Doing the Angry Dance

[madlori]

I am foaming at the mouth right now.

This evening over on ohnotheydidnt there was one of those bogus lists they sometimes post. This one was Hollywood celebs who are actually really smart! The whole list was pretty dumb but the first entry totally discredited it for me

Comments

[pennswoods]

This is a rant I can totally get behind.

[amleto]

I think the negative attitude toward science is part of the widespread anti-intellectualism in the country. A letter to the editor in the local newspaper this weekend consisted of a man ranting about the uselessness of a college education when it doesn't do anything for the students or for the country. Needless to say, we (the many members of the household) wrote a few rebuttals.

[lawgoddess]

Pretty necklace!

I agree with you absolutely that children should be vaccinated.

There is a human tendency to want to look for an answer to the question, "Why me?" or "Why my child?" I've know a lot of parents of kids with special needs, and it's very tempting for them to say, "This is what harmed my child," instead of accepting that the disability is a result of a multitude of uncontrollable and perhaps unknown factors.

I sympathize with where she is coming from, although it's a shame she can't accept the conclusion that there isn't a link between autism and vaccines. And I agree that she shouldn't be repeating bad science and discouraging vaccinations.

[shadist]

I think a lot of it has to do with increases in diagnosis and also a better understanding of it is a spectrum disorder.

[callmesandy]

Sometimes it's not anti-science but more like magical thinking. I think it works like some cults do - blaming vaccines or not getting vaccinated gives people a feeling they can control illness. At least this one. It gives people something to blame. My friend didn't vaccinate her daughter, she also chose alternative treatments for her cancer. When it recurred, she was half convinced it was her own fault for not being vegan enough, not eating enough raw foods. (And in the end, the cancer killed her so we all get to wonder if we'd just argued harder with her and she had had the chemo, would she still be around? Guilt and loss for everyone!)

The reality is, sometimes crap happens. Sometimes we can't do anything about it. It's very very very hard to accept and when there's an explanation, even if it doesn't make "sense," a ritual or performance we can do, we want to believe.

Have you seen the suggestions that McCarthy's child never had autism? Especially since he's now "cured?"

[callmesandy]

What I read was a doctor wondering, given McCarthy's claim that she's "cured" her son's autism, is if her son had a seizure disorder rather than autism. Who knows?