It’s a documented phenomenon called crank magnetism.
It’s a symptom of having no critical thinking skills while also being relatively intelligent.
Once someone starts believing contradictory bullshit, it becomes very easy for them to accept more contradictory bullshit. They’ve learned not to pay attention to what they think.
Vaccine polarization and misinformation was going on for years before Covid. I think it was pushed by bots and trollies to create divides that weaken democracy, personally. The current episode of the podcast Hidden Brain is about group identity and how it can be used to manipulate people.
Quite true. But if someone has invested in a particular objection to a particular vaccine, pointing to a different one offers them a face-saving way to get vaccinated. I’ll take what I can get if it leads to more vaccinations.
It always seems to be all the vaccines. It is never a claim one particular kind has bad effects, but any of them. I doubt the woman who died distinguished between them either.
Oops - complete brain fart. I meant consonants. Will correct. Thanks.
How many of them even know that there’s more than one? Reminding them that there are multiple, different vaccines may not move many people but I’ll take what I can get.
This is true. I’ll take anything that convinces more people to get a covid vaccine, any of them.
I just heard this one from my aunt. Her idiot daughter and her equally idiotic husband are refusing to vaccinate their daughters because of their fertility. The idiot daughter is not vaccinated either.
I hope they end up luckier than that poor woman.
No, no, the COVID-19 vaccine CAN affect ones ability to have children! If you refuse it and die from COVID-19, you’re certainly not having any more children.
I was talking to an anti-vax person the other day. She was concerned about mRNA and DNA. I told her about the Novavax vaccine which doesn’t have those. She was interested in finding out more about that.
At the beginning of the testing stage and early issue of the vaccine (in the UK, at least) there was official reticence about offering it to pregnant women or women who were trying to conceive, stemming from not having pregnant women in the original test groups (to avoid any potential risk). So the advice that pregnant/trying to conceive/breastfeeding women could safely take the vaccine was delayed.
I think that delay caused some hesitancy (and refusal) which continues to exist despite the later clarifications and well-publicised results confirmations.
One can infer that she also bought into “plandemic”, COVID-isn’t-real conspiracies. If the vaccines DID affect fertility, getting one would still be a no-brainer. Which is more important, being able to reproduce or remaining alive?
That is not the choice that she (and millions of others) would have seen. It is well known that the virus does not kill everyone, and that the young are less at risk, so they were tragically caught between malicious advice that vaccines affected fertility and the chance of a fatal case of Covid and starting a family.
According to the report the couple had decided to schedule vaccine appointments to go ahead with their wedding.
You can still start a family even if you’re infertile.
It’s awfully bio-chauvanist to forgo potentially life saving treatments because you think your own specific genes are that important they must get passed down.
At least that’s my personal take on it. I’m adopted. I have an unusual amount of skin in the game.
Agreed, and I’m not. It’s a shame how much that narrow view of family is promoted by for-profit healthcare companies, too. When people point out how much they spend on costly treatments (some offered by medical facilities, others that are woo-based), and how some go into debt over it - that seems even worse.
On the other hand, adopting children is actually very dificult (and I 100% understand why), quite a bit harder in terms of hoops to jump through, apart from spending money, to have your own… I can sort of understand why people might not want to have every aspect of their lives put under a microscope, instead of just throwig money at the problem.
God forbid they’d have to show evidence they can be good parents before being trusted with the life of a child.
Way more of a barrier than two people with compatible genitals go through unfortunately…
I know this is a very serious topic but that post makes it very difficult not to devolve into silly jokes about circumcision late on a Friday night!
More seriously, ditto what you and @PsiPhiGrrrl wrote. I wish generally our cultures were more accepting to all the beautiful options we have for making families.
People say you shouldn’t talk religion or politics in polite company, but if you want to see some absolutely crazy instant polarization, bring up circumcision.
So many people who I thought were ethically and morally careful thinkers have ended up losing my respect in those discussions.
