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Just how many antivaxers are there on HN? My comment from a few days ago was also severely downvoted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20487229 https://new

Just how many antivaxers are there on HN? My comment from a few days ago was also severely downvoted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20487229 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20487229

toss1 7y ago
I have no ide3a, there should be few, as it takes a special kind of intellectual failure to subscribe & promote such packs of falsehoods about both science and history, much based on a fraudulent study that caused the author to be stripped of his degree & Med license. [1][2] Perhaps more importantly, it needs to be understood that anti-vaxxers are A) freeloading on the herd immunity created and maintained by the smarter people, and B) are directly endangering the set of people who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons -- they are literally a death threat to many. Much of this is also people falling for weaponized Russian dezinformatsiya, a very cheap way to both sow discontent, conflict, and illness in their adversaries [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield [2] https://www.webmd.com/children/vaccines/news/20190304/largest-study-ever-finds-no-link-between-measles-vaccine-autism https://www.webmd.com/children/vaccines/news/20190304/larges... [3] https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/09/in-the-united-states-russian-trolls-are-peddling-measles-disinformation-on-twitter/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/09/in-the-united-states-ru... There are plenty of further resources on all of these topics; this is merely a start
- tim333 7y ago
  Gosh - I had no idea about the Russian thing. You'd think they could do something more constructive with themselves.
  - toss1 7y ago
    You might think, but the Russians have been the world champions of espionage & subterfuge for at least a century. It is an enormous return on investment to deploy a few inexpensive resources and create havoc in your adversaries. Moreover, it is a win-even-if-you-lose situation; you don't need to get everyone to believe your dezinformatsiya (disinformation), you accomplish much even if people simply throw up their hands and say they don't know what to believe. The same with pushing extreme points of view in politics or hoaxes -- it pushes people to disconnect from their society, weakening that society.

Just how many antivaxers are there on HN? My comment from a few days ago was also severely downvoted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20487229 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20487229

toss1 7y ago

I have no ide3a, there should be few, as it takes a special kind of intellectual failure to subscribe & promote such packs of falsehoods about both science and history, much based on a fraudulent study that caused the author to be stripped of his degree & Med license. [1][2] Perhaps more importantly, it needs to be understood that anti-vaxxers are A) freeloading on the herd immunity created and maintained by the smarter people, and B) are directly endangering the set of people who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons -- they are literally a death threat to many. Much of this is also people falling for weaponized Russian dezinformatsiya, a very cheap way to both sow discontent, conflict, and illness in their adversaries [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield [2] https://www.webmd.com/children/vaccines/news/20190304/largest-study-ever-finds-no-link-between-measles-vaccine-autism https://www.webmd.com/children/vaccines/news/20190304/larges... [3] https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/09/in-the-united-states-russian-trolls-are-peddling-measles-disinformation-on-twitter/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/09/in-the-united-states-ru... There are plenty of further resources on all of these topics; this is merely a start

tim333 7y ago
Gosh - I had no idea about the Russian thing. You'd think they could do something more constructive with themselves.
- toss1 7y ago
  You might think, but the Russians have been the world champions of espionage & subterfuge for at least a century. It is an enormous return on investment to deploy a few inexpensive resources and create havoc in your adversaries. Moreover, it is a win-even-if-you-lose situation; you don't need to get everyone to believe your dezinformatsiya (disinformation), you accomplish much even if people simply throw up their hands and say they don't know what to believe. The same with pushing extreme points of view in politics or hoaxes -- it pushes people to disconnect from their society, weakening that society.