And the ‘intellectuals’ show how dumb they really are
They ramble on their endless diatribes about how “conservatives” can believe in things such as creationism or intelligent design. They blather on to no end about global warming and the science – the science – the SCIENCE proves all (with their bamboo plates and hybrid cars). They are the ones with the loudest voices about ending hunger, poverty and disease in other countries. They are the ones who shake a fist at capitalism for not being socially responsible enough to “take care of those who can’t take care of themselves” – but looky looky what we have here… these so called forward thinking open minded neo liberals are the ones responsible for the sudden and deadly resurgence of diseases we had all but had contained.
Shove all of the empirical evidence about herd immunity, natural selection, biological immuno-response and disease propagation in their faces with 50 years of raw statistics as an added bonus and they still make the same “creationist” decision that they decry makes no sense when the shoe is on the other foot.
Their tired rhetoric of “everyone deserves health care” stops when the decision that is best for the _community_ isn’t convenient for them.
Why should everyone have access to the same healthcare that they reject? What level of hypocrisy allows them to spend my money on health care for the unemployed while they endanger the elderly and the infants because of their stance on vaccination?
So far over 1,000 cases of Whooping Cough have been recorded in Marin County and 7 children have died – from a disease that had all but disappeared. Statistics show that the children that have died are ones who are not yet eligible for their vaccinations – and thanks to their loving communities around them, they lost whatever herd immunity was there years ago. So while they continue to endanger the too-young and the too-old in our communities because of their “personal beliefs”, they trample my “personal belief” that I am entitled to the fruits of my labor without it forcibly being taken from me?
If they want universal health care – fine, I will pay for that … as long as they agree to vaccinate on time, on schedule and urge others to do the same with the same level of ferocity that they used to complain about access to health care. If they don’t care to give their children the shots the rest of the community so desperately needs them to have, why don’t I just shove that down their throat like they are shoving UHC down mine?
Fair trade? Somehow I think the shoe doesn’t look as nice on the other foot. Neo Liberals are just as bad as Fanatical Zealots – just on the other side of the spectrum. One side easily argues away logic with their God, and the other does the same injustice by using logical fallacy. What a sad dichotomy we live in.
Jim Carey and Jenny Mcarthy can service a flaccid donkey as far as I care. Their irresponsible behavior has enabled a generation of middle/upper-class idiots to take control of our lives and kill our citizens through pure unadulterated selfishness.
http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/pulse-of-the-bay/whooping-cough-claims-another-child/print/
Whom exactly are you inveighing against here? It’s a bit of a straw man, I think. Loosely defined arguments, variously ascribed to intellectuals, “neo liberals”, and Jim Carrey & Jenny McCarthy. In particular, the equivalence of advocates for universal health care with anti-vaccination activists is pretty hollow. Anti-vaccination is a fringe opinion at best, and I suspect that those serious enough about public health policy to be advocates for universal health care are far less likely to be party to that fringe.
“If they want universal health care – fine, I will pay for that” I doubt very much that the folks in Marin that are choosing not to immunize are having their health care paid for by you or anyone other than themselves (or their parents via a trust fund.) I’m being presumptuous, but I’d bet good money that it’s entitled, hippie-dippy Marin stereotypes who are choosing to not get their kids immunized, not parents who rely on public assistance programs to get health care for their children.
Ultimately, your vehement rejection of universal health care is cognitively dissonant with your frustration over the refusal of some to participate in the public good of vaccinations. Huge numbers of children would go without access to vaccinations and other basic preventative care without publicly funded health programs. Likewise, adults that have access to preventative care have lower care costs over their lifetime than those who don’t, and a greater public health benefits everyone, just as with herd immunity and vaccinations.
It is a mutually inclusive argument and it may have been obscured by the heat of the text. Certainly the loudest voices for UHC that we have seen are from the privileged masses of the middle and upper class rather than the poverty line. The Huffington Post is living testament to that statement – but one only needs to be tuned into the cause to take notice at the trends.
My post points out the hypocrisy from those who fight to have UHC for the people that need it, but reject that same care for those that have it. After Wakefield blew up the question of vaccination caused autism with his faked and illegitimate “research” – causes like Generation Rescue started by illogical arguments and well funded socialites targeted parents in the mid to upper class with their message – Vaccination causes Autism.
At no point can I find that anti-vaccination mass messages been targeted at the lower class/poverty class – where the vaccination statistics show that free or low cost vaccines are given in record numbers. Vaccination clinics have always been given to those with no/little coverage and it continues to this day – the most recent examples are the pushes for Pertussis and H1N1 vaccination clinics.
Unfortunately your information about “fringe at best” is very outmoded. Everything from anecdotal to empirical data points to huge surges in anti-vaccination sentiment as far back is 1999. A quote from the Discovery article about it puts anti-vax sympathies at 23-25% back in 1999 before Autism One and Generation Rescue were even being pimped by psuedo-scientists and actors. These numbers jibe with opt-out rates posted annually from various county health sources, including rates posted for school exemptions for mandatory vaccinations at pre-6th grade levels. Pertussis rates jumped up to 53% in states with lax exemption rules for schools, important to note these are active exemptions which require parents to opt-out instead of opt-in.
My argument is specifically targeted at those who tout themselves as caring, interested liberals who want what is best for their common man. They tend to use science as their backbone instead of “feelings” like conservatives tend to use. They side with climate scientists instead of God. They tend to favor socialist ideals instead of capitalist motives (at least in words) – but the entire notion is abolished by their ignorant abstinence of a necessary and scientifically proven method of protection.
TL; DR – They are “intellectual” neo liberal’s. They look to the Huffington Post for cues like conservatives look at The View or Glenn Beck. California is full of them, and Marin is making news as an example of my argument:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/53876.php
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jun/06-why-does-vaccine-autism-controversy-live-on/article_view?b_start:int=2&-C=