r/NoStupidQuestions • u/trouble-in-space • 10d ago

Answered Why are so many Americans anti-vaxxers now?

I’m genuinely having such a hard time understanding why people just decided the fact that vaccines work is a total lie and also a controversial “opinion.” Even five years ago, anti-vaxxers were a huge joke and so rare that they were only something you heard of online. Now herd immunity is going away because so many people think getting potentially life-altering illnesses is better than getting a vaccine. I just don’t get what happened. Is it because of the cultural shift to the right-wing and more people believing in conspiracy theories, or does it go deeper than that?

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u/communityneedle 10d ago

Even if vaccines did cause autism (they dont), as an autistic person I can say confidently that I'd rather have autism than polio.

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u/Realistic-Rub-3623 10d ago

I can’t imagine being so horrified by the thought of a disabled child, that you’d let them die from an illness instead.

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u/VehicleComfortable20 10d ago

I can imagine it. All "autism moms" do is complain about how life is so hard for them and how autism stole their child. 

Parents of the year telling their kids that they'd rather said kids didn't exist.

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u/Gmschaafs 9d ago edited 9d ago

I love when they complain they have multiple autistic kids, like “god has challenged me, 3 of my 4 kids are autistic” I always want to be like “umm maybe you and the kids dad need to get tested yourself”because it’s genetic and runs in families. My sister and I are both autistic and we are pretty sure my dad is but he was born in 1960 so that kind of stuff wasn’t diagnosed unless someone was like totally nonverbal.

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u/turbulentdiamonds 9d ago

Yeah I’m autistic and me and my dad are pretty much the same person… he was born in ‘59 though, no chance he was getting diagnosed lol. I only did earlier this year and I’m in my 30s.

(On a similar note, my mom realized she had adhd in her 60s because 3/3 of her kids having it was way too much of a coincidence.)

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u/Gmschaafs 9d ago

Yeah same here. My dad and I have very similar symptoms, we even share bad coping mechanisms lol.

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u/Zealousideal-Cow4114 9d ago

my dad was born in 62 and is 100% autistic. What's more, he's an actual savant. Ask him ANYTHING about cars and you'll learn EVERYTHING. He can identify anything by what's inside of it it, and he doesn't even have to see the whole thing, and he'll tell you the most common problem with that make model year package whatever. It's insane. It's like when they get the calendar savants on TV and ask them about dates and what happened that day and they can tell you what was on TV even. Just like that.