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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 grou
by 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.