4 ms·
> it's bothersome that all the political examples leaned the same way. But they don’t: The article also cites the example of vaccine denialism which is much mo
by klmr 8y ago
> it's bothersome that all the political examples leaned the same way.
But they don’t: The article also cites the example of vaccine denialism which is much more pervasive on the political left (though they tie it back to Trump). As an aside I agree that it’s somewhat lazy that these kinds of articles always come back to politics. Then again, it’s hard not to discuss the Trump administration when talking about “post-truth”.
EDIT: apparently I was misinformed, vaccine denialism doesn’t seem to follow political leaning, though it does seem to follow political extremism (on both sides of the political spectrum), see [1]. But apparently my mistake is a somewhat widespread belief ([2]).
[1] https://theconversation.com/anti-vaccination-beliefs-dont-follow-the-usual-political-polarization-81001 https://theconversation.com/anti-vaccination-beliefs-dont-fo...
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/01/26/the-biggest-myth-about-vaccine-deniers-that-theyre-all-a-bunch-of-hippie-liberals https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...
- merpnderp 8y agoSo you're saying they take an issue which is roundly described as wrong, vaccine denialism, state that it is much more pervasive on the political left, then without any irony, you state they didn't lean left even though they blamed this issue on Trump? I'm going out on a limb and claiming that taking a left leaning fault in society and blaming it on Trump, does not count as a right leaning example.
- klmr 8y agoThey don’t blame it on Trump though. And I’m not stating that they don’t lean left (and it’s likely that they do).
- emodendroket 8y agoThat stuff (and associated new-age health mumbo jumbo) has a lot more pull with hard-right guys than you'd think.
- gravy 8y agoWell the article itself doesn't state that it's more pervasive on the left and just makes the link to Trump anyway. So it still actually does the lean the same way.
- Brockenstein 8y ago>The article also cites the example of vaccine denialism which is much more pervasive on the political left Is it? Or is that how you perceive it? Because vaccine denialism as far as I've seen doesn't abide by political alignment. All it really takes is a poor understanding of science and history and living in a world where modern medicine has been so successful that vaccines are a victim of their own success. Where a lot of the people alive today, in the U.S., can't even comprehend even comprehend diseases being a real threat which makes vaccines seem kind of unnecessary. Throw in some autism scares and any other BS you can manufacture and a plurality of people from all sorts of beliefs and backgrounds who buy into some wonkass bullshit out of fear and ignorance. And no political party has a lock on that demographic...
- emodendroket 8y agoI'd say it maps better to some political tendencies than others; by necessity American political parties are coalitions of a ton of tendencies with plenty of differences among them.