Why your efforts to convince anti-vaxxers aren’t working

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/09/convince-anti-vaxxers

by namu-313 • 5 years ago

3 1 5 years ago

mandmandam• 5 years ago

I feel like breaking down exactly how devious the first paragraph of this article is.

What should we do about people who refuse to get vaccinated, or who continue to deny that Covid is real?

Conflation. Many - probably the majority - of people who haven't gotten vaccinated are not Covid deniers. The Guardian has thrown them in the same bucket.

Debate on this issue has raged for months in the US.

And everywhere else? Including where The Guardian is based, and in surrounding countries like France, and Ireland. Unfortunately that doesn't allow the author to paint the issue as liberal vs conservative so easily....

“Respect them!” scolded conservative commentators.

It wasn't and isn't just "conservative commentators" asking for basic respect. Let's not forget that the right to make your own medical decisions was considered fundamental up until very recently, and with good cause.

“Shame them!” urged some.

"Some" what? Conservative commentators? Nah. "Some" people scared out of their wits called for mild shame? Or have there actually been a lot of calls for vaccinating people against their well, and expressions of glee at the thought they might "die from their own stupidity"?

Others counselled empathy for them as victims of disinformation.

Remember who this "them" is - both Covid deniers, and anyone who hasn't gone along with taking a leaky vaccinate for the sake of a herd immunity which scientists now agree is unlikely at best.

... A lot to unpack in one paragraph.

I don't think I'm reaching when I say that there's people who reject this kind of brainwashing from the paper who told us Jeremy Corbyn was antisemitic. A paper which sickeningly claims to fight for truth and integrity in journalism, while failing to cover Assange's ongoing torture and show trial, never mind the direct role they've played in his character assassination.

Let's take a quick look at the last lines, and see how this article ended up:

The higher their status within the groups, the more influence they will have in reconciling their fellow travellers to the reality of the pandemic, perhaps enabling them to rejoin society, or at least preventing them from endangering the rest of us.

Holy shit. You guys are seeing this right? "Perhaps enabling them to rejoin society", "preventing them from endangering the rest of us"? This is the language of dehumanisation.

Why your efforts to convince anti-vaxxers aren’t working

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