What the...!? What should I do about this?

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I'm an oldie and not all that familiar with YouTube, so I don't know if this was a private message or a public one.

If she sent you a private message, ignore her. It's like teaching pigs to sing.

If she posted a public message, you could just reply that lots of independent researchers don't believe that vaccines cause autism, provide a few links, and leave it at that. You wouldn't be trying to convince her, but you might provide some information for people watching the discussion that they might not otherwise have.

It's really up to you, though. Don't wear yourself out over it. I have a hard time letting go of these kinds of things when they become a public discussion, so I understand your wanting to respond. If you do, keep it short and focused and move on to something more enjoyable.

Popular opinion seems to be "ignore it". So that's what I'm going to do. Any response I give would trigger another rant from her, and it would probably go on until I'd stop responding.

But her ignorance, and insulting my intelligence ("your not that bright if you dont know the truth vaccines cause autism ok") really bug me alot.

Last edited by DJRnold on 30 Dec 2008, 9:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Whoever thinks vaccines cause autism are the stupid ones, not you. They are gullible and don't even bother to find the truth or accept it. The smart ones would see the truth and believe it, the not so bright ones won't.

Oops! Ignore this.

i dont know how you all can just ignore it, wrong people need to be corrected. i cant sleep if i havent presented my argument

write a statement regarding what you think about vaccines and autism. present the proof you have seen. im sure if you google it you'll come up with plenty of answers. maybe some of us could proof read it for you

Exactly my point! I believe it to be genetic, not caused by anything. I was showing traits the day I was born, so the MMR could not have made me autistic.

What's the point in correcting people if they won't change their mind?


It's like someone trying to convince you the earth is in the center of the universe. Would you buy it? What if they kept arguing with you and not shut up? I get pretty nasty when people shove things in my face. Online, I just ignore their posts, if it happened on IM, I would tell them "bye" and block them if they keep IMing me about the same argument.

If someone thinks they are right, they are not going to change their minds because they think you are wrong and they are right. You can try and post them the proof but they might not want to read it because they think they are right or they might say the article is bull.

Well, if you were a child in any sort of public school in the 60s, you were vaccinated. It wasn't an option, it was the law. You couldn't prove vaccination, you didn't get in. I think it's still that way, but there should be a lot more AS out there if that were true. Unless (conspiracy theory #2112)
they knew that those susceptible to AS could have it triggered by mercury...

So I'm wondering what the point of creating millions of bright but shy people would be...

I think the point isn't to try and convince the ranter, but to set the story straight for the people who are listening in and may come away with some incorrect ideas. This is usually my reason for arguing my point. So long as I remember who my audience is (ie not the ranter), I do all right. In fact, I usually state the reason for my response right away. It helps me keep my focus.

Of course, everyone has to choose their battles. There is too much ignorance out there to correct it every time. So whatever the OP decides is right for him is fine by me.

It is well known that there are many substances that cause problems only in a few people, so your statement that "everyone" who had it would be autistic is false.

The popularly expressed theory in which vaccines cause autism is as a result of mercury poisoning (called "mercurism").

The symptoms of mercurism are very different from the symptoms of autism.

The one in particular to note, that simply can not be covered up or misinterpreted is this:

Prenatal exposure to mercury tends to cause microencephaly, meaning that the head is physically much smaller than it should be.

The symptoms of autism are the exact opposite of this, causing people with autism to have statistically larger heads.

So ... if you lined up a bunch of people suffering from prenatal mercury poisoning side by side, you'd see lots of little heads.
If you lined up a bunch of autistic people side by side, you'd see lots of great big fat heads.
The symptoms are the exact opposite of each other.

This is not a conspiracy.

Last edited by ike on 31 Dec 2008, 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

You mean like this one that describes the symptoms as being mostly the exact opposite of each other?

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/c ... /111/3/674

Well ... I probably wouldn't be able to resist a reply along these lines: "Given that the vast majority of credible scientists hold the same opinion as I do, I don't see how you can jump to a conclusion that the less intelligent response is to not believe vaccines cause autism. I will allow you your opinion on this, and I understand that the issue is divise, but a personal attack is a completely inappropriate repsonse given how much support there is for the position I advocated."

The truth is, the "best" answer may be "it depends" and "sort of." There is so much anecdotal evidence that it is difficult to discount it completely, but they are still grasping for proof and a rational "why." There have been some good theories on here, but because of the divide between the two communities that information doesn't get to the other side. I do believe AS is genetic, but I can't discount the possibility of either environmental aggrevating factors, or mimic conditions.

Last edited by DW_a_mom on 30 Dec 2008, 11:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I had autism at birth....WAAAAAAAY before the the vaccine.

In the 70-ish years that Autism has been around, many causes have come and gone.

One year it was lead paint chips. Another year, an aloof, "icebox mom." Emotional trauma in infancy, Vaccines. The mercury contained in vaccines.

They sounded like good hypotheses at the time. There were actual cases - lots of them! - people pointed to.

But science is hard. Most hypotheses don't get confirmed by experiment. Even the really good ones.

If the cause were vaccines, it would be a simple matter to verify this scientifically and publish it. Other scientists would quickly confirm the results. This would only take a few months.

No Grand Conspiracy exists to suppress this critical information. Such a conspiracy would be impossible to pull off. It's just plain wrong.

Genetics is the only known link to autism. Deal.

Ditto.



And VMSnith, you win the internet.
(Except autism has been around longer than 70-ish years, I'm sure. Just called different things.)