I had a thought after reading some things some of you have pointed out, along with the usual brew of random media.
I had a thought after reading some things some of you have pointed out, along with the usual brew of random media. My hypothesis about the anti-vaxxers is this: They hated being made to get shots at the doctor, so they are now rebelling against their own parents by not vaccinating their own children.
Maybe not brilliantly put, but there are other social behaviors that have come up as collective or generational push-back, just because no one can "make them" anymore. Yes, they try to give rationalizations, but it seems as if it was one of those things just waiting, subconsciously, for an "I told you so!" moment. See, all those horrible things you did to me as a kid, well, now I can prove you were wrong!
Anyway, it's as rational as any of their behaviors seem to me in this particular.
Maybe not brilliantly put, but there are other social behaviors that have come up as collective or generational push-back, just because no one can "make them" anymore. Yes, they try to give rationalizations, but it seems as if it was one of those things just waiting, subconsciously, for an "I told you so!" moment. See, all those horrible things you did to me as a kid, well, now I can prove you were wrong!
Anyway, it's as rational as any of their behaviors seem to me in this particular.
I think there are several possible causes, and that's probably one of them. Some people are caught up in the anti-science hype and firmly in the grip of the conspiracy theorists, because no one ever taught them critical thinking. And some are experiencing a form of betrayal/backlash, because medicine is supposed to be infallible and perfect, and if it isn't, what is the point of it? Which I suppose is also a critical thinking failure, since that evidently means they think killing a couple of kids by accident is the same as killing 25% of kids through neglect.
ReplyDelete(And more problems besides.)