Global Warming Is a Hoax, Wall Street Hedge Fund Managers Have Souls and Jenny McCarthy Is a Scientist
There is a fascinating trend in seemingly well educated liberal America that has common roots in less educated conservative America. That trend is mistrust and denial of science. The folks that feel faith based solutions are the answer to just about any problem facing our society have an unlikely ally in the upper middle class suburban crowd. Many of the latter have, in spite of overwhelming scientific data to the contrary, decided that vaccination against measles, mumps, rubella and polio is the cause of afflictions such as Autism and Attention Deficit Disorder. Thanks to the likes of the pulchritudinous (love that word) Jenny McCarthy and Michele “Jesus Wrote the Constitution” Bachmann, the anti-science, anti-vaccination crowd have a national voice. Add the interweb and it’s an ignorance fest extraordinaire.
Why are people so quick to latch on to minority “beliefs” and dismiss proven scientific data acknowledged by the overwhelming majority of experts in their given field? Up until now I thought this behavior was exclusive to religious extremists, snake handlers and flat-earthers, but the arugula munching crowd (equal opportunity dissing of left and right) have got on board the crazy train and are as vehement in their denial of science.
Of course when it comes to the health of our children, we get emotional and of course we would never intentionally harm them. That is the thing about science and scientific processing of data. It is fact/evidence based and emotion plays no part in it. Merriam-Webster defines “scientific method” as, “principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.”
My father’s generation was the last that had to deal with the terror of childhood polio in the United States. He told me stories of his mother sending him away for more than one summer to a safe place to avoid the disease after some children in the community contracted it. His own cousin was felled by polio and was confined to a wheel chair for the rest of his life. The disease killed and crippled children indiscriminately every summer until Dr Jonas Salk discovered the vaccine in 1952, tested and finally was able to distribute the life saving cure to the world in 1955. I think it is worth noting that he did not profit personally from his miraculous medicine, but gave it freely because it was the moral thing to do.
The other vaccine under attack is the MMR, Measles/Mumps/Rubella vaccine. There is no evidence (there’s that pesky word again) the MMR causes Autism as claimed by the torch and pitchfork folks. The timing of the onset of Autism and the vaccination are the “proof” that the MMR “causes” Autism. That is completely anecdotal and has zero validity as the two events are totally unrelated, but there is no convincing the true believers. That is not to say there is NO risk in the vaccine. There is always risk whenever one has any medical procedure. The CDC states, “Studies have shown a small increased risk of febrile seizures occurs among children who are younger than 7 years old approximately 8-14 days after vaccination for every 3,000-4,000 children vaccinated with MMR vaccine. This is compared to children not vaccinated during the preceding 30 days.”
Febrile seizures are a frightening thing for a parent to witness, but they are not life threatening. The same cannot be said for Measles, Mumps, and Rubella. The children of the fifties and sixties in the US have enjoyed a relatively healthy existence due to these amazing, life saving medicines and now their children are listening to backward claptrap by a few self-proclaimed spokespersons without any regard to scientific facts or the history of successful near eradication of these diseases. Because of this blind ignorance there is a serious risk that MMR could make a comeback. Sadly, perhaps the only way the troglodytes of denial will reconsider is witnessing an epidemic of birth defects and sterility.
I read that the rise in consumption of organically grown foods is on a parallel trajectory with the rise of Autism in children. Should we conclude, therefore, that organic food is responsible for Autism? If I seem angry and more sarcastic than usual it is because I am. The denial of science is symptomatic of the intellectual deterioration that is occurring in our culture. The dumbing down of America is ongoing and epidemic. I just wish there was a vaccine for THAT disease.
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Alex Symington
Alex lives with his wife, Anna in Key West, Florida. He enjoys writing poetry and prose and making the complacent uncomfortable.
More From Other Sources:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/mmr/mmr.html
http://www.chop.edu/service/parents-possessing-accessing-communicating-knowledge-about-
vaccines/vaccine-preventable-diseases/polio.html
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-07/popsci-guide-anti-vaccine-claims
Shucks, Alex, I’ve been under the impression that science is the cause of the part of global warming, which is not part of the planet’s natural warming and cooling cycles, which brought ice ages in the past, and then sent them away. Science, which invented engines, for example, which run on fossil fuels. Science, which invented power plants and heaters and such,which run on fossil fuels. And on nuclear fuels. Might be the only way to stop global warming caused by science is to get rid of science and its inventions altogether? I mean, human nature being what it is, creature comforts provided by science are a bit hard to let go of, once they become addicted to. Creature comforts like cars, trucks, motorcycles, mopeds, electricity, running water, sewerage collection, garbage pickup and hauling away. Well, maybe that’s too extreme, to imagine people will give up their science-provided creature comforts. Perhaps, instead, humanity simply is eradicated. I imagine that would take care of further aggravation of the non-planetary cycle part of global warming? Yeah, I’m being a bit sarcastic, and that’s because I don’t see any amount of howling and pounding table tops making much of a dent, if any dent, in the way humanity is treating this planet and its seas and forests and rivers and lakes and atmosphere, as well as its mineral deposits. It’s like maybe when God created Adam and Eve, the instruction manual for how to live on and get along with this planet was not provided. Dominion of was not explained correctly. If at all. Well, there is one other thing you raised, autism. It’s been my sense for over 20 years that it might be that autism might be, in many cases, the result of children being in violent home environments. Psychically violent, if not also physically violent. To protect itself, a child’s soul contracts, which contracts the cerebral plates in the skull. Autism ensues. I did not invent that “theory”. A fellow named John Upledger, under whom I trained in a prior life, he was a osteopath, discovered the theory and apparently had some success using that he called “crainosacral therapy” to treat autistic children, as well as children with ADD and hyperactivity. Pressure on their brain, the cerebral plates, atlas and upper neck vertebrae needed to be released. The emotional (trauma) components of the cause of the “diseases” also need to be released. John and people he trained treated all sorts of diseases medicine was not making much headway with. He wasn’t all that much into eating organic food. He liked drinking beer, too. He was into releasing from the unconscious what was bound up there and letting it run its course and transform into something else more agreeable to the patient. Of course, he didn’t fix everyone who came to him for help, but he did have many people come his way, who had given up on science, as it is known by modern medicine. Often got results, when that science had not gotten results. His clinic, The Upledger Institute, was located in West Palm Beach. I myself once was an organic food nut. Fanatic might be more accurate. It didn’t do much for me, though, but make people sometimes wish I was not around. Some of the diets I tried nearly killed me. Soul food works better for me, the kind I grew up eating in Alabama, and the kind the angels who run me ragged serve.
Mr.Symington:
far from claiming an expertise in the science of vaccines, or an erudition as to their efficacy, I find the facts surrounding the subject you bring up using a science vs. non-science narrative to be simply too naive.
now, there is no doubt that there are those, as you describe, who are simply anti-science and prefer to thump their bibles for information and bask in its therapeutic malaise, rather than attempt critical thought and “non-magic” based analysis. But then again, there are those who may not accept the science because that science is flawed, or fraudulent. That is a whole different story.
i am an individual who looks to relative agendas to better ferret out where the truth may lie. the motives of the consumers of vaccines are better health, safety, and compliance with government mandates. the motives of the makers of vaccines may be the same as well; i’m sure that is what they would have you believe. but they are also for-profit businesses, and as such, need to satisfy a thirst for ever expanding revenue sources. so, on the one hand we have moms and dads looking out for their kids, and on the other we have huge corporations looking to meet quarterly financial projections. hmmmm, who has more credibility…. ?
did you know that nation wide measles and mumps are making a comeback? and it’s not for lack of vaccinations. it is because the vaccines are designed to fail. that’s right, the manufactures are intentionally falsifying test data, and putting out a product that not only doesn’t perform its intended purpose, but actually can cause harm because of the contaminates in them. so why would they do this? because an outbreak of a disease makes people rush to get vaccinated, and thus increases the demand for their product. but surely a health care company would not endanger the lives of americans for mere profit, would it? well, i guess we can ask GM about that. and Ford before them. and the tobacco companies, food companies, airline manufactures, and well, you get the idea. if you can believe it, one company actually included live viruses in a flu vaccine, that you guessed it, gave people the flu.
were you aware that one study showed that 97% of kids contracting mumps and measles had previously been vaccinated? in another, in New Jersey, it was 77%. in 2010 in England, during a swine flu outbreak, 70% of those infected had been vaccinated. now i’m no expert, but that is a failure rate that does not inspire confidence. but it should inspire investigation into fraud and criminality.
so i would postulate that most of the debate about vaccines is far deeper than science vs non-science. when i was a kid (born in 1955) there were a handful of vaccinations that were mandated. we now have 36 for kids under 5 in the US, double the average of western nations. we have an autism rate that is 10 times higher than some other countries as well, and rank 34th in mortality rates for kids under 5. as i said, i have no expertise in the science, but even a laymen can see there is something wrong.
as I always say, just follow the money.
headline today… whooping cough epidemic in California. 85% had received shots.
a government official (a doctor yet) then comes out and says that the number of cases would dramatically increase if fewer people had been vaccinated.
so, their message: get more vaccinations (i.e.. more profit).
that it makes no sense mathematically is inconsequential.
http://www.thelibertybeacon.com/2013/07/20/the-government-admits-that-vaccines-cause-autism-and-are-dangerous-but-they-wont-tell-you-that-10425/
“Many unfortunate children in the USA have been awarded compensation by the Vaccine courts under the Vaccine Injury Claims Program, due to vaccines directly causing adverse/harmful effects. The amount awarded totals $2,704,762,675.55 between the years 1989 and 2013. (1)”
(1) http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/statisticsreports.html
“There is a fascinating trend in seemingly well educated liberal America that has common roots in less educated conservative America”
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i could get no further then this claptrap of an opening sentence of the mindset of elitism!
I agree wankajm. That sentence was quite a hurdle to overcome. I always feel like I’m playing a game of wack-a-mole when I read Alex’s work. But I must admit, I do thoroughly enjoy his writing style, although not so much his opinions.
wankajm, sister:
perhaps I read it incorrectly, but I took the sentence as meaning we are all suffering from a common “dumbing down” and are all complicit in succumbing to the propaganda constantly being prosecuted against us. i think he meant it as a foreboding that no one is immune to the mind control, behavioral shaping apparatus of the state and their corporate partners. i don’t think it was meant to convey any sense of elitism, just its increased success in expanding its reach into a heretofore harder to reach segment of the populace.
I, and perhaps Alex, and others in this thread-bared discussion have developed acute paranoia, without or without schizophrenia affect, from having observed and observed and observed everything is pretty much all you what upped and there are few, if any, kind reasons for it, and on top of that, there ain’t a whole lot anybody can do about it, but pissing and moaning about, which don’t do anything about it either. I mean, I don’t see any way, living down here in the Keys, or anywhere else for that matter, to go totally on strike and not buy anything that will keep feeding the monster causing the paranoia. I flap my gums, Alex flaps his, other people flap theirs, the monster keeps growing. Maybe the smart move is to buy stock in drug companies; they make money in war and in peace, in sickness and in health. It’s okay, Alex. We might be taken up in the Rapture, or somehow, before science and religion screw everything up totally. Meanwhile, did any of you ever see the Argentinian movie “Man Facing Southeast”? It’s a terrific spoof on science worshiped by psychiatry. It spoofs religion a bit, too, by not even mentioning it.
Well, that last sentence wasn’t entirely accurate; the psychiatrist, whom the alien who landed in the insane asylum toys with in the movie, ends up talking some about Jesus. The alien landed there, he told the psychiatrist, because that’s where he was going to end up in any event. kinda reminds me of Key West..
Thanks keysbum for that analysis. Alex’s writings do seem to exhibit a “fascinating trend” to embrace the divide and conquer strategy of pitting right against left. He may have attempted to disguise it a bit in that sentence but I’m not so sure. He’s a sneaky one!
Ps…Scientism is also a belief based religion.
it’s a shame that Mr. Symington does not offer a reply to our comments and/or defend his position. it is, I have noticed, an unfortunate trait among the authors of Blue Paper articles (editors excluded).
I distinctly remember receiving a “whatever” not so long ago. I guess that’s better than nothing.
keysbum the inference is ‘well educated liberal America vs less educated conservative America’. by what standard?
i’ve found along the 68 years of this road that the liberal/collectivist mind set philosophy is quite corrupt to say the least. need i also assume its as a result of being ‘well educated’ as opposed to a conservative/libertarian being ‘less educated’? unless of course its “for the children” which then makes all liberal positions acceptable and sacrosanct! [sarc]
wankajm…
studies have shown that there is indeed a correlation between intelligence, education, and those who identify themselves as liberal or conservative (liberals come out on top). studies have also shown that same correlation between liberal and conservative and those that except the reality of a deity (Liberals are more likely to be atheists).
common sense would also tend to support those studies by merely defining the words liberal and conservative. liberal in its most general form, means to savor progress and reform. that is, they are willing to think critically, are willing to adapt, willing to accept change. conservative on the other hand, means holding on to tradition, limit change, maintain the status quo. in other words, not to think critically, accept what is, and denounce change.
so unless one lives in a utopia, I think liberal is the way to go as a general way in which to conduct ones thought process.
it also makes Mr. Symingtons sentence a refection of reality.
One man’s progress is another man’s tragedy.
i understand the studies were conducted by a liberal think tank or it just may be a rumor.
as for common sense supporting thoes studies is that like supporting the liberal icon mindsets of a pelosi or a reid or an obamma?
then i much prefer the stupidity of conservatism thank you.
http://www.alternet.org/belief/have-conservatives-abandoned-rationality-skepticism-and-truth?page=0%2C1&akid=11937.242266.18DOjE&rd=1&src=newsletter1004817&t=2&paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark