6 ms·

It’s the same people, though. RFK Jr. pivoted and incorporated anti-Covid vax rhetoric into the rest of his platform, and that’s bringing the anti-Covid vax con

It’s the same people, though. RFK Jr. pivoted and incorporated anti-Covid vax rhetoric into the rest of his platform, and that’s bringing the anti-Covid vax conspiracists into the autism myth fold. And the existing anti-vax community fed into QAnon, as well documented by Marc-André Argentino[1]. This is the tricky problem. Trusting the marketplace of ideas works if everyone who participates is interested in spending the time needed to evaluate claims. [1] https://gnet-research.org/2021/03/17/pastel-qanon/ https://gnet-research.org/2021/03/17/pastel-qanon/

jacquesm 4y ago
And if they are acting with good intent. But some people really would like to see the world burn and there are enough of them that they can do real damage. All those conspiracies originate somewhere and quite a few of those people are well aware of the fact that what they are doing will cause damage.
- BryantD 4y ago
  I couldn’t agree more. In some cases the anti-vax movement is simply being used as a tool for power.
kbelder 4y ago
It's not all the same people, though. Anti-vax nutjobs were primarily fringe leftists, through 2019. For a few reasons, Covid policy drew a ton of fringe right-wing nutjobs into the movement. In my experience, possibly the worst thing that was done was labeling people who argued against forced vaccination as anti-vaxxers, no matter whether they were against vaccines or not. That made a large number of reasonable people very hostile, and reasonably so; they were being declared an enemy.
- BryantD 4y ago
  I am not directing this at you personally, but: Why do we have so much compassion for people arguing against forced vaccination, and yet so little compassion for people who were scared of an unknown disease and angry that people were pushing back against the best known way to slow or stop the spread? Why is the burden of rationality on the latter group? Why don’t they get to be hostile?

jacquesm 4y ago

And if they are acting with good intent. But some people really would like to see the world burn and there are enough of them that they can do real damage. All those conspiracies originate somewhere and quite a few of those people are well aware of the fact that what they are doing will cause damage.

BryantD 4y ago
I couldn’t agree more. In some cases the anti-vax movement is simply being used as a tool for power.

kbelder 4y ago

It's not all the same people, though. Anti-vax nutjobs were primarily fringe leftists, through 2019. For a few reasons, Covid policy drew a ton of fringe right-wing nutjobs into the movement. In my experience, possibly the worst thing that was done was labeling people who argued against forced vaccination as anti-vaxxers, no matter whether they were against vaccines or not. That made a large number of reasonable people very hostile, and reasonably so; they were being declared an enemy.

BryantD 4y ago
I am not directing this at you personally, but: Why do we have so much compassion for people arguing against forced vaccination, and yet so little compassion for people who were scared of an unknown disease and angry that people were pushing back against the best known way to slow or stop the spread? Why is the burden of rationality on the latter group? Why don’t they get to be hostile?