forgot my pants posted:

I have a relative who is hardcore anti-vaccine. She is opposed to all forms of Western medicine. I'm not sure her children have ever seen a doctor. Her last pregnancy she had two twins delivered breech. It would have been illegal to home birth them in the state she lives in due to the elevated risk. So she searched on the internet for a couple in a neighboring state that would let her deliver them at their home. She ended up traveling there to give birth. She received all kinds of "cred" in the online communities she's a member of for not going to the hospital despite her risky pregnancy. This is only half of her craziness, but it underscores how the anti-vaccine movement is part of a broader anti-medicine movement, and for many people it is an essential part of their identity. These people derive their social esteem from having such outlandish beliefs. That makes it particularly difficult to change their minds. I also think these views would have a lot of difficulty spreading without the internet making it possible for anti-vaxxers to reinforce each other's opinions.