Ask Lemmy

He may not be joking. My family and people I interact with don’t think vaccinations cause autism. I’m happy to have never experienced or known of anyone getting measles, polio or other ailments most everyone my age have been protected from thanks to vaccines.

Sadly some here believe the lies spread by those who for some bizarre reason are against vaccines. There’s a measles outbreak right now in Texas and New Mexico that’s affecting around 99 people so far. Last year across the US there were 285 cases. Before the fairly recent anti-vaccination crowd formed measles were officially eradicated in 2000.

Now our country’s health leader, RFK (aka worm brain), is one of the assholes against vaccinations. Sad time for sure but we’re not all like this.

Yes, there are genuine idiots in this country that are against vaccination.

There are also a plethora of foreign idiots and trolls spreading misinformation about everything including stances on vaccination. Judging by the quotation you shared it’s impossible to tell if that is an actual person’s thought, though, because it is not written in English.

We very, very much wish it were just a joke. Diseases that were basically eliminated in the US are making a comeback. And we just appointed an antivaxxer as our health secretary, who also has proposed sending people on antidepressants and ADHD drugs to work camps for years to "re-parent" them.

It's fucking terrifying here right now, at least for anyone paying attention.

Some anti-vax people I know personally are my boss, 2 of the office trolls, the guy in the garage, the stinky guy who sits next to me, my friend's mom, etc etc. People are fucking stupid yo.

anti vaxxing is a thing that real people really engage in, they are in fact, stupid. But it is unfortunately real, just look into the resurgence in measles outbreaks and TB and shit, that's why.

ur friend very well may be joking, but i can assure it's not a complete meme.

It's a difficult problem to sum up because there are so many reasons this is happening, and I don't think it's all malicious.

At the core there is a general disrespect for any authority in American culture and it's easy to believe stories that a government-mandated medical intervention is somehow not as safe as they say.

It doesn't help that there have been government programs in the past that were harmful and the knowledge was only made public after it was too late. Very few people believe the government has the people's best interest in mind.

Individuals are only capable of understanding a very limited amount at one time, and rely on their tribe to inform them of almost everything else. These days there's a tsunami of information that is impossible to process completely. So it's just human nature to trust a small selection of sources and does usually offer a survival advantage.

So it's not hard to see how smart people can fall for misinformation especially when they are inclined to doubt authority.

Not just America, up here in Canada too. It's real.

He is not joking and while it is most relevant in the United States it is not exclusive to us.

Back in the 90s a British doctor called Andrew Wakefield was bribed by a pharmaceutical company that made separate vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella to come up with a study to discredit the combined mmr vaccine. He found a bunch of parents in an antivax society and twisted the results of a very weighted questionnaire to demonstrate a link between MMR and the 'tism. It was quickly discredited, but the damage was done. He was stripped of his medical licence after that.

Mostly the right-wing leaning Americans, who don't like anything that costs them money even if it contributes towards a better society. They say they hate Socialism in all its forms, but had absolutely no problem accepting stimulus handouts. They are the pure leeches of our country.

Left-wing leaning Americans tend to believe science even if it comes as a slight inconvenience to themselves, that includes things that sometimes cost them money.

We are actually that stupid.

This is not limited to Americans. This site is dumb. Idiots everywhere are susceptible to misinformation.

gulps

Just wait until OP learns about us taking horse paste during covid

Yes. There are people who believe it. I can't explain it, they have the education, they have the information, but for whatever reason they just want to believe a conspiracy theory instead.

Our "leader" is an anti-democratic felon rapist who incited an insurrection and illegally attempted to overturn an election.

It's not a joke.

Americans are stupid as fuck.

It's a very real belief, lot of folks here weren't around to know the "before times" and nothing is ever real until it happens to them.

So this happened…

I shit you not; my dental hygienist just confided in me that 5g towers scared her while she was taking my xrays. She thought they had adverse effects on the body. She has an associate's degree. She mentioned they were thinking of dropping thee lead jacket requirement for patients and was shocked when I said yeah I totally agree.

There's a reason why there comparisons out there about x-ray exposure comparing a flight to number of dental xrays. She's better off not getting it multiple times a day, but my annual xrays do no harm to me.

I personally know nurses who I went to school with who are anti-vax.

They are not joking. They are 100% conspiracy-theory loving, in it for the propaganda weak-willed individuals who will buy anything that shows the man is holding them down, and through some simple choices they themselves can make, they have an edge on the world in their own minds.

I told her that I had a HAM radio license and a background in electronics and science and that understanding exposure to ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, there's no serious effects from cell phone towers and that even if there was one in the room with her, the worst that would happen is heat.

It's Poe's law- sometimes it's a joke, sometimes they're serious, and it's nearly impossible to determine which at any given time.

Even if it does(it doesn't), I would rather have autism than measles or pertussis, etc.

As an American that lives 20ish miles from the boarder of Idaho state (on average poor, uneducated, and conservative population), let me tell you its fucking real. Those people are ignorant and proud. It is depressing.

There are more than a few mentally defective folks that believe vaccines cause a variety of maladies.

The irony is it was all started with a guy trying to spread FUD over existing measles vaccines to try getting his own vaccines picked up.

They actually believe it. Despite no actual link being found. Despite the author of the OG article admitting that he falsified data.

People here also believe that mRNA vaccines will rewrite your genes, that the COVID vaccine sequesters in your testicles and makes you sterile and magnetic, that vaccines are less effective than "natural immunity", that vaccines will feminize you and make you compliant to authority, and that vaccines are ineffective.

I have legitimately heard all of those arguments against vaccines in the wild. For the record, vaccines are one of the oldest and most effective preventative measures we have. There is a reason why the mortality rate for children isn't +30% anymore, it's vaccines, and vaccination programs.

You have to explain to them how vaccines work. I'm waiting for them to turn on antibiotics next. Soon we'll be shaking rattles and swallowing toads to cure diseases.

People are stupid and subscribe to tribalism. It's very real.

A neighbor told me that even though her now-adult children had no side effects if she could go back and decide to not vaccinate them instead, she would

Yes, they do believe it.

In my country which is a third world country no one believe shit like that even my Grand mother who is illiterate and religious don’t believe thing like that and knows the benefit of vaccine

That is because your country has recent, relevant experience with the efficacy of vaccines.

US citizens have been so coddled for so long by being an economic superpower and having access to medications and medical procedures that others do not that those who remember are beginning to pass from old age. This means an entirely new, always coddled generation literally does not know from experience how bad things can get without it. Due to that, and due to American obsession with "free speech" lies and misinformation have flourished, and made people believe that these things are dangerous instead of lifesaving.

Further, it's tied in with how US citizens feel about being "different." We live in a wild cult of individuality where everyone knows that if you're actually really different that things can go sideways for you fast. They'd rather not risk a child being "different" and having autism, and they genuinely don't understand that they're choosing to risk death of their child instead. You can be different, just so long as you're exactly like everybody else!

Our education system is so broken, and our people are so fucking coddled, that they have the opportunity to pretend that these things don't matter. It's literally children tearing down things they don't like because they don't understand.

These are those "weak mean that create hard times." Which is infuriating because anti-vaxxers and their ilk are the people who peddle that kind of bullshit ass saying the most, erroneously thinking they're the "strong men" because they're "willing to stand up to the man." In this case, "the man," being anyone with an education. Notice they don't hate a rich idiot like Trump who does not care for them, but they hate intellectuals "in their ivory towers" (cough academia).

Yes, a society can be so coddled that the stupid resent the intelligent and educated to the point where they reject everything they say. They think they are fighting tyranny because they have convinced themselves we are lying to them to "get one over on them." It's absurd because the very people who put those ideas in their heads are the ones trying to get one over on them. Of course, this has been going on in America for long time.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'

-Isaac Asimov, 1980

It's both. They actually believe it and it's a joke that they do.

Mexican here. It's not as pronounced in my country but some people are a bit hesitant of vaccines because of the bullshit leaking out of the US. It's usually the least educated who are often more inclined to believe.

Having said that, we have a lot more believers in homeopathy, including plenty of healthcare professionals because it's been recognized by our Health Department. Because if it's recognized and popular, it's gotta be true, right? 🙃

It’s a loud minority. Also not just in America there are anti-vax people all over the world. Mostly in developed countries where they have eliminated diseases like polio. And where outbreaks of measles are really rare. Anti-vax don’t believe vaccines are necessary since they personally never seen diseases like polio. While everyone in the developing world knows that vaccines are necessary since they’ve seen what those diseases can do to people.

You know the meme Hard Times Create Strong Men, Strong Men Create Good Times, Good Times Create Weak Men, Weak Men Create Hard Times Well antivax are the weak men.