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Anti-vaxxers are like terrorists: they don't really do much per se, but the FUD they spread does immense harm to society. Defunding & deplatforming such groups
by maxaf 8y ago
Anti-vaxxers are like terrorists: they don't really do much per se, but the FUD they spread does immense harm to society. Defunding & deplatforming such groups is a methodology that is practically inescapable for as long as laymen are liable to believe anti-vaxxers or be afraid of terrorists.
Of course, the real solution is education: both of the purveyors of misinformation and of those who fall victim to it. That's a multi-generational process that should ideally happen in parallel with short-term fixes.
- creaghpatr 8y ago>[Anti-vaxxers] are like terrorists: they don't really do much per se, but the FUD they spread does immense harm to society. Defunding & deplatforming such groups is a methodology that is practically inescapable for as long as laymen are liable to believe [anti-vaxxers] or be afraid of terrorists. You could replace that phrase with many different ideologies. Would you?
- astrodust 8y agoThey're not like terrorists, they are terrorists. Some of these diseases we have vaccines for are vicious and could kill more than any suicide bomber could dream of.
- creaghpatr 8y agoWhat about climate-change deniers? Aren't they killing us all with their ideology?
- astrodust 8y agoYes, on an even larger scale.
- maxaf 8y agoGood question. I'd prefer to set a fairly high bar for elevating ideologies to the plane of terrorism. One criteria could be based on the willingness of an ideology's followers to exit the bounds of civilized discourse whenever it becomes clear that they're in the wrong. The basic blueprint seems to be "group X should stop doing thing Y to group Z", where X may be "doctors" or "the United States", thing Y may be "vaccination" or "occupation", and group Z may be "Muslim lands" or "children". There comes a point in each debate when it's time to give up the fight and accept defeat. Unfortunately, some folks simply cannot do this. It is then that I would consider them terrorists.
- Not_a_pizza 8y agoLabeling people you disagree with as terrorists. Great way to make friends, eh? It's always easy to discount the view of an opponent, but much more difficult to appreciate it.
- maxaf 8y agoWhether I agree with them or not does not matter. These people are provably, verifiably, objectively wrong. They are unable or unwilling to accept the wrongness of their ways. They resort to uncivilized methods of pursuing their goals. How are they not terrorists?
- Not_a_pizza 8y agoSaying that people are wrong without talking to them is a great way to destroy societies. There objectively are things they are wrong about and things they are right about, just like you.
- astura 8y agoWe are talking about people who are endangering public health here, so while I don't personally agree with the "terrorist" stance, I still don't think it's just a case of "naming people you disagree with terrorists."
- Not_a_pizza 8y agoEndangering health happens on both sides. Big pharma pushes pain meds. They also push vaccines. The difference being vaccines don't normally harm people, but when they do, it's impossible to get compensation. Pain meds can cause addiction and harm much more easily.
- repolfx 8y agoThe problem is that this sort of move will make anti-vaxxing a bigger problem, not a smaller problem. A huge part of this sort of thing is driven by distrust of institutions, which has been in long term decline. Can you trust doctors or are they in the pockets of big pharma? Is the government suppressing vital information related to the health of your child because they're afraid to admit they were wrong? Etc etc. Attempting to suppress/oppress these people to shut them up is a bad idea because it'll simply be taken as evidence that there is in fact some sort of malign pro-vaccination conspiracy, that their arguments can't be rebutted, and they'll become more dedicated to spreading 'the truth' as they see it. This is a typically short sighted decision by corporates. If GoFundMe don't like anti-vaxxers, they should make a video shooting down common anti-vaxxer ideas and then embed it at the top of every crowdfund related to it, so everyone who wants to contribute money to it is exposed to the counter arguments. Heck, make watching the vid mandatory before you can donate. But shutting down legal discourse is bad bad bad and will only inflame the situation.
- cmurf 8y agoThey are perhaps impressively myopic, that they overestimate a statistically insignificant chance of an undesirable side effect of vaccination, while totally ignoring the significant chance of acquiring one of the diseases the vaccine will prevent, dying from it or having life long consequences as a result. But that is the mental health problem of anti-vaxx, is not looking at the big picture. A widespread highly contagious fatal disease puts society at an even greater risk: panic. There's all kinds of examples of humans, even in relatively modern times, trying to eject sick people from society. And that's the kind version. Locking sick people in barns and churches, and burning them down, barricading burning entire villages to the ground due to fear of contagion. You think the anti-vaxxers are terrorists? Not a good word anyway, but when the general population starts to freak out over a disease, that will be terror. The idea we're really that different from medieval times in the face of a virulent contagion is hilarious to me, especially with all the fantastic obsession with zombie shows.