Why I don't argue with COVID-19 Anti-Vaxxers


SUBMITTED BY: pogue

DATE: Oct. 7, 2021, 4:01 p.m.

UPDATED: Oct. 10, 2021, 8:53 p.m.

FORMAT: Text only

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  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_propaganda
  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_propaganda
  6. delusional
  7. /dɪˈluːʒ(ə)n(ə)l/
  8. adjective
  9. characterized by or holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.
  10. "hospitalization for schizophrenia and delusional paranoia"
  11. based on or having faulty judgement; mistaken.
  12. "their delusional belief in the project's merits never wavers"
  13. Fourth, all anti-vax conspiracy theories suffer from a condition called cognitive dissonance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_propaganda
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. And I could go on and on with these types of deaths of anti-vaxxers.
  22. All of the Covid conspiracy theories have one or more of these commonalities:
  23. A) Covid is fake and the government is lying about it
  24. B) The vaccine doesn't work and is dangerous to take
  25. C) The vaccine is being forced on people by an "authoritarian government"
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. Or some derivative or combination of any of the above.
  29. 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.
  30. --QUOTE--
  31. Hearing crazy talk on cable TV right now about folks having the constitutional right not to get vaccinated.
  32. Yes (they may be dopey) but they do have that right.
  33. We too have rights: to deny the unvaccinated access to our home, school or business.
  34. --END QUOTE--
  35. Source: https://twitter.com/GeraldoRivera/status/1417097104216965121?s=20
  36. 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.
  37. 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.
  38. https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Moving-the-Goalposts
  39. 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.

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