ever heard': Tucker Carlson compared vaccines to MyPillow and it totally bombed

Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson put forth a bizarre metaphor to rage against COVID-19 vaccine mandates on Wednesday's edition of his show.
Carlson suggested that requiring inoculations violated people's rights – despite his employer having implemented one such policy during the height of the pandemic.
To drive his point home, Carlson alluded to MyPillow, which is owned by 2020 election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.
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"Well, imagine that the Trump administration had made it mandatory for American citizens to buy MyPillow. That's one of Fox News's biggest advertisers. Imagine the administration declared that if you didn't rush out and buy at least one MyPillow and then at least another booster pillow, you would not be allowed to eat out. You couldn't reenter your own country. You couldn't have a paying job. MyPillow, they told you the straight face, was the very linchpin of our country's public health system," Carlson mused.
"Now imagine, as they told, that Fox as a news organization, endorsed it, amplified the government's message. Imagine if Fox News attacked anyone who refused to buy MyPillow as an ally of Russia, as an enemy of science, and then imagine that Fox kept up those libelous attacks even as evidence mounted that MyPillow caused heart attacks, fertility problems, and death," Carlson continued. "If Fox News did that, what would you think of Fox News? Would you trust us? Of course you wouldn't. You would know that we were liars."
Fox News just settled a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, in which the ballot tabulation machine company sued Fox and its hosts for peddling former President Donald Trump's claims about the 2020 election while knowing that they were demonstrably false. Additional litigation against the network is pending.
It also bears noting that SARS-COV-2 vaccines and booster shots were determined by the United States Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and reputable medical institutions to be "safe and effective."
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Carlson has maintained that he is unvaccinated, telling a crowd at San Diego’s Awaken Church last April that he "skipped the first three; I'm not getting that one either," referring to the boosters. Whether or not that is true given News Corp's policy only Carlson knows.
Either way, reactions on social media were primarily focused on the perplexing parallel that Carlson conjured.
Kat Abu: "This is easily the dumbest metaphor I've ever heard."
Chris Thomas: "I swear his boat shoes are on too tight and it's cutting off the circulation to his brain. YOUR COMPANY HAD A VACCINE MANDATE YOU DOTARD!"
Ben Heisler: "If there's ever been anyone more deserving of being taken out of context… it's that guy."
Novelette Dryden: "This dude lost me."
Eyes on the Right: "So am I supposed to buy the booster pillow?"
Jack (but not THAT Jack): "'Imagine Fox amplified the [Trump Administration]'s message!' We don't have to imagine that Tucker. Your network just paid $787 million because that's all you did."
talkingmonkey: "'I have an idea how we can simultaneously make our viewers dumber AND sell pillows.' — Tucker talking to producer 20 minutes earlier."
Someone You Already Know. ( Not a Parody Acct.): "Twisting himself into a pretzel."
brant croucher: "A BOOSTER PILLOW!"
Starving Dog Eats Master: "'Imagine if all these things that never happened actually did happen, even though I just made it up. That would be weird huh?'"
Todd Hecker: "They ARE liars."
Watch Carlson below or at this link.
This is easily the dumbest metaphor I've ever heard: pic.twitter.com/R4VZWMZ4NU
— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) April 20, 2023
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