Study: You Can't Change an Anti-Vaxxer's Mind

[daredtowork]

167. Yes, that's true

I see the problem as bigger than science. I see it as a factor of political and economic injustice as well. People feel great disempowerment and don't know where to lay the blame for their problems or where to go to resolve them. A great deal of our media and punditry just shoves responsibility back on to them to deal with their problems somehow. This results in a lot of nebulous free floating anxiety. People try to regain control of their situation by putting together some comprehensive situation. Everyone does this. That's why I say go into any coffee shop. We scoff at people clinging to conspiracy theories, but people's brains are kind of made to put together some sort of working picture of the world that helps them get through the day.

The medical conspiracy theories are particularly pervasive because the failure of the medical system in recent years. Wide swathes of the population hasn't been covered by medical insurance at all. I wrote a post above describing how the doctor's goal is often different from the patient's, especially the poor patient's, and at some point doctor's forgot they were working for the patient's and became an aristocratic class above them. There's the whole issue of *genuine* malfeasance of Big Pharma contributing to a conspiratorial world view. The trust has been lost. It's going to take a long time to win it back. But the first step is to recognize that it's an issue that trust has been lost as such a basic, widespread level.