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[Victoria Waterfield]

They really say this?

Acetaminophen is an ARTIFICIAL drug created by SCIENTISTS of course it causes autism

[jaydub]

I think the concept of "herd immunity" is important to try to get them to understand.

When your whole worldview is about how exceptional and unique your children are, the concept of being part of a herd are anathema.  The thing is, viruses are pretty much automata, and they operate at a population level, not an individual level (although the effects on any given individual are certainly important to the victim).  Viruses don't care how balanced your chi is, or whether you're on a gluten free diet, or how much raw milk you've consumed.  Exposure and the presence of their target protein on your cells is all they need to do their work, which is just to make as many more virus particles as they can.

[ianmalcolm2]

To veer off to the side a little bit into 'my child's social dysfunctions are actually signs of latent genius' territory:

Any of you dudes been exposed to this "indigo children" stuff? I guess some moonbats are arguing that what we would call ADHD or autism or whatever actually represents the next stage in human evolution——it's just that the 'big pharma' illuminati cabal are trying to suppress it.

It's like if the big reveal of "childhood's end" was way less cool.

[jaydub]

I've heard the phrase, but I think it's a ridiculous assertion that variation in human behavior is a recent development or indicative of the future path of the species.  I think it may be true that the society we have developed fits people to different degrees, and we have seen the opportunities for those who might have been good scouts, spiritualists, or manual laborers be replaced by occupations that require long apprenticeships for intellectual specialization (including what we do daily with computers).  I don't know what the future of human evolution will look like, but the pressures that normally drive adaptation would seem to be largely blunted by the civilization we have achieved.  I doubt any observable change happens in time scales we can comprehend.  Archaeology has found plenty of ancient human remains that are indistinguishable from our contemporaries, even in features that appear to be "on the way out" (little toes or wisdom teeth) or could substantially increase fitness with changes (lower backs).

[theinevitable]

I can't stop being mad about this.

Of course they believe [that trauma can affect gene expression] now-- their "science" trusts rats more than it trusts women of color.

oh my fuck*ng god.

[pmcd9]

Calm down Dan, it's gonna be alright.

[theinevitable]

I WANT TO BE ON YOUR SIDE, INTERNET LEFT WING LADIES, BUT YOU'RE MAKING IT SO HARD.

It's tough because sometimes they say things that seem really goofy initially, but over time I realize that they're right. I always appreciate that and am glad I didn't argue about it. This is not one of those times.

[wombat]

It's tough because sometimes they say things that seem really goofy initially, but over time I realize that they're right.

Such as?

[theinevitable]

One lady in particular posts angry things about racism in America that sometimes rub me the wrong way, but I usually end up thinking for a long time and realizing she is right. Having a hard time coming up with an example. But too many of the other ones are more of a "even a broken clock is right twice a day" type deal. If you whine enough and claim enough things are patriarchal plots, eventually you will write one really true article and trick me into following you on twitter.

[ianmalcolm2]

^ re: theinevitable—— I spend far too much time reading the rantings of crazy people for shits and giggles, but the most frustrating part of laughing at this stuff is how close they get to real insight while remaining so, so far away.

One example I can come up with is a website that considers itself a 'media watchdog'. It's tragic, because while they do a wonderful job of cataloguing all the ways in which mass-media socializes us into consumerist passivity, they attribute it all to a shadowy cabal of illuminati lizard-men whose lineage stretches back to pyramid times.

Like, replace lizard-men with the "faceless capitalist momentum and Freudian death drive," and they'd have something legitimate to say! I think the best thing for conspiracy theorists of all stripes would be to make them read Hannah Arendt's 'The Banality of Evil'.

But now we're just off-topic

[jaydub]

But now we're just off-topic

Welcome to TOUAMB, wandering off topic since the early 21st century.

[AugustWest]

Welcome to TOUAMB, wandering off topic since the early 21st century.

Over a decade of tangential connections served!

[wombat]

One example I can come up with is a website that considers itself a 'media watchdog'. It's tragic, because while they do a wonderful job of cataloguing all the ways in which mass-media socializes us into consumerist passivity, they attribute it all to a shadowy cabal of illuminati lizard-men whose lineage stretches back to pyramid times.

As a sometime member of the mass media, I LOL so hard at the idea of media conspiracies. Trust me, the media could never be organized enough to pull off a conspiracy. Anything that looks like coordinated movement is simply a result of them all being sheep - or lemmings, in the metaphorical sense of lemmings that isn't true of the behavior of actual lemmings.

[ianmalcolm2]

Exactly! Any pernicious movement in media is the result of competition for viewers' attention. And the things advertisers and marketers will do for attention are bad enough without making lizard-men the culprits.

[theinevitable]

maybe the reason you aren't getting as many writing jobs as you want is that they just want an army of people out there saying "hey, I get articles published sometimes, but I don't know ANYTHING about any lizard-men." Plausible deniability.