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Michael Roberts
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Joined: 20 April 2004
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 11:31am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

 Dave Kopperman wrote:
Weirdly, the anti-vaccination thing (prior to COVID) was more of a left-wing bit of idiocy, but it's definitely been fully co-opted by MAGA.

This is untrue though. There was a perception that antivax was a left-wing thing due to some very visible Hollywood people being spokespeople for the movement, but actual studies showed either no difference or Conservatives being more likely to believe that vaccines cause autism and more likely to oppose vaccine mandates. Long before COVID. 

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Michael Casselman
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

It's disconcerting that over a sixth of the population buys into either of these things, regardless who they vote for. Yikes.
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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

 Michael Roberts wrote:
This is untrue though.

It's true enough.  While in real-world numbers, those percentages work out to 12 million Clinton/19.5 million Trump, I suspect that if you added in disgruntled Sanders and Stein supporters, the balance would shift more to the left.  The difference with anti-vax folks on the left is that there was no overt political agenda - just a lack of critical thinking, which social media (where I firmly place the blame) is ideal at exploiting. Case in point - a few years back, when Mars was going to be at the closest point in its orbit with Earth for something like 60,000 years, several of my Facebook friends - all of whom I know to be reliable blue voters - posted the meme that Mars was going to appear the same size in the sky as the goddamn full moon.

Obviously, right-wing anti-vaxxers marry their own severe lack of critical thinking skills with a genuine own-the-libs anger, so while the shape of the belief is the same, the underlying ethos is dramatically different.

And it should be noted, as you say yourself, that the prominent voices promoting the conspiracy were 'very visible Hollywood people' who I think it's safe(r) to assume are left-leaning - and this shit goes nowhere without a bullhorn.  Rewind the clock, take the Jenny McCarthy-ers out of the equation and I'm certain the anti-vax stuff goes back to being fringe.


Edited by Dave Kopperman on 24 November 2022 at 5:38am
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John Byrne
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Case in point - a few years back, when Mars was going to be at the closest point in it's orbit with Earth for something like 60,000 years, several of my Facebook friends - all of whom I know to be reliable blue voters - posted the meme that Mars was going to appear the same size in the sky as the goddamn full moon.

•••

That was based on something that the internet does best: misquoting.

Decades ago, at a close approach, someone had said Mars would seem as big as the full moon THRU A GOOD SET OF BINOCULARS. Somehow that important detail got left out.

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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Misquoting, eliding, then doubling down.  The version one of my friends posted - and I think this goes far back enough to have been on MySpace, of all things - was a fully animated thing with fairly decent production values.  The tagline (accompanied by a visual of both the full moon and Mars in the sky over a small town) was that you should go out and look so you can tell your grandchildren about it.  I joked(?) that you wouldn't be able to tell your grandchild about it since if you saw Mars in the sky the same size as the full moon, there's a pretty good chance there wouldn't be any more generations.
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Mark Waldman
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

I think entitlement plays into it. "No one's telling ME what to do!!" An easy thing like wearing a mask or getting a booster is too much to ask. As is voting, even though they give you plenty of time leading up to it, mail and drop off options. The whole thing, whether it's a booster or voting takes minutes but the entitled do not have time. 
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