Seriously, though, leprosy has a long, ugly history of being wildly misunderstood and being used to other/imprison/enslave/kill so many innocent people, so it’s an unintentionally rich comparison.
There is an entire Behind the Bastards series on people who shilled the anti-vax rhetoric.
Robert makes the point that for the anti-vax crowd, it’s the idea that “you are a bad parent and that’s why your kids got autistic” is worse than “vaccines gave your kids autism”.
It’s even worse when you add genetics to the mix because now parents have to believe something made their kids this way instead of something they had no control into.
The absolutely wild thing is that anti-vax used to be a largely liberal stance but with the added conspiracy theories, it swung over to the right.
So, TL;DR: parents are assholes who don’t want to face reality that their child is not what they wanted them to be and would rather not have the burden of raising them and blame something else.
Even worse is that research indicates autism is heavily linked to pollution, and the anti-vax right wing crowd voted the guy in that wants to remove all environmental restrictions.
Dude, I have never heard about that. WTF? I seriously wonder if all of them going after the colleges and scientists is to stifle this stuff, the shit that his cult has fallen for already.
Exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) has been linked with significantly increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children, particularly if exposure occurs during the third trimester of pregnancy or during early childhood, according to a meta-analysis from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study was published April 29, 2021, in Environmental Research Letters.
The authors noted that there has been a steep rise in the prevalence of childhood diagnosis of ASD over the past several years, from 6.7 per 1,000 people in 2000 to 16.8 per 1,000 people in 2014. Possible risk factors include those related to family, such as genetics or parental age, or the environment. Previous studies have found an association between exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) and neurobehavioral dysfunction, but they’ve been inconclusive regarding the link between PM exposure and the development of ASD.
Wow interesting. Studies like these are important because all sides have people that minimize the science in favor of being inclusionary/exclusionary (eg. “There have always been this many undiagnosed autism cases” vs “Kids need discipline and not a diagnosis”).
I think we underestimate the extent to which modern humans have radically changed our environment. I would frankly be shocked if there wasn’t at least some minor environmental factor in everything labeled as uniquely modern atypical behavior* (extreme aggression/depression, mood disorders, gender dysphoria, non-traditional sexuality, etc…).
Unfortunately it’s often taboo to talk about our identities and personalities as being anything other than totally predetermined and core to our existence. And when it is done it’s often in an extremely dehumanizing or inconsiderate way (eg. “pray away the gay”).
*Can’t overstate that none of these attributes should be taken as inherently derogatory or negative
The absolutely wild thing is that anti-vax used to be a largely liberal stance but with the added conspiracy theories, it swung over to the right.
Kinda like how the original men’s rights movement was dads who wanted more parental rights and to see their kids, but because they chose a bad name, it became a movement for incels and misogyny and the original people were chased out
They should have called it the dad’s rights movement or the gender neutral parental rights movement
I got the impression that anti-vax was always a right-left thing, because you had hippie-dippie types who thought it was “unnatural”, but you also had fundie Christian types who thought that medicine went against God.
It used to be, that’s the crazy thing. The whole crunchy granola “I don’t want to poison my kid” started out as a leftist principle. And to a certain extent, it sort of made sense.
But Republicans fed the conspiracy theory part and it blew up like wildfire.
It is equal parts fascinating and terrifying just how much the Republican party has fed the anti-vax people.
It’s kinda wildly offensive that these anti vaxxers would rather have a dead kid than an autistic one, they speak about autism like it’s leprosy
So, about leprosy.
Seriously, though, leprosy has a long, ugly history of being wildly misunderstood and being used to other/imprison/enslave/kill so many innocent people, so it’s an unintentionally rich comparison.
There is an entire Behind the Bastards series on people who shilled the anti-vax rhetoric.
Robert makes the point that for the anti-vax crowd, it’s the idea that “you are a bad parent and that’s why your kids got autistic” is worse than “vaccines gave your kids autism”.
It’s even worse when you add genetics to the mix because now parents have to believe something made their kids this way instead of something they had no control into.
The absolutely wild thing is that anti-vax used to be a largely liberal stance but with the added conspiracy theories, it swung over to the right.
So, TL;DR: parents are assholes who don’t want to face reality that their child is not what they wanted them to be and would rather not have the burden of raising them and blame something else.
Even worse is that research indicates autism is heavily linked to pollution, and the anti-vax right wing crowd voted the guy in that wants to remove all environmental restrictions.
Dude, I have never heard about that. WTF? I seriously wonder if all of them going after the colleges and scientists is to stifle this stuff, the shit that his cult has fallen for already.
https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/air-pollution-linked-with-increased-risk-of-autism-in-children/
Wow interesting. Studies like these are important because all sides have people that minimize the science in favor of being inclusionary/exclusionary (eg. “There have always been this many undiagnosed autism cases” vs “Kids need discipline and not a diagnosis”).
I think we underestimate the extent to which modern humans have radically changed our environment. I would frankly be shocked if there wasn’t at least some minor environmental factor in everything labeled as uniquely modern atypical behavior* (extreme aggression/depression, mood disorders, gender dysphoria, non-traditional sexuality, etc…).
Unfortunately it’s often taboo to talk about our identities and personalities as being anything other than totally predetermined and core to our existence. And when it is done it’s often in an extremely dehumanizing or inconsiderate way (eg. “pray away the gay”).
*Can’t overstate that none of these attributes should be taken as inherently derogatory or negative
Kinda like how the original men’s rights movement was dads who wanted more parental rights and to see their kids, but because they chose a bad name, it became a movement for incels and misogyny and the original people were chased out
They should have called it the dad’s rights movement or the gender neutral parental rights movement
I got the impression that anti-vax was always a right-left thing, because you had hippie-dippie types who thought it was “unnatural”, but you also had fundie Christian types who thought that medicine went against God.
It used to be, that’s the crazy thing. The whole crunchy granola “I don’t want to poison my kid” started out as a leftist principle. And to a certain extent, it sort of made sense.
But Republicans fed the conspiracy theory part and it blew up like wildfire.
It is equal parts fascinating and terrifying just how much the Republican party has fed the anti-vax people.
With such open mindedness the conspiracies can also sort of make sense to a certain extend.
What do you think doesn’t make sense at all?
Just to be clear, children amd adults should be vaccinated.
The thing is, they often don’t believe that vaccines work