[At Whole Foods]“I see shelves of homeopathic “medicines” from Boiron for sale that you don’t see at a normal supermarket. Not good. That implies the shoppers at Whole Foods are attracted to such nonsense.”
To me it implies that their customers can afford to waste money on “medicine” that doesn’t do anything.
Yeah, Poe’s Law strikes again. As with Victoria Jackson, the diatribes are so straight-faced yet completely wacko that you’re just waiting for the punchline years later when they crack a smile and say, “just kidding!”
I’ve said this in regard to other issues, but I think something to consider is what you are really hoping to achieve. Being shown to be wrong, then doubling down on your mistake, though, makes you (and your idea) look foolish to third parties. We could roughly categorize anti-vax in three stages:
Rob Schneider is probably a 3, so there’s no point in even thinking about what could be done to sway him. If you personally know any 2’s you can try to connect with them, but it’s not going to work through the media. That leaves us with 1’s, who honestly are best served by shaming Rob Schneider.
This reminds me of the end-of-the-world sect who had been interviewed by a reporter prior to the official Rapture date so he went back to interview them a little while after the day came and went without event. He discovered that the group was even more committed to the idea that the Rapture was coming, they’d just earned the world a short reprieve because they’d been so good at praying.
Turns out, when facts start to break into an alternate reality they cause anyone who is a questioner or is otherwise on the fence to leave the group. That creates a smaller but much more committed group of true believers who are much harder to convince.
Off topic, but this reminds me of a group who believed the world was going to end, and then, when the date passed, insisted that the world had in fact ended on that day. I recall the phrase “rigor mortis has preceded death.”
Its the being shown to be wrong bit that’s so pivotal, because you can’t show Rob Schneider is wrong, because he’s Not Even Wrong
What I was getting at here is that shaming Rob Schneider is a non starter and engaging him in a point by point rebuttal makes sense, except his rant didn’t (make sense), so its already vaccinated against reason. Anybody who didn’t find Mr. Schneider foolish to begin with, is probably a 3 already.(There are other people who you should try to prove wrong, just not him)
Yes, the real question is What do you hope to achieve?
Nobody showed how vaccines are bad. There was anecdotal evidence, and a discredited study, but it was never proven. Yet people believe this to be true.
Attacking ignorance doesn’t work because its not what they ignore that makes them believe as they do. Its what they fear.
Am I saying that they have to fear not getting vaccines more than they have to fear getting them? Well, thinking about it, that’s why I support vaccines, because I fear the consequences of not giving them to my kid, the same way I (shamefully) don’t fear the flu and therefore don’t get flu shots every year. Even though I get them for free. At work. 15 minutes waiting time. Tops.
I agree with you that peer pressure is a strong motivator, but that just points to back to fear as the underlying problem. If peer pressure stops you from vaccinating your kids, you must fear social opprobrium more than polio. It makes sense. It’s wrong, but it makes sense.
So what’s the desirable goal?
Making people scared of illness. Seems wrong, but its the sane thing to do.
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