i am offended by this we should ban Jim Carrey and stop showing his movies, and never another Jim Carrey Flag be flown… (oh, wait …)
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I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, scientifically proven universal public goods like water fluoridation, childhood vaccines, broadband, the roads, electricity, clean air and water, have all become victims of their own undeniable (to those who aren’t complete morons) and massive successes.
I’m pretty sure if these antivaxxers were sent to 1939, and forced to work as hospital candy stripers for a week, they’d change their tune real quick, as they see children paralyzed by polio, choking to death on their own snot from pertussis, going deaf and blind from the measles, or just getting a fever dropping into a coma and quietly passing as their brain swells and hemorrhages from meningitis caused by vaccine preventable Hib infections.
They all point to grandma and grandpa who survived the measles to reproduce, as if the completely unnecessary pain and suffering caused by the disease is equivalent to never getting it in the first place. They always forget that while they can point to grandma and grandpa who did okay after getting the disease, they’re neglecting to point at all the fucking gravestones of those not so fortunate children who got the disease and died and weren’t ever seen again in the school yard after summer break.
What about those kids? They died. It’s fucking barbaric and antisocial to reject the science in favor of the fear. The science says that vaccines are safe and effective, and that they’re necessary for everyone to take if we’re going to protect those who can’t get the vaccines because of allergies or compromised immune systems. Not vaccinating yourself and your children isn’t a personal choice. It affects everyone.
/rant over. I just… Can’t stand the antivaxxers lying to our faces saying “we’re pro safe-vaccines, not antivaccines” when they’ve failed to demonstrate risks. They’re antivaccine. They’ve come to the conclusion that they’re afraid of vaccines, but don’t have anything to back up their fear. If they wanted safer vaccines they’d be getting biochemistry degrees and actually do some research work in a goddamn laboratory while using the massively effective and very safe vaccines we already have. Fuck them.
/NOW the rant is over.
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Somebody stop him!
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The topic you’re alluding to is entirely of semiotics and culture.
This issue is of science.
Whether or not there’s a mob mentality, the FACT is that there is blood on the antivaxxers’ hands, and all of the arguments I’ve seen from them (and am willing to bet a lot of money all of their talking points, not just the ones I’ve seen) are utter and complete, demonstrable, bullshit. If they get their way, lot of kids will die entirely preventable deaths. This is a fact.
Bringing in the confederate flag thing amounts to a dogwhistle. I hope you enjoyed your attempt to derail.
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Why do people care what celebrities think about scientific issues that they cannot even understand? And how narcissistic must they be to put those views out there, to compete with the views of people who have actually spent their whole career studying the problem?
Because the relatively uneducated laity don’t know the difference between an impassioned stance held by a lunatic, and the reasoned statement of an expert.
If we let the celebrities get away with talking bullshit about stuff they don’t know, then the culture will absorb that bullshit as “true facts”.
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Unfortunately being good at science isn’t always the same thing as being an effective communicator. With a handful of notable exceptions (Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, etc.) most scientists just aren’t as good at working an audience as a professional actor.
This works for politics too. Even a B-list actor like Ronald Reagan managed to trounce Jimmy Carter (in the eyes of the voting public) in debates on topics like energy policy, even though Carter clearly had more firsthand knowledge of many of the key issues (Carter used to work on nuclear reactors for Chrissake.)
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I am reminded of a saying about ducks. Something to do with quacking and walking.
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“Worried” about “Chemicals” in vaccines - I would appear that even rich and famous humans are shit at assessing risk when it’s not wired into our cro-magnon brain.
I could start a list of activities and items that have infinitely more risk than vaccines, but I can’t be arsed to go beyond “Motor Vehicle Transportation” .
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Don’t ya just love it when a package of something boasts “No preservatives” yet they list salt or vinegar as an ingredient?
I know I do.
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Actually, yes. His publicist is a fucking inept twat, or a goddamn fearmonger, if said publicist hasn’t resigned yet.
If his publicist is still with him, then they ought to commit harakiri, since they’ve failed at their one job, ie making Jim Carey look good and employable, and not insane and fearful and really really fucking just dumb as a fucking bag of doorknobs.
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Well he did say yes to the Ace Ventura script, when he was popular enough to say no to it.
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Is that the same way that creationists are less anti-evolution-teaching and more a critical thinking group?
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In which case he said yes to a lot of money, no? Which would make almost any star and publicist happy.
Group selection .vs. individual selection, the tragedy of the commons and the evolution of species… if you’re the only person who doesn’t vaccinate your kids, you win. (Here using a definition of “winning” that fits the tenor of our times; western culture praises and rewards ruthless self-interest.) If you are a member of a group that vaccinates more than other groups, your group wins, and you share that win. If your society collapses, vaccination will no longer be available, and those who rejected vaccination may well father the next civilisation, possibly resulting in evolutionary change. I would prefer to take the middle road, and be part of a winning group.
Actually, I’m old enough that I remember when kids were allowed to play with raw mercury in high school chemistry class. That practice was banned when I was a freshman, to my great dismay, so I had to play with mercury at home.
Medieval smiths would quench hot metal in mercury. To save on the cost of replacing the mercury lost to the air in this process, they’d float a slotted iron plate on top of the quenching vat.
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You’re not saying anything that isn’t true.
HOLY GREEN MOLE SAUCE, Batman!!! Then for lunch they went down the pub and ate their ploughman’s platters on a lead plate, got sunburns on purpose, picked their fingernails with manure scoops, and never drank anything without alcohol!?
(Actually, they probably didall those things :D)
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Millers used to patch and splice their millstones with elemental lead, so you’d get a bit of lead dust in every loaf!
You can’t trust anyone who tells you such things are safe. After I had the last of my mercury amalgam fillings replaced with plastic, my sense of taste noticeably improved.
Why can’t we just look at all the facts, that Carrey clearly has? Because he’s so factual. With his facts. Fighting against fascism.
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Why on earth do so many people take important medical advice from an actor who is literally known for talking out of his ass??
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