The consternation over Texas announcing they will fully reopen their economy and do away with the state’s mask mandate is in full swing. Joe Biden called it “Neanderthal” thinking while cable news zealots prophesied the coming destruction of the Lone Star State. The takes have been so hot that science and data need not even apply.

Of course, someone had to step forth and offer the dumbest, most hysterical condemnation, and Beto O’Rourke was more than happy to fill that void. Here’s the noted furry popping off on MSNBC about death cults and civilization ending as we know it.

Beto works in his requisite “death cult” talking point: "It’s hard to escape the conclusion that it’s also a cult of death … You have folks literally upending civilization as we know it." pic.twitter.com/RSXlzZAbzh

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 3, 2021

This dude is always pegged out. There’s no moment where Beto thinks to himself “you know, maybe I should just chill out and give a reasoned answer here.” Instead it’s death cults, confiscating guns, and setting one’s hair aflame at all times. Beto is like the Spinal Tap of politicians. He goes to eleven and the knob has been broken off. It’s no wonder his dog looks borderline suicidal in pictures.

Regardless, what data is Beto basing any of this hysteria on? I remember many of these same proclamations being delivered when Florida reopened last summer. Death rates were supposedly going to go through the roof and a lack of a mask mandate would essentially doom the state to the worst outcome in the nation. It was common for Democrats and their media allies to claim that Florida would eventually pass New York.

Did that happen? Not at all. While Florida did have a fall spike, as every other state did regardless of mandated mitigation, they outperformed most populous states in the most important measures. Never mind that they have the second oldest population in the country as well (i.e. the most vulnerable), making their task all the more difficult.

As to Beto’s claims about upending civilization and death cults, I’m not even sure what he’s talking about. Is the suggestion that civilization rises and falls on mandated mask wearing? Or that people who want to live freely are somehow a member of a cult? Besides, at what point does a person let go of their own cultish beliefs and honestly discuss the lack of correlation between mask wearing and infection rates? That’d require intellectual honesty, though, and that’s in very short supply these days, especially from a figure like Beto.

Texas is going to be fine. I have no qualms with predicting that. The doomsday assertions are going to fail just as they failed in regards to Florida. Mask wearing has simply never been the silver bullet politicians want to paint it as, and opening businesses to 100% will likely make little difference as well. People will still distance because that’s typically what people have always done. The vaccine is also in wide distribution now. There’s simply no reason to go around predicting the end of the universe. But such garbage sells, I suppose, at least on MSNBC.

Beto O’Rourke is a man desperately looking for attention and relevancy. He’s perhaps even delusional enough to try to run against Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022. In the end, he’ll simply fall to the wayside again, but at least he’ll have his cable news hits.