I know a couple anti-vaxxers, and they are very rational, but just selfish, people: they don't believe vaccines are evil in general, but rather they believe what is, basically, true: it is best of all if everyone else is vaccinated, but you aren't.
I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
41–50 of 111 posts
Re: I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
#42How come there aren't any "anti-civil engineers" who go around claiming bridges aren't safe or "anti-aeronautical-engineers" who "believe" through common sense that planes can't fly? Electricity is reading our brainwaves. Vacuum cleaners suck out our souls. If there are they are rightly recognized as crackpots in need of psychiatric help.
There's a 'flat-earthers' movement apparently. Compared to them, anti-vaxxers seem like sensible people.
There is also a "religious" movement, who believe all kind of crazy things about the universe and evolution. And there are a lot of them (in the US at least)....
Re: I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
#43I looked at this article as a simple case study in being compassionate.
For me, learning to be compassionate has been a pretty big deal. While it is clearly great from a moral perspective, even from a selfish perspective it provides value. Just like the article states, it greatly improves communication and cooperation. Beyond that though, being compassionate makes me feel good.
I definitely recommend practicing compassion, particularly if you tend to be naturally critical, judgmental or cynical.
Re: I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
#44I'm so not surprised by the comments here, so far. The core points here are good ones: - In a fundamentally emotional argument, you 'win' with empathy, not by beating people over the head with the same (very reasonable) arguments they've heard a hundred times. - Vaccines are certainly effective, they are the correct choice, but there are also absolutely legitimate reasons to distrust the medical and scientific argume…
> legitimate reasons to distrust the medical and scientific arguments (as pointed out in the article, both medicine and the science behind drugs have been spectacularly wrong more than once)
Viewing failures in isolation is not really helpful. You need to compare them to successes and the failure/success rate of the alternatives.
Things get even more complicated when you start distinguishing cure/ineffective/harmful.
Re: I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
#45The author comes across as a bit of an idiot too in the article. Basing his opinions on blogs and a particular internet community. Rather than acquiring an understanding from the scientific source material on these issues.
A thorough literature review of a field you have no training in is a rather significant undertaking. It's nice to take a look at individual papers sometimes, but without a lot of context it's difficult to be sure you're interpreting them right.
Wait you mean you don't log into JSTOR any time someone mentions something outside of your field of expertise?
Re: I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
#46The author comes across as a bit of an idiot too in the article. Basing his opinions on blogs and a particular internet community. Rather than acquiring an understanding from the scientific source material on these issues.
Confirmation bias works both ways. In one way or another everybody is influenced by it, whether you're on the right side, or the wrong side of facts.
It's true. Everywhere I look I see confirmation bias.
Re: I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
#47Re: I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
#48"Lead paint, tobacco, bloodletting [..] we ought to remember that the same sentence has been said, earnestly and confidently, about things that absolutely were hazardous."
I've heard this argument before but it sounds really wrong to me. Did anyone ever really say lead paint is absolutely safe? For all of these things I feel people just didn't think about it. They never thought 'hmm maybe if we put poisonous metal in paint (we knew lead was poisonous) it could go into the air and affect the brain development of our children' they just went to a hardware store and bought the paint that was good and cheap, assuming that since everyone else bought it, it would be good. Same for tobacco.
Re: I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
#49"Lead paint, tobacco, bloodletting [..] we ought to remember that the same sentence has been said, earnestly and confidently, about things that absolutely were hazardous." I've heard this argument before but it sounds really wrong to me. Did anyone ever really say lead paint is absolutely safe? For all of these things I feel people just didn't think about it. They never thought 'hmm maybe if we put poisonous metal in…
It was already known that lead was poisonous when leaded gas was invented, but there was a huge amount of lobbying saying it was safe by the car industry.
Re: I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one
#50This whole discussion reminds me of seat belt law debate:
Pro-seat belt: "It will save hundreds of lives and reduce injuries"
Anti-seat belt: "What if an accident pushes my car into the water and the seatbelt jams and my child drowns."
Make it the law and put parents in jail. Better yet, since the first confrontation over vaccinations will be when the children are young, put them up for adoption. Lots of vetted, rational people looking to adopt young children.
You don't own "your" children, they are people and they have the right to proper medical care. Proper medical care isn't decided by irrational phobias and fears.