Dear parents, you are being lied to | Hacker News Reader

Dear parents, you are being lied to

violentmetaphors.com

10 pointshansy10 comments

For those who prefer links that start at the beginning of the article, instead of the beginning of the comments:

http://violentmetaphors.com/2014/03/25/parents-you-are-being...

This is a very small symptom of a much more dire malady: scientific illiteracy at all levels of society.

The scope of science covers all existence, and yet, it has increasingly been confined to academia and research. The applications of scientific discoveries are nowhere to be seen in politics, economics, or law.

Starting in WWI, and ending with the Cold War, was the era of institutional science. During these times, scientists were respected and their input considered at every level of government. Yet, once the Cold War ended, it was back to business as usual. Science funding was cut, and scientists were exiled back to the lab, and replaced with financiers.

The MMR/autism zealots are a small blip in a much larger, metastasizing sickness in western society. Scientists, who are experts in the empirical rationalism which made the west what is today, are now marginalized and discredited as advisors to the public.

You reap what you sow. As NIH and NSF funding is cut, and STEM grads fight for dwindling employment opportunities, cases like this will become more and more common.

A society without science at its foundation is doomed to struggle in the dark forever. Tragically, it appears even those gifted with the flame of elucidation neglect it, allowing it to dwindle to embers, putting them back into the very darkness from whence they came.

This is good. I am puzzled why the anti-vaxxers still exist at all? The original paper linking autism to vaccines was withdrawn, the researcher admitted to fraud, and he was punished by the courts. How can a movement survive when the guy who started it has been so completely discredited? And yet, instead of dying, the movement has grown and new arguments have been invented about why various diseases can be safely ignored.

I this this is well said:

----------------------

In light of recent outbreaks of measles and other vaccine preventable illnesses, and the refusal of anti-vaccination advocates to acknowledge the problem, I thought it was past time for this post.

They say that measles isn’t a deadly disease. But it is.

They say that chickenpox isn’t that big of a deal. But it can be.

They say that the flu isn’t dangerous. But it is.

They say that whooping cough isn’t so bad for kids to get. But it is.

Don't forget Rubella, part of the MMR vaccine that the anti-vaxxers rail against. Fun fact: Rubella in a pregnant woman increases the risk of autism in the child. So, anti-vaxxers are actually working towards an increase in autism.

The anti-vaxxers exist because children are not an issue that 20-somethings spend much mental cycles on. Then, when they suddenly have them, there is a lot of life-upsetting changes, misleading information and confusion.

If you don't have at least some pro-scientific inclination before having children, your pro/against vaxxination stance will be a result of pure chance, something you picked up out of the mighty multi-voiced stream of information that having children has plunged you into.

At least that has been my observation with the parents around me.

>This is good. I am puzzled why the anti-vaxxers still exist at all?

Vaccines aren't "natural". Parents are easily scared and ill educated.

The people who believe the anti-vaccine stuff don't read. They especially don't read things this long. It would be great to see a video covering these points. Yes, there is a video covering one of the points, and that's a great start.

Sadly, that's not really true. I know some highly literate, otherwise intelligent people, who can make their way through a work as dense as R. J. Rushdoony's (lucid but misguided) Institutes of Biblical Law, but who still believe that vaccines are a corporate and governmental plot. I think there is a flaw in some human brains that allows healthy skepticism to become overgrown into reflexive disbelief of all commonly-accepted fact. I've argued, cajoled, ridiculed, and persuaded them, but they absolutely cannot be moved. It really breaks my heart.

Of course there are exceptions. Yes it's sad to see intelligent people wasting their brains on nonsense.

The Onion has a similar take: http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-pros-and-cons-of-vaccin...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com