Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/29/objective-reality.html
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my biceps are gonna be yuge by the end of the day.
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I’m starting to get tired of blame. Seems that’s the only thing left in society these days.
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Anti-vaxxers still beat scleral tattoos on the nasty stupid scale, because as dumb as having unqualified people stick junk in your eye is, it doesn’t put other people at risk.
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California at least acted to stem the tide of its own idiocy. As noted ITFA it passed a law that said you can’t use woo to get out vaccinating your kids anymore. There was a local school here with a whooping cough vax rate of like 60%. SIXTY PER CENT. I lost my damn mind and yelled at everyone I knew. CA passed that referendum and now they are above 90%.
You can be an idiot on your time, You don’t get to kill toddlers and sick people because you’re too fucking dumb to read a book.
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Regrettably, these deluded wealthy people have an influence that extends across state lines.
Across political lines, too – it isn’t just Know-Nothings scared of the bad ol’ fluoridating gubmint. Several years back L.A. area school districts started reporting levels of vaccination opt-out rates at various schools. Some of the worst were in areas known for being Dem strongholds filled with educated and affluent people. But of course, those same areas have been known since at least the 1960s as early adoption centres for all kinds of self-help and New Age and alternative healing woo.
Fortunately, California seems to have tightened up the rules on grounds for exemption in the years since.
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Goddamn Nurgle cultists. 
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Perhaps the categories we’re being told to believe in don’t really exist in the reality we physically inhabit?
“It riles them to believe
That you perceive
The web they weave
And keep on thinking free.”
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“Rich people in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania are to blame for dangerous anti-vaxx surge”
Isn’t this one of those problems that might self-correct? A two birds with one stone deal.
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Damn you. Now I’m going to have the Moody Blues going thought me head all day!
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Alan Rickman made everything better. RIP.
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I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m overusing this gif. It’s rickman. No such thing as too much Rickman.
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I think the problem is:
- No one (as in, the masses) trusts “science” anymore, because a) we know that there were bad people manipulating or hiding results in the past (think sugar lobby, tobacco companies), and so now all “science is suspect”, coupled with b) No easy way to call out the good “science” from the bad unless you’re one of the minuscule percent reading the studies themselves (or the few blogs that cover them objectively), coupled with
- in the absence of good science, people revert to either anecdotal evidence or “people they trust” (who often haven’t read studies either), added to by
- Politicizing a lot of these really non-political issues, finishing with
- complete distrust of the surgeon general’s office or any government agency in the US to give objective advice.
Since telling people they’re wrong on shunning vaccines or showing people they’re wrong with studies hasn’t worked, maybe pointing out who’s pushing this whole agenda will help.
Probably not, and honestly I don’t know what has to happen to make “science” reputable to the masses again, but it needs to, right quick.
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“Papa loves his children. And in the embrace of anti-vaccination, we are no longer afraid, for we have become that which we once most feared.”
You’re getting a lot of mileage out of that GIF recently, it’s so very appropriate, over and over.
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Well, that’s always been my thought: make sure you’re current on your own vaccines, vaccinate your loved ones, and allow natural selection to weed out those humans too stupid to survive. It makes for a smarter gene pool, and contributes to the overall longevity of our species.
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Or what? How are you or I harmed by idiots barking about vaccines and refusing to vaccinate their kids? If you’re vaccinated, you’ve acquired immunity. You’re fine. I don’t think people should drink bleach, but if there’s a popular movement among idiots to drink bleach, because Trump, FoxNews, and a bunch of D-List celebrities say you should, well…
A lot of the problem would be remedied by emphasising critical thinking and media literacy skills in American public K-12 schools, but that hasn’t been a priority for a long time and with smaller and smaller education budgets and the growing tide of anti-intellectualism I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Some of this anti-science idiocy does affect all of us. Climate change denialism is the most obvious example, but anti-vaxxer idiocy and the exciting new bleach-drinking fad can eventually result in higher medical costs for everyone else (“we’re sorry, sir, we’ll get to your broken arm as soon as we handle our whooping cough and bleach ingestion patients”).
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If more people were more aware of and responsible for their behavior, the number of manhours in the world spent blaming would go way way down.
Sounds like heaven, right?
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Sure, but there’s always been anti-science idiocy (and just good old fashioned idiocy in general), so this is not really new as a phenomenon, it’s just a new flavor of anti-science idiocy.
I think my reaction can best be summarized by the Archer episode “Pipeline Fever”:
Joshua Gray: "Victory will only come when Americans will stop destroying the Earth just so they can drive bigger cars, build bigger houses, and eat bigger food!
Lana Kane: “So like, never.”
Climate change is just the tragedy of the commons on a world-wide scale. Even if every person the planet accepted it as real, I have no faith that anything would come of it. Give up our phones and Internets? Yeah! As if!
Again, that’s not a new phenomenon, that’s just a new flavor. Idiots exist. They will continue to do stupid things that send them to the hospital. In my part of the world, it’s usually unsafe use of chainsaws, firearm accidents, and drunken dares.
Edit: typo
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