Antivax quacks are continuing to make up fantastical biological mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccine “shedding”
Antivax quacks are continuing to make up fantastical biological mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccine “shedding”
I recently discussed how antivax quacks' purported mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccine "shedding" reminded me of homeopaths. The fantastical mechanisms continue.
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It takes no effort to come up with made up antivax lines of reasoning since they don't have to be true. Disproving them takes much more effort so it's worth knowing the most common ones.
Disproving them can work if they are debunked by dedicated people. Education can work. It's just foolhardy to try to debunk them if you aren't some YouTuber who's dedicated to constantly debating and debunking these type of people. If you constantly educate people on why this stuff is wrong, less people may fall into this stuff in the first place, prevention is a necessary and doable thing.
Disproving them won't even change antivaxer minds but it's more about not being caught off-guard by bullshit. Education won't fix it either. Those magical thinking movements are built on ruling elites being being proven untrustworthy time and time again.
It won't change antivaxxer minds, but it probably would prevent those who would be affected by their rhetoric, woo, and misinformation. Those who are on the precipice of going antivax or full antivax. I've learned that you can't just think about changing the minds of those who you are talking to, because you probably can't change their minds, but you do have to worry about convincing people who are listening into that conversation.
The 1% manufactures this propaganda to fuel their culture war. It is only after the billionaires are unalive and the brainwashed people pass on will it end. Not a problem easily solved
Disproving them can work
No
My libertarian friend fully believes in this shit. It's good to publicly denounce these frauds with evidence to help fight the disinformation campaigns being waged.
We need ways to counter them. If nobody counters when they warn about whatever made up junk they have someone else will believe them. I don't know how to country them though - it is harder than you might think. There have been a couple real conspiracies in history and if they accuse you of being in one how do you prove you are not?
People go through stages as they fall into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole. Early in the decent they are still engaging in healthy reasoning patterns that I won't go so far as to say are "logical" or "rational," but they are still flexible enough to be diverted from the conspiracies. There's always a reason they start down that path: maybe someone close to them got badly sick, maybe they just had a child and are seeking out the best ways to protect them. If you can sit down with them and engage with them on this underlying cause for concern in an empathetic way, that's when you can change their mind and keep them in the zone of legitimate science and medicine. If they react to every discussion as a confrontation, they are beyond the point that bringing scientific evidence to them will change their mind.
Arguably best way to counter misinformation is non-platforming it. Mere provable facts and impeccable logic have a dogshit success rate.
The problem is other platforms exist. not jst social media, but daycare dropoff or coffee shops.
Then what's your counter?
I wish I knew. So far I haven't seen one that works. It is despirataly needed.