re: #164 ericblair

There’s a good article of the anti-vax movement here. Anti-vax sentiment is part and parcel of the right wing online paranoia that has taken off in the last few years because of social media. Yes, most of them had their kids vaxed without thinking about it too much, but that was years ago. Now they’re thoroughly radicalized.

From the article: “For the years 2001, 2015 and 2019, the percentage of Democrats who say it is either extremely or very important for parents to vaccinate their children has moved from 97% to 88% to 92%. For the same time points, Republicans went from 93% to 82% to 79%.”

Behind all of it is a deep outsider’s suspicion that feeds the whole spectrum of conspiracy theories. “The CDC is trying to kill us” is rooted in the same belief system that thinks Cape Kennedy is a sound stage. The XX Century was too much for these people—there’s no way they will sign up for the XXIst.