A Message to the Completely Unhinged and Delusional Anti-Vax Conspiracy Theorists
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So, I'm not going to be engaging with unhinged anti-vax conspiracy theorists in my replies here, so if I skip you over you'll know why.
I've spent countless hours debating with anti-vaxxers here on Dread and nobody reads those threads and so they just lost in the shuffle.
So, I'll only say this to you: You are the victim of a vile misinformation campaign that has used white propaganda and black propaganda to make you so completely delusional about the COVID-19 virus & vaccine that it has actually altered your thinking patterns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_propaganda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_propaganda
You have become entirely delusional. Read the dictionary definition of delusion and see how that applies to you.
delusional
/dɪˈluːʒ(ə)n(ə)l/
adjective
characterized by or holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.
"hospitalization for schizophrenia and delusional paranoia"
based on or having faulty judgement; mistaken.
"their delusional belief in the project's merits never wavers"
Fourth, all anti-vax conspiracy theories suffer from a condition called cognitive dissonance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
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In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, and values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when they participate in an action that goes against one or more of them.[1] According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent.[1][2] The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein they try to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.
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So, in laymens terms, when they hear contradictory information from their warped worldview that it triggers them and they get angry and throw a tantrum, and, as is clear above, this poster is quite angry at me for suggesting covid might be real or the vaccine might actually work. They made no attempt to source their claims, used excessive capital letters, and have no coherent argument that can be debated against.
The anti-vax movement is a dangerous new trend in modern times, and I feel legitimately sorry for people who have succumb to the propaganda, lies, mis/disinformation that have been spread by people with a specific political agenda and it has lead to numerous deaths.
Anti-vaccine movement is one of the ten threats to global health: https://www.sbmt.org.br/portal/anti-vaccine-movement-is-one-of-the-ten-threats-to-global-health/?locale=en-US&lang=en
Texas ‘freedom defender’ who rallied against COVID-19 measures dies of COVID: https://nypost.com/2021/08/30/texas-man-who-rallied-against-covid-19-measures-dies
An Anti-vax radio host who compared the government asking people to get vaccinated to "Nazis" has died from COVID-19: https://www.politicsvideochannel.com/anti-vax-radio-host-has-died-from-covid-19
Conservative Radio Host Dies of Covid After Claiming Vaccines Were Tested on Aborted Fetuses: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/conservative-radio-host-dies-of-covid-after-claiming-vaccines-were-tested-on-aborted-fetuses
And I could go on and on with these types of deaths of anti-vaxxers.
All of the Covid conspiracy theories have one or more of these commonalities:
A) Covid is fake and the government is lying about it
B) The vaccine doesn't work and is dangerous to take
C) The vaccine is being forced on people by an "authoritarian government"
D) They believe that they have the right to refuse to be vaccinated and are convinced they're a persecuted minority and make statements like "my body my choice", when they already have been vaccinated their whole lives and those vaccines have more than likely saved their life. You got vaccinated as a baby, you were required to get a list of vaccines to attend school, and if you want to or have traveled internationally you will sometimes be required to be vaccinated against one or more of the prominent diseases in that area.
Or some derivative or combination of any of the above. They're all the same with no delineation in these 4 themes. They provide absolutely no sources for their claims and never try and rebuff the issue if they're pressed on it.
What these anti-vaxxers don't realize is that we live in a time in history where medical science has advanced so far that diseases in previous centuries would have killed them in childhood like cholera, dysentery, small pox and so forth. They don't realize that they've grown up in an age of antibiotics that will also cure them, where people in previous centuries might have died from a single prick of the finger that caused sepsis and died. They didn't have to live through the age of polio where people caught that disease randomly and then were crippled for the rest of their lives. They have no concept of history or realized how privileged they really are.
What these people are going to soon realize is that they are going to get mandated to be vaccinated one way or another and it's simply unavoidable. It's going to be required to be employed, to travel, to access public events, and etc. I'll post a tweet from Geraldo do demonstrate my point.
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Hearing crazy talk on cable TV right now about folks having the constitutional right not to get vaccinated.
Yes (they may be dopey) but they do have that right.
We too have rights: to deny the unvaccinated access to our home, school or business.
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Source: https://twitter.com/GeraldoRivera/status/1417097104216965121?s=20
So me sitting here and arguing is pointless, because there's no changing your mind - you're completely brainwashed. I realize that term gets thrown around a lot, but it's unfortunately true. I have posted sources in the top post that debunk everything you have just claimed from legitimate medical sources.
Secondly, arguing with a conspiracy theorist is pointless, because they refuse to accept any sources as legitimate, then they just continue to move the goal post once they've been disproven on one of their points.
https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Moving-the-Goalposts
They also cherry pick data that fits their frame of mind and don't look at the evidence over all, if they aren't just copying and pasting their anti-vax arguments from other sites/forums.
https://effectiviology.com/cherry-picking/
They also then expect you to expect YOU to provide sources that refute their claims, except they're committing the other logical fallacy of burden of proof. "Saying that the burden of proof lies not with the person making the claim, but with someone else to disprove."
https://effectiviology.com/burden-of-proof/
Third, conspiracy theorists provide no sources for their claims and if they do, they're usually right wing ultra nationalist media, YouTube videos from random people who have no medical or scientific knowledge that contain no source for the claims the articles make they're making either.
For Those Not Completely Brainwashed or Still Have Questions
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You are welcome to post your questions in the thread, and I will do my best to answer them. However, I also recommend you develop some critical thinking skills if you have fallen for any of these conspiracy theories or mis/disinformation campaigns.
As you might have noticed, I have avoided posting in this thread for several days because I knew it would bring out the lunatic brigade. As I have mentioned, I will not engage with COVID anti-vaxxers due to the reasons mentioned in the post above.
However, I do want to share with you one final attempt to persuade the lost anti-vaxxers towards the light. I come from the Carl Sagan school of skepticism and when you hear these conspiracy theories, you have to be skeptical about them. I would say a required reading book for everyone is Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. https://amzn.to/3FryTXx
It goes through and explains rational reasoning, understanding skeptical thought, understanding the scientific method, and breaking down the falsehoods of pseudoscience (which all you anti-vaxxers have bought into) and Carl's Baloney Detection Kit, which if you don't buy the book, you can read here The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking: https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/
I also haven't responded to the dumb insults to me in this thread because if you can't make a coherent, cognizant and comprehension argument that includes sources to your claims, there's no point in me responding to you. You're simply a very naïve and insecure person and can't get over the fact that someone has a different worldview than yours that you've turned into a hivemind of people simply reinforcing your beliefs rather than looking at the evidence and drawing your own conclusions, you have been completely brainwashed by the propaganda of those with an agenda to feed you false information that you become a little "bee" who has come out of the hive to spread more misinformation to people to feed them a completely false narrative to scare them into not getting vaccinated.
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The COVID-19 patient’s health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor’s diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn’t think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building.
Dr. Matthew Trunsky didn’t hold back in his response: “You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car,’” he said.
Such exchanges have become all-too-common for medical workers who are growing weary of COVID-19 denial and misinformation that have made it exasperating to treat unvaccinated patients during the delta-driven surge.
https://apnews.com/article/technology-joe-biden-business-coronavirus-pandemic-misinformation-50d081bad2f76f097b6de57356ef8ab0
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Source: Doctors grow frustrated over COVID-19 denial, misinformation - https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-misinformation-health-433991ea434e12ccfdf97b5db415310d
