YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#901

Post by eric_cc » Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 11:57 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #76

mach1ne wrote: post #57

People don't see what the actual problem here is - perhaps because they don't want to see. What is happening is very much the transformation from an open society to one where freedom of speech is limited and certain other individual rights are stripped away. Perhaps not de jure, but de facto. And sure, one might argue that it's for a good cause (even though it's a complex topic). However, the fact is that as this is…

Yes our freedoms are being eroded. It’s a slippery slope. All that bullshit. Come on. A private company doesn’t want to contribute to people dying. Oh and by the way don’t they have the right to do what they want? You want what, regulation to prohibit this?

> A private company doesn’t want to contribute to people dying.

And the best action they can take to that end is to ban all anti-vaccination conversation?

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#902

Post by the-pigeon » Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 11:57 PM UTC

Heyso wrote: post #348

Remember Wuhan lab outbreak ? It took 9 months for mainstream media to present it as plausible (France). Before that, it was called a "conspiracy theory", synonym to a fable. What did you think happened to people speaking about it on twitter, facebook or youtube before mainstream media greenlighted this theory ?

And what did censoring the theory do?

It made actual researchers and scientists shut up to not hurt their reputations. And made internet conspiracy conspiracies go crazy in all directions.

I believe the more we censor vaccine information, true or not, the more hardened people will get in their beliefs. What I'd love to see is YouTube change their algorithms to promote quality content over engaging content so good information rises to the top.

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#903

Post by somewhereoutth » Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 11:58 PM UTC

ohdannyboy wrote: post #290

I was hesitant for a while and the massive censorship was part of it. I got vaccinated in May and have convinced others to get the shot since the side effects, while existent, appear to be minor compared to the reduction in harmful symptoms. Talking to my doctor is what did it for me. He cleared up most of my concerns and pressed me that my remaining concerns were too nebulous to be useful. If he just said "shut up a…

The vast majority of people spend the vast majority of their lives being told what to do, in one way or another.

The problem with the vaccines (and lockdowns etc) is that these are new obligations, so making people realise how little control over their lives they actually have (in spite of the 'freedom' retoric so popular in the US).

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#904

Post by colecut » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 12:01 AM UTC

tshaddox wrote: post #882

ohdannyboy wrote: post #290

I was hesitant for a while and the massive censorship was part of it. I got vaccinated in May and have convinced others to get the shot since the side effects, while existent, appear to be minor compared to the reduction in harmful symptoms. Talking to my doctor is what did it for me. He cleared up most of my concerns and pressed me that my remaining concerns were too nebulous to be useful. If he just said "shut up a…

It sounds like both you and your mother have both adopted an epistemology that incorporates the perceived amount of censorship, lies, and coercion performed by proponents of some claim into your discernment of the truth value of that claim. Namely, you both seem to have adopted some level of doubt about pro-vaccine claims because you both perceive that proponents of pro-vaccine claims participate in censorship, lies…

   For instance, how do you know that pro-vaccine people "can't win arguments" and instead "stop them because the other side is too stupid"? Or that there is "massive censorship" favoring the pro-vaccine viewpoint?

Did you notice the article that you are commenting on?

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#905

Post by dennis_jeeves » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 12:03 AM UTC

jcon321 wrote: post #719

xkbarkar wrote: post #594

> Months ago he was insisting that the people who had contracted COVID-19 and who had antibodies in their system may not need the vaccine. Now, we have a number of studies coming out to support that. But months ago that was "anti-vax" (employing the slanderous use of the term). I live in Iceland. Recovery from cov-sars-2 infection is considered as valid as a vaccine here. The same goes for Norway and ( to the best of…

While I'm sure some people would dismiss this entire comment as anecdotal I thank you for writing it.

I share the same sentiment. Thanks for sharing xkbarkar

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#906

Post by thatfrenchguy » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 12:04 AM UTC

ohdannyboy wrote: post #290

I was hesitant for a while and the massive censorship was part of it. I got vaccinated in May and have convinced others to get the shot since the side effects, while existent, appear to be minor compared to the reduction in harmful symptoms. Talking to my doctor is what did it for me. He cleared up most of my concerns and pressed me that my remaining concerns were too nebulous to be useful. If he just said "shut up a…

You can’t really get objective goal posts (for herd immunity for example), given how unpredictable the virus and people’s clustering are though?

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#907

Post by longhairedhippy » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 12:04 AM UTC

Jimmc414 wrote: post #51

The problem is that questions about the vaccine are being labeled as anti-vaccine. Real data about the side effects of the vaccine constitutes science not anti-vax propaganda. It is distressing that supporters of informed consent are being lumped in with QAnon.

I agree with the sentiment, however it does not appear folks are putting actual science forward in their arguments. How do you rank people sticking spoons to their face and saying the vaccine magnetized them alongside serious discourse?

The "questions" that Tucker Carlson are not "questions" at all. "What if taking the vaccine turns you into a newt? I'm just asking questions here" (not an actual quote but along the lines of his questioning). People asking questions in good faith should definitely be discussed, it's the only way forward. People asking "questions" purely as a method to sow doubt and further their personal agenda is harmful.

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#908

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 12:08 AM UTC

MrRadar wrote: post #306

crocodiletears wrote: post #238

At this point I'm not hesitant about the vaccine, but getting it would only validate the heavy-handed approach we're seeing wrt censorship.

So you understand and acknowledge that this vaccine can literally save your life, and you accept all the science that shows that it is safe and effective, but you refuse to get it because some people are being forbidden (by a privately-owned platform, only on that platform) to spread lies about how it's not safe or effective? That's a very strange position to take, to put your own life in literal mortal danger becaus…

[deleted]

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#909

Post by longhairedhippy » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 12:13 AM UTC

NaturalPhallacy wrote: post #775

xkbarkar wrote: post #594

> Months ago he was insisting that the people who had contracted COVID-19 and who had antibodies in their system may not need the vaccine. Now, we have a number of studies coming out to support that. But months ago that was "anti-vax" (employing the slanderous use of the term). I live in Iceland. Recovery from cov-sars-2 infection is considered as valid as a vaccine here. The same goes for Norway and ( to the best of…

>our high vaccination rate did absolutely nothing to stop the spread. It was never going to. People have been asking for decades, "Why don't we have a vaccine for the common cold?" And the answer is because it's a type of virus that evolves too quickly. So we just can't. Not really. It's just not remotely as effective as say a smallpox vaccine. And SARS COV-2 is the same type of virus. A coronavirus. It's just an opp…

Seems like you owned yourself. By your own statement "But you can't prove this because we can't go back in time and run to separate Earths". Right now in the US, we don't have an answer to either question because of people that are unable to interpret the facts.

AstraZeneca is selling their vaccine at cost. Plenty of vaccines have been required for activities in the past, I had to provide proof of vaccination for both public school and college for my children. The real power/money grab is by all the folks blasting out this misinformation. I didn't pay a dime for my vaccine, it was provided at cost by Moderna to the organization, who distributed it for free to the public.

You realize don't you that Tucker Carlson and all the Youtubers get paid based on how much they get viewed, right? That's the money grab you're looking for...

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#910

Post by karaterobot » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 12:14 AM UTC

jackson1442 wrote: post #792

ohdannyboy wrote: post #290

I was hesitant for a while and the massive censorship was part of it. I got vaccinated in May and have convinced others to get the shot since the side effects, while existent, appear to be minor compared to the reduction in harmful symptoms. Talking to my doctor is what did it for me. He cleared up most of my concerns and pressed me that my remaining concerns were too nebulous to be useful. If he just said "shut up a…

> She believed that if the vaccine was actually as great as they're saying they'd be able to make more objective goalposts and win arguments instead of stopping them because the other side is too stupid to make their own decisions. The problem I see here is that the (I hesitate to call it this) anti-vax "side" has been shifting goalposts since day n-1. If you've ever talked to someone who's shifted goalposts you'll s…

The thing to keep in mind is that when we say "the other side", we just mean people who don't intend to get vaccinated.

This hides the fact that there is no actual "side" in the sense of a unified group of people who collectively agree to a set of principles, and goalposts that can even be moved. It's just a bunch of people who have their own brains, and reasons. They aren't all the same, or believe the same things, or make the same claims.

This is trivially obvious, but I see it ignored most of the time. People get accused of things they don't actually believe, and didn't say, or do. That makes them defensive and makes it impossible to have a good-faith discussion, and that's part of the mess we're in.