8 ms·

There's definitely an organized push to disseminate anecdotal stories of "see, he didn't get the vaccine, and on his death bed, his last wish was for everyone t

by aantix 5y ago

There's definitely an organized push to disseminate anecdotal stories of "see, he didn't get the vaccine, and on his death bed, his last wish was for everyone to get vaccinated." Maybe these stories are put out by the AP? I'm in Lincoln, NE. Omaha is an hour a way. And these exact stories will run in both local papers the exact same day. Feels... slimy.

ryguytilidie 5y ago
I cannot think of a more sinister motivation than not wanting your fellow Americans to die.
Tostino 5y ago
I mean it is a legitimate reaction people are having, it's not surprising the standard outlets pick up on these type of stories because they do push for the outcome of getting people to vaccinate.
- aantix 5y ago
  I think these mass distributed stories work against the movement. I’m looking at these stories, wondering why they’re running a story about a guy in NC when local Nebraskans are dying. Why aren’t they covering the local story? Why is it cross posted across local news outlets. Just lazy journalism or a concerted message. Feels gross either way. And not pursuasive. At all.
  - amanaplanacanal 5y ago
    It’s much quicker and easier to run a story from AP than to hire your own journalists.
    - aantix 5y ago
      Could be innocent laziness. But since it’s a critical subject, the coordinated messaging feels like a propaganda piece. This is coming from someone who is vaccinated.
      - ptaipale 5y ago
        Not really laziness; it's about cost and feasibility. Syndicated reporting is nothing new and nothing that'd have come with covid.
Natsu 5y ago
There are and they're out there counter to the random stories of "X got the vaccine and died the day after!" But FWIW, I find that kind of thing to be too propaganda-ish and to push people away. I'd rather have a more boring discussion about the numbers and why we've seen thousands of people dying per day from Covid and the risks just aren't there from the vaccine. To hear some talk, we should just start randomly dying from it, but that obviously hasn't materialized. I don't deny that either group exists, but I instead tell people that we have to take a step back because there aren't equivalent numbers of each event. There are orders of magnitude more Covid deaths (and injuries) than vaccine injuries. Yes, there are some of each, but as always, the actual numbers matter here. I don't really find long Covid to be that useful in arguments. I suppose it has its place vs. the "untested" nature of the vaccine, but it's not really "untested" any more than the average flu shot is, and nobody is randomly dying in droves from those. Also it's in many millions of arms, so if there's something horrible that's going to happen due to it, well... where are all the deaths? We'd need to see millions of them to get anywhere close to the impact of Covid.
tehjoker 5y ago
If you go on the Herman Cain Awards, there's some of that, but there's also a whole lot of people or their family posting anti-vaccine content right before (and sometimes after) the patient dies. Pure insanity. Look folks, you can get owned by the libs or you can get owned by the virus. One of them leaves you living to post another day. It's the Trump vaccine, Christ. Remember when the pharma companies delayed announcing the vaccine to not give him the win before the election?
- dlivingston 5y ago
  I hate that sub with a passion, I really do. Morbid schadenfreude at the deceased under a thin disguise of “awareness of the dangers of being anti-vax.”
  - sellyme 5y ago
    When someone's actively trying to get those around them killed, I find it difficult to criticise anyone for not being too distressed by their passing.
    - dlivingston 5y ago
      My issues are with the mocking, the doxxing, and the general atmosphere of “the vermin are extinguishing themselves and the world is better for it.”
      - sellyme 5y ago
        > the mocking It's perfectly reasonable to have a distaste for this, but I am curious as to if you take issue with this because the person in question is deceased, or if you just take issue with mocking someone under all circumstances. > the doxxing I can't say I've seen any of that. Admittedly I only ever see posts from that subreddit when they show up on r/all, so maybe it gets cleaned up on popular posts, but everything I've seen on the subreddit is just directly screenshotted from social media. > and the general atmosphere of “the vermin are extinguishing themselves and the world is better for it.” This one is really just a matter of your opinion on trolley problems. For what it's worth I'm pretty sure just about everyone on that subreddit would prefer the individuals in question have a sudden inspiration of critical thought and save their own lives.
rajup 5y ago
Oh definitely. And the stories about how hospitals are now like war zones. I totally understand the enormous toll and pain this pandemic has caused, but headlines like these make me feel like it infantilizes the problem in a way I can't quite lay a finger on. "Get your shots or else the boogeyman will take you away" works on kids, does not seem to work too well on adults.
- noduerme 5y ago
  And "the vaccine is the Boogeyman - look that's why we're not allowed to say so on YouTube" isn't infantilizing? You might be giving too much credit to adults who can't do basic math.
  - rajup 5y ago
    That's a fair argument. > You might be giving too much credit to adults who can't do basic math. I agree and perhaps this is where most of the difference lies. I do tend to place an outsize trust on adults whether they can do basic math or not, probably from my upbringing in a rather rural setting where the average person may not be able to handle math beyond 4th grade and yet be very "street smart". I don't see them as any inferior as far as decision making is concerned.
    - noduerme 5y ago
      I don't knock street smarts, and I do believe in living by your gut. I think people without formal education or much numeracy will - left to their own devices - come to very sane conclusions about viruses and vaccines if they're just given the raw data to work through. What they don't have is the armor to repel false arguments. The premise of telling someone who's never read a medical text to "do your own research" - by reading conspiracy sites online - is just so ridiculous that you know whoever is telling them that is laughing up their sleeve. I live in a deep red area so I see this all the time... when people say they did their own research on the vaccine, I think, wow. Research is a big word. This is different from having a gut feeling that something is wrong and you don't trust the government. It's almost like the in-group of pro-vax, pro-science liberals has deliberately organized and promoted a mass display of ignorance by the skeptical country folks just for the purpose of pointing and laughing and delighting in their ignorance. And yet, the antivax fever that's swept over the red states is still ignorant, and even more so if it plays directly into a concerted plan to make them look like fools who are prolonging the pandemic.

by aantix 5y ago

ryguytilidie 5y ago

I cannot think of a more sinister motivation than not wanting your fellow Americans to die.

Tostino 5y ago

I mean it is a legitimate reaction people are having, it's not surprising the standard outlets pick up on these type of stories because they do push for the outcome of getting people to vaccinate.

aantix 5y ago
I think these mass distributed stories work against the movement. I’m looking at these stories, wondering why they’re running a story about a guy in NC when local Nebraskans are dying. Why aren’t they covering the local story? Why is it cross posted across local news outlets. Just lazy journalism or a concerted message. Feels gross either way. And not pursuasive. At all.
- amanaplanacanal 5y ago
  It’s much quicker and easier to run a story from AP than to hire your own journalists.
  - aantix 5y ago
    Could be innocent laziness. But since it’s a critical subject, the coordinated messaging feels like a propaganda piece. This is coming from someone who is vaccinated.
    - ptaipale 5y ago
      Not really laziness; it's about cost and feasibility. Syndicated reporting is nothing new and nothing that'd have come with covid.

Natsu 5y ago

There are and they're out there counter to the random stories of "X got the vaccine and died the day after!" But FWIW, I find that kind of thing to be too propaganda-ish and to push people away. I'd rather have a more boring discussion about the numbers and why we've seen thousands of people dying per day from Covid and the risks just aren't there from the vaccine. To hear some talk, we should just start randomly dying from it, but that obviously hasn't materialized. I don't deny that either group exists, but I instead tell people that we have to take a step back because there aren't equivalent numbers of each event. There are orders of magnitude more Covid deaths (and injuries) than vaccine injuries. Yes, there are some of each, but as always, the actual numbers matter here. I don't really find long Covid to be that useful in arguments. I suppose it has its place vs. the "untested" nature of the vaccine, but it's not really "untested" any more than the average flu shot is, and nobody is randomly dying in droves from those. Also it's in many millions of arms, so if there's something horrible that's going to happen due to it, well... where are all the deaths? We'd need to see millions of them to get anywhere close to the impact of Covid.

tehjoker 5y ago

If you go on the Herman Cain Awards, there's some of that, but there's also a whole lot of people or their family posting anti-vaccine content right before (and sometimes after) the patient dies. Pure insanity. Look folks, you can get owned by the libs or you can get owned by the virus. One of them leaves you living to post another day. It's the Trump vaccine, Christ. Remember when the pharma companies delayed announcing the vaccine to not give him the win before the election?

dlivingston 5y ago
I hate that sub with a passion, I really do. Morbid schadenfreude at the deceased under a thin disguise of “awareness of the dangers of being anti-vax.”
- sellyme 5y ago
  When someone's actively trying to get those around them killed, I find it difficult to criticise anyone for not being too distressed by their passing.
  - dlivingston 5y ago
    My issues are with the mocking, the doxxing, and the general atmosphere of “the vermin are extinguishing themselves and the world is better for it.”
    - sellyme 5y ago
      > the mocking It's perfectly reasonable to have a distaste for this, but I am curious as to if you take issue with this because the person in question is deceased, or if you just take issue with mocking someone under all circumstances. > the doxxing I can't say I've seen any of that. Admittedly I only ever see posts from that subreddit when they show up on r/all, so maybe it gets cleaned up on popular posts, but everything I've seen on the subreddit is just directly screenshotted from social media. > and the general atmosphere of “the vermin are extinguishing themselves and the world is better for it.” This one is really just a matter of your opinion on trolley problems. For what it's worth I'm pretty sure just about everyone on that subreddit would prefer the individuals in question have a sudden inspiration of critical thought and save their own lives.

rajup 5y ago

Oh definitely. And the stories about how hospitals are now like war zones. I totally understand the enormous toll and pain this pandemic has caused, but headlines like these make me feel like it infantilizes the problem in a way I can't quite lay a finger on. "Get your shots or else the boogeyman will take you away" works on kids, does not seem to work too well on adults.

noduerme 5y ago
And "the vaccine is the Boogeyman - look that's why we're not allowed to say so on YouTube" isn't infantilizing? You might be giving too much credit to adults who can't do basic math.
- rajup 5y ago
  That's a fair argument. > You might be giving too much credit to adults who can't do basic math. I agree and perhaps this is where most of the difference lies. I do tend to place an outsize trust on adults whether they can do basic math or not, probably from my upbringing in a rather rural setting where the average person may not be able to handle math beyond 4th grade and yet be very "street smart". I don't see them as any inferior as far as decision making is concerned.
  - noduerme 5y ago
    I don't knock street smarts, and I do believe in living by your gut. I think people without formal education or much numeracy will - left to their own devices - come to very sane conclusions about viruses and vaccines if they're just given the raw data to work through. What they don't have is the armor to repel false arguments. The premise of telling someone who's never read a medical text to "do your own research" - by reading conspiracy sites online - is just so ridiculous that you know whoever is telling them that is laughing up their sleeve. I live in a deep red area so I see this all the time... when people say they did their own research on the vaccine, I think, wow. Research is a big word. This is different from having a gut feeling that something is wrong and you don't trust the government. It's almost like the in-group of pro-vax, pro-science liberals has deliberately organized and promoted a mass display of ignorance by the skeptical country folks just for the purpose of pointing and laughing and delighting in their ignorance. And yet, the antivax fever that's swept over the red states is still ignorant, and even more so if it plays directly into a concerted plan to make them look like fools who are prolonging the pandemic.