Here's the bizarre reason why white supremacists don't think they need to get vaccinated: extremism expert

Right-wing extremism expert Jeff Sharlet appeared on MSNBC Monday to explain that the American anti-vaccine ideology has its roots in white supremacy.

While talking with MSNBC's Chris Hayes, Sharlet said that one of the key tenets of the historical anti-vax movement in the United States was that white people have better natural immunity to diseases thanks to their superior genetics, and thus don't need vaccines to stay healthy.

"While we focus on Trump, on DeSantis, on Greg Abbott, we focus on these villains, we have to recognize that this kind of anti-vaccination hysteria has deep historical roots in the right," he said. "It goes back to the 19th century where you start encountering terms like 'medical tyranny', 'medical liberty,' 'natural immunity,' and it's conflated with whiteness."

He then explained how this leads many white supremacists to falsely believed that their genes will keep them safe from disease.

"The idea is that white people somehow, through their good genes, 'very good genes' as Trump would put it, have that immunity," he said. "So Trump, DeSantis, Abbott, all these folks are pulling on a right-wing populist and religious thread in American life, and pulling it horribly into the present. They didn't invent it, they exploited it."

See the discussion below:

Jeff Sharlet explains the racist history of anti-vaxxerswww.youtube.com