Vaccines are a medical invention that has been around for a very long time, the very first one being invented by Edward Jenner in 1796 for small pox.
There are alot of things that have been said about vaccines, and taking a look at these claims, as well as the facts about vaccines, I've come up with fives things about them.
So here are five things I've noticed about vaccines:
5. They cause extinctions.
Most people probably don't know this, or do but rarely if ever think about it is that vaccines kill things and can very easily lead to the extinction of some species. Infact vaccines have already caused the extinction of one species, small pox.
Vaccines are also very well on their way to causing the extinction of polio, and could in due time and with enough people getting vaccinated, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, and a variety of other well known diseases that can kill people, particularly young children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems.
Don't these viruses deserve to exist? I mean true these viruses have caused the deaths of millions, plus have left countless others disfigured and disabled, and other than to do all of that have no real purpose to exist, and are still debated over whether or not they are lifeforms, but regardless of all that you have to ask yourself, don't these useless and dangerous lifeforms/not lifeforms have a right to exist?
4. They prevent our children from having the childhood memories of our parents and grandparents.
My parents and grandparents didn't have the vaccines like my generation and my generation's children have, and I can't help but think of what kind of childhood memories might have been taken away because of vaccines.
Some of those memories I imagine would include attending the funeral of a classmate or family member that died from an infectious disease, or having to help another fellow classmate get around because they have trouble walking or are in a wheelchair due to polio, and even having to be rushed to the hospital because I contracted measles and my temperature got really high.
Yes, because of vaccines I have none of these childhood memories, nor does most of the people in my generation as well, but thanks to people like Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy, as well as numerous anti-vaccination websites, those childhood memories of the past generations are making a comeback.
3. They make people paranoid.
Vaccines make people paranoid, this is a fact.
The vaccines themselves don't actually make people paranoid, but just the thought of injecting a dead or weakened virus that's inside a mixture of chemicals that in high enough doses could be deadly, although are in low enough doses that they would be safe to take individually several times over and not harm a person, is enough to scare some people to not get themselves or their children vaccinated.
Now you couple this with something like the Wakefield paper, a paper was publish in the UK medical journal The Lancet and authored by then Dr. Andrew Wakefield that claimed that vaccines cause autism, a claim that has since long been discredited and debunked, and the paper itself was retracted due to fraud, as well as Wakefield being stripped of his medical license due to that fraud and gross ethics violations, and in the end you'll have a person to paranoid to do something which almost every medical doctor in the world says a person should do.
Maybe it's not really vaccines that cause people to become paranoid of them. Maybe it's bad and made-up information combined with a lack of willingness to do real research and a mistrust of pharmaceutical companies that cause people to become paranoid of vaccines?
2. They affect industries.
Vaccines do affect several industries and in big ways too!
The health care industry for one is greatly affected by vaccines. The reason for this is because when a vaccine makes someone immune from disease it greatly decreases their chance of contracting said disease which could require an extensive stay in a hospital and/or hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in medical treatments.
And lets not get started on all the iron lung and leg brace manufactures that have taken a major hit in profits due to the polio vaccine...
Then there are ofcourse the coffin manufactures who have had a sharp decline in the sale of children and infants' coffins due to the fact children and infants are not dying as often as they use to because they aren't contracting the deadly diseases that would usually kill them before they reached adulthood thanks to vaccines.
1. It's the greatest medical invention ever.
All joking and satire aside vaccines are without a doubt the greatest medical invention of all time.
Vaccines are safe, cheap, reliable, rarely have any negative side effects (and even those are not severe most of the time) but almost always has the positive side effect of making a person immune from a disease, and can wipe out some diseases, which it already has with small pox, and is well on it's way with polio and in the future may do so with other diseases like measles and mumps.
The money saved due to vaccines for just health care alone has been in the billions, and the lives saved due to vaccines may be immeasurable.
With the exception of legitimate health reasons there is no reason to not get vaccinated, nor is there any reason for a parent to not vaccinate their child.
To not do so simply irresponsible, and in some cases, criminal.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Friday, June 13, 2014
5 Things I've noticed about... Creationists
Creationists are people who believe that God created all life on Earth, and for many of them they believe that evolution isn't real or even possible.
There are many things that I have noticed about creationist, and while I could list many of them, I have narrowed it down to five different things.
So here are five things I've noticed about creationists:
5. They want to force their beliefs onto others.
For years now fundamentalist Christians have been trying to sneak their belief in creationism into public class rooms across the United States. Ofcourse fundamentalist Christians don't actually call it creationism, they call it "Intelligent Design" and attempt to make it sound more "scientific". In reality it is not scientific at all. It is a religious belief that has no scientific backing and should not be taught in public schools at all, much less a science class room in a public school.
Despite the fact that creationism is not scientific, fundamentalist Christians still try to force creationism into science class rooms via electing public officials who are also creationists and will force the teaching of creationism into science classes, or at the very least have an advisory sticker placed on a science text book that claims that there are other "theories" concerning the origins of life and how it came to be today besides evolution, which is technically true, but the only one that is scientifically valid is evolution.
Some fundamentalist Christians have also made it quite clear that they really don't want evolution taught at all in schools, and only want creationism to be taught in schools. They especially don't want evolution taught to their own children, and will often homeschool their children if they can inorder to keep them from learning about evolution.
4. They think evolution isn't real because they believe it's never happened within our lifetimes.
One of the most common arguments made by creationists is that they claim that evolution cannot be real because they believe that it's never been observed.
What creationists either ignore, forget, or just don't know is that evolution has been observed, particularly with this planet's smallest lifeforms, bacteria.
Decades ago all bacterial infections could be have been treated with antibiotics, but because of our overuse and abuse of antibiotics some strains of certain bacteria have evolved to the point where none of our current antibiotics can kill them.
There are ofcourse other lifeforms who's evolution has been observed, not to mention the numerous fossils that help to back up evolutionary theory, but bacteria is one of the best examples of why evolution is real, not only because of how quickly it has evolved to become immune to antibiotics, but how obvious that evolution is.
3. They fight amongst each other.
Not all creationists are alike. Infact there are actually four different types of creationists.
There are the theological evolutionists who do accept the theory of evolution, they just believe that God had a hand in the process. Some might even argue that theological evolutionists aren't really creationists at all, just Christians that are trying to adapt their religious beliefs to modern science.
Then there are the old Earth creationists who do accept the fact that Earth is billions of years old and creatures like the dinosaurs were around before humans, just that God created all life and that evolution did not happen.
Then there are the young Earth creationist that believe that the Earth is only a little over 6,000 years old, and that dinosaurs roomed the Earth along with humans before Noah's flood.
Finally there are the no dinosaur creationists who believe that dinosaurs didn't even exist, and that the bones you see in museums were created by scientists, or by Satan.
Despite the fact that they all agree that God created life, none of these groups get along with each other, mainly due to the fact that they believe that their belief is the correct belief and that all others are either less Christian, or ironically, less scientifically valid.
2. They think there is a conspiracy to "hide the truth."
One of the main reasons why creationists, especially the young Earth types, reject the theory of evolution and the science behind it is because they believe there is a conspiracy by the scientific and atheist communities to hide "the truth" about evolution and creationism inorder to undermine and eventually eliminate Christianity.
The reality is there is no "conspiracy" to hide the truth about evolution and creationism. Evolution is science, and creationism is a religious belief.
Just because evolution doesn't go along one's beliefs doesn't mean that there is a conspiracy to suppress the truth, it just means that person is unable to accept the facts.
In a way you could kind of say that the conspiracy theory that the "truth" about evolution is being suppressed is alot like every other conspiracy theory, not based on facts, but the inability to accept facts.
1. They always refer to the Bible.
In the end no matter how scientific of an argument they try to make, and no matter how much they resist trying to use it, ultimately in the end they will refer to the Bible and use it as a source of "proof".
For a many creationists this is more than enough to prove creationism and disprove evolution.
For most other people it doesn't.
Infact most people see such an argument for what it really is, and that is that creationists are using the Bible as a scapegoat inorder to avoid having to accept or even acknowledge the fact that evolution is real, and that the scientific evidence behind it proves it, and that something in the Bible isn't true.
There are many things that I have noticed about creationist, and while I could list many of them, I have narrowed it down to five different things.
So here are five things I've noticed about creationists:
5. They want to force their beliefs onto others.
For years now fundamentalist Christians have been trying to sneak their belief in creationism into public class rooms across the United States. Ofcourse fundamentalist Christians don't actually call it creationism, they call it "Intelligent Design" and attempt to make it sound more "scientific". In reality it is not scientific at all. It is a religious belief that has no scientific backing and should not be taught in public schools at all, much less a science class room in a public school.
Despite the fact that creationism is not scientific, fundamentalist Christians still try to force creationism into science class rooms via electing public officials who are also creationists and will force the teaching of creationism into science classes, or at the very least have an advisory sticker placed on a science text book that claims that there are other "theories" concerning the origins of life and how it came to be today besides evolution, which is technically true, but the only one that is scientifically valid is evolution.
Some fundamentalist Christians have also made it quite clear that they really don't want evolution taught at all in schools, and only want creationism to be taught in schools. They especially don't want evolution taught to their own children, and will often homeschool their children if they can inorder to keep them from learning about evolution.
4. They think evolution isn't real because they believe it's never happened within our lifetimes.
One of the most common arguments made by creationists is that they claim that evolution cannot be real because they believe that it's never been observed.
What creationists either ignore, forget, or just don't know is that evolution has been observed, particularly with this planet's smallest lifeforms, bacteria.
Decades ago all bacterial infections could be have been treated with antibiotics, but because of our overuse and abuse of antibiotics some strains of certain bacteria have evolved to the point where none of our current antibiotics can kill them.
There are ofcourse other lifeforms who's evolution has been observed, not to mention the numerous fossils that help to back up evolutionary theory, but bacteria is one of the best examples of why evolution is real, not only because of how quickly it has evolved to become immune to antibiotics, but how obvious that evolution is.
3. They fight amongst each other.
Not all creationists are alike. Infact there are actually four different types of creationists.
There are the theological evolutionists who do accept the theory of evolution, they just believe that God had a hand in the process. Some might even argue that theological evolutionists aren't really creationists at all, just Christians that are trying to adapt their religious beliefs to modern science.
Then there are the old Earth creationists who do accept the fact that Earth is billions of years old and creatures like the dinosaurs were around before humans, just that God created all life and that evolution did not happen.
Then there are the young Earth creationist that believe that the Earth is only a little over 6,000 years old, and that dinosaurs roomed the Earth along with humans before Noah's flood.
Finally there are the no dinosaur creationists who believe that dinosaurs didn't even exist, and that the bones you see in museums were created by scientists, or by Satan.
Despite the fact that they all agree that God created life, none of these groups get along with each other, mainly due to the fact that they believe that their belief is the correct belief and that all others are either less Christian, or ironically, less scientifically valid.
2. They think there is a conspiracy to "hide the truth."
One of the main reasons why creationists, especially the young Earth types, reject the theory of evolution and the science behind it is because they believe there is a conspiracy by the scientific and atheist communities to hide "the truth" about evolution and creationism inorder to undermine and eventually eliminate Christianity.
The reality is there is no "conspiracy" to hide the truth about evolution and creationism. Evolution is science, and creationism is a religious belief.
Just because evolution doesn't go along one's beliefs doesn't mean that there is a conspiracy to suppress the truth, it just means that person is unable to accept the facts.
In a way you could kind of say that the conspiracy theory that the "truth" about evolution is being suppressed is alot like every other conspiracy theory, not based on facts, but the inability to accept facts.
1. They always refer to the Bible.
In the end no matter how scientific of an argument they try to make, and no matter how much they resist trying to use it, ultimately in the end they will refer to the Bible and use it as a source of "proof".
For a many creationists this is more than enough to prove creationism and disprove evolution.
For most other people it doesn't.
Infact most people see such an argument for what it really is, and that is that creationists are using the Bible as a scapegoat inorder to avoid having to accept or even acknowledge the fact that evolution is real, and that the scientific evidence behind it proves it, and that something in the Bible isn't true.
Friday, June 6, 2014
10 Lies Anti-vaccers tell
The anti-vaccination has caused alot of harm over the years with their fear mongering and lies. These lies have caused parents to become to afraid to vaccinate their children, and themselves as well, despite the danger in not doing so.
The following is a list of ten lies the anti-vaccination movement has told, and why they are just bogus:
10. Studies indicate that vaccines cause autism.
While there are "studies" that claim that vaccines cause autism, only one of these so called studies have been published in a well respected, peer reviewed scientific and medical journal. That study, the Wakefield study (which was published in The Lancet in 1998) was retracted in 2010 after it had been discovered that the main author of the study, Andrew Wakefield, had committed fraud. On top of that the findings in the study itself had been long since discredited and disproved before the formal retraction.
The studies that followed since the Wakefield study that claim that vaccines cause autism have never been published in any credible medical or scientific journals. The only places that these studies have ever been published are either in non-credible pay-for-publish journals, or websites that promote alternative medicine and/or conspiracy theories.
9. Signs of autism show up in children only after they have been vaccinated.
As the old skeptics' saying goes "correlation does not equal causation".
Just because a child starts to show obvious signs of autism after they have had their vaccinations, it's far more likely that they were showing signs of autism before they received their vaccinations and that no one noticed simply because the child was to young to show any noticable signs of autism to anyone but trained professionals.
8. Adverse reactions to vaccines are common, often severe, and can cause death.
Actually only about one out of every 300 people will have adverse reactions to vaccines. Most of the time these adverse reaction are mirror, short lived, and are more annoying than debilitating.
Occasionally a person will have a severe adverse reaction to a vaccine, some of which can be fatal, but these types of adverse reactions are very rare, only about one to two out of every million people. You have better odds dying in a car wreck to get a vaccination than you from the vaccination.
7. Vaccines have never been shown to be effective against reducing the spread of disease, and has even been shown to increase the spread.
I'm sure smallpox and polio would disagree. Actually alot of diseases would disagree because it's been proven time and time again that anytime vaccines were in wide spread use the rate of infections of a disease that the vaccines are meant to protect against will go down dramatically, sometimes even eliminating a disease in an area.
6. Natural immunity is superior to immunity via vaccination.
If you try to get natural immunity from a disease (i.e. getting infected and sick from said disease) there is a pretty good possibility that the disease that you hope to make yourself or your child immune from will actually kill you or your child, or atleast cause a permanent disability. Also in many cases it takes several weeks for this form of immunity to happen, during which time you will be sick as heck.
On the other hand immunity via vaccination is much faster, doesn't leave you sick, and is far, FAR less likely to kill you than getting immunity from a disease by getting infected by that disease.
5. Vaccines contain aborted fetuses.
This is completely false and is a distortion of the fact that the weakened forms of some viruses in vaccines are grown in a culture of cell lines derived from fetal tissue of fetuses aborted in the 1960's.
There are no fetal cells at all in vaccines.
4. Vaccines cause shaken baby syndrome.
No, rapidly shaking a baby back and forth and causing their head to flop around causes shaken baby syndrome.
This isn't even just a bold faced lie, this is child abuse apology.
3. Vaccines contain high amounts of toxic ingredients.
While vaccines do contain chemicals that in high enough amounts are toxic to humans, the amounts of these toxins in vaccines are so low that it wouldn't hurt anyone even if they took that chemicals by itself.
As the old saying goes "the dose makes the poison" and no vaccine contains enough of a certain chemical to make it poisonous.
2. Vaccines cause SIDS.
While DPT/DPaT vaccines have been suspected of being one of the causes of SIDS in the past, current studies into SIDS point to that abnormalities in the development and function of medullary serotonin may be the more likely cause of SIDS, and that vaccines do not cause SIDS at all.
1. Most diseases meant to be prevented by vaccines are rare and mostly harmless, and thus there is no reason to vaccinate.
Most diseases prevented by vaccines use to be rare, but a few diseases such as measles and mumps are making a comeback due to people not getting their children the MMR vaccine. Outbreaks of more common diseases such as the flu and whooping cough are made worse if large groups of people do not get vaccinated.
Also, while many people can get over these diseases they are far from harmless and can kill, especially if the person is very old, or very young, or has something wrong with their immune system and they are unable to fight off the disease.
Even if a disease is rare there is still no reason not to vaccinate against it, as vaccinating will help guarantee that disease remains rare, and may even wipe out that disease.
The following is a list of ten lies the anti-vaccination movement has told, and why they are just bogus:
10. Studies indicate that vaccines cause autism.
While there are "studies" that claim that vaccines cause autism, only one of these so called studies have been published in a well respected, peer reviewed scientific and medical journal. That study, the Wakefield study (which was published in The Lancet in 1998) was retracted in 2010 after it had been discovered that the main author of the study, Andrew Wakefield, had committed fraud. On top of that the findings in the study itself had been long since discredited and disproved before the formal retraction.
The studies that followed since the Wakefield study that claim that vaccines cause autism have never been published in any credible medical or scientific journals. The only places that these studies have ever been published are either in non-credible pay-for-publish journals, or websites that promote alternative medicine and/or conspiracy theories.
9. Signs of autism show up in children only after they have been vaccinated.
As the old skeptics' saying goes "correlation does not equal causation".
Just because a child starts to show obvious signs of autism after they have had their vaccinations, it's far more likely that they were showing signs of autism before they received their vaccinations and that no one noticed simply because the child was to young to show any noticable signs of autism to anyone but trained professionals.
8. Adverse reactions to vaccines are common, often severe, and can cause death.
Actually only about one out of every 300 people will have adverse reactions to vaccines. Most of the time these adverse reaction are mirror, short lived, and are more annoying than debilitating.
Occasionally a person will have a severe adverse reaction to a vaccine, some of which can be fatal, but these types of adverse reactions are very rare, only about one to two out of every million people. You have better odds dying in a car wreck to get a vaccination than you from the vaccination.
7. Vaccines have never been shown to be effective against reducing the spread of disease, and has even been shown to increase the spread.
I'm sure smallpox and polio would disagree. Actually alot of diseases would disagree because it's been proven time and time again that anytime vaccines were in wide spread use the rate of infections of a disease that the vaccines are meant to protect against will go down dramatically, sometimes even eliminating a disease in an area.
6. Natural immunity is superior to immunity via vaccination.
If you try to get natural immunity from a disease (i.e. getting infected and sick from said disease) there is a pretty good possibility that the disease that you hope to make yourself or your child immune from will actually kill you or your child, or atleast cause a permanent disability. Also in many cases it takes several weeks for this form of immunity to happen, during which time you will be sick as heck.
On the other hand immunity via vaccination is much faster, doesn't leave you sick, and is far, FAR less likely to kill you than getting immunity from a disease by getting infected by that disease.
5. Vaccines contain aborted fetuses.
This is completely false and is a distortion of the fact that the weakened forms of some viruses in vaccines are grown in a culture of cell lines derived from fetal tissue of fetuses aborted in the 1960's.
There are no fetal cells at all in vaccines.
4. Vaccines cause shaken baby syndrome.
No, rapidly shaking a baby back and forth and causing their head to flop around causes shaken baby syndrome.
This isn't even just a bold faced lie, this is child abuse apology.
3. Vaccines contain high amounts of toxic ingredients.
While vaccines do contain chemicals that in high enough amounts are toxic to humans, the amounts of these toxins in vaccines are so low that it wouldn't hurt anyone even if they took that chemicals by itself.
As the old saying goes "the dose makes the poison" and no vaccine contains enough of a certain chemical to make it poisonous.
2. Vaccines cause SIDS.
While DPT/DPaT vaccines have been suspected of being one of the causes of SIDS in the past, current studies into SIDS point to that abnormalities in the development and function of medullary serotonin may be the more likely cause of SIDS, and that vaccines do not cause SIDS at all.
1. Most diseases meant to be prevented by vaccines are rare and mostly harmless, and thus there is no reason to vaccinate.
Most diseases prevented by vaccines use to be rare, but a few diseases such as measles and mumps are making a comeback due to people not getting their children the MMR vaccine. Outbreaks of more common diseases such as the flu and whooping cough are made worse if large groups of people do not get vaccinated.
Also, while many people can get over these diseases they are far from harmless and can kill, especially if the person is very old, or very young, or has something wrong with their immune system and they are unable to fight off the disease.
Even if a disease is rare there is still no reason not to vaccinate against it, as vaccinating will help guarantee that disease remains rare, and may even wipe out that disease.
Friday, May 30, 2014
"You might be a domestic terrorist if:" A look into conspiracy theorist claims about what makes a person a terrorist
Recently in one of skeptics groups that I belong to on Facebook someone posted this picture they found on a conspiracy theorist group:
Apparently conspiracy theorists believe that because some people believe or do certain then that makes them a "terrorist".
This picture is one of the most blatant examples of persecution complex that I have seen in a while and kind of shows the mindset of a conspiracy theorist.
I'm going to go through all of these claims and explain why believing in these things does not make you a domestic terrorist:
You raise/grow your own food
Why would this make you a domestic terrorist? The answer is it doesn't.
Millions of people across the country grow their own food in one way or another, be it either in small plots as a hobby (as my dad does) and as a way to have fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables, or in greenhouses, or in large fields that provide enough food to feed their entire family. Heck, even the White House has it's own vegetable garden.
If growing your own food made you a domestic terrorist, then why wouldn't the government just go around to everyones' houses and destroy their gardens and green houses? Or pass laws that make it illegal to grow your own food? They wouldn't because growing your own food is harmless and effects no one.
Oppose GMOs
Opposing GMO foods does not make you a terrorist. It might make you someone who doesn't understand the science behind GMO foods, or someone who has embraced anti-GMO propaganda, but not understanding science or embracing some group's claims without questioning them doesn't make you a terrorist.
If opposing GMO foods made you a terrorist then there would be no organic foods in any grocery store or farmers market anywhere, and no laws meant to either label GMO foods or prevent them from being grown or sold would ever be proposed, much less passed.
Prefer natural medicines
If this was true then how come the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a official United States government agency that researches and promotes things like natural medicines, even exists?
While the government does restrict multiple types of alternative and natural medicines, this is only because some of them are dangerous, or the manufactures claim it can do something when infact it cannot.
If natural medicines made a person a terrorist then all forms of alternative medicine would be illegal and people who sale it or even promote it would be going to prison.
Refuse vaccinations
Refusing vaccines does not make you a terrorist as there no laws that say that you have to get vaccinated. However, it does make you dangerous to others, as well as your own self as it puts you at greater risk for getting infected with a disease that could kill you, as well as spreading said disease to others who either weren't vaccinate because they also choose not to (or their parents choose not to have them vaccinated) or a person whom couldn't get vaccinate for various medical reasons, or someone whom did get vaccinated but the vaccine did not take affect for some reason.
Have a Ron Paul bumper sticker
This does not make you a terrorist, it just makes you someone who likes Ron Paul and refuses to accept the reality that he'll never be President, and someone who doesn't know when to take a bumper sticker off of their car.
Question 9/11
Believing in 9/11 conspiracy theories, or any other conspiracy theory for that matter, doesn't make you a terrorist. If it did then people like Alex Jones and Mike Adams would be in prison, and their websites, as well as any other websites that promote 9/11 conspiracy theories, would be shut down. This also include Youtube videos, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts that also promote 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Object to geo-engineering
I would ask what exactly do they mean by this, but I think they're talking about chemtrails.
Being opposed to geo-engineering chemtrails does not make you a terrorist, but this is due to the fact chemtrails don't exist, and even if they did, there are no laws that says that you cannot object to it.
However, if you threaten to shoot down a plane because you believe that it's spraying these imaginary chemicals, then you are a terrorist, or atleast someone whom has the potential to become one.
Oppose war
How does opposing war make you a terrorist? If anything it makes you the exact opposite, unless you oppose war via violence.
Support the Constitution
Why would supporting the Constitution make you a terrorist? I can't think of any reason why.
Certain people and places may not like it when a person expresses their rights as outlined in the Constitution, and have even tried to stop people from doing so, but whenever taken to court those people and places almost always lose.
If supporting the Constitution and standing up for your rights made you a terrorist then the people who stand up for their rights would always lose court cases where argue their Constitutional rights, and would go to prison for doing so.
Reject the NWO and Agenda 21
Rejecting the NWO does not make you a terrorist, but this is mostly due to the fact that the NWO does not exist.
As for rejecting Agenda 21 this also does not make you a terrorist. At worst it might make you someone that believes in the conspiracy theories about Agenda 21, but that only makes you uninformed about what Agenda 21 is, as well as someone that only listens to what other conspiracy theorists say it is rather than looking it up and reading about it yourself.
Believe your gov't is corrupt
I guess that means that I'm a terrorist! Because I think the government is corrupt.
Almost everyone believes that the government is corrupt, and there is a very good reason for that. Because it is, or atleast certain parts of it is.
If believing that the government was corrupt made you a terrorist, then you would never ever hear or read about in the news about any sort of corruption that goes on in the government because if a news organization did report on government corruption they would be labeled a terrorist group and shut down.
This picture is one of the most blatant examples of persecution complex that I have seen in a while and kind of shows the mindset of a conspiracy theorist.
I'm going to go through all of these claims and explain why believing in these things does not make you a domestic terrorist:
You raise/grow your own food
Why would this make you a domestic terrorist? The answer is it doesn't.
Millions of people across the country grow their own food in one way or another, be it either in small plots as a hobby (as my dad does) and as a way to have fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables, or in greenhouses, or in large fields that provide enough food to feed their entire family. Heck, even the White House has it's own vegetable garden.
If growing your own food made you a domestic terrorist, then why wouldn't the government just go around to everyones' houses and destroy their gardens and green houses? Or pass laws that make it illegal to grow your own food? They wouldn't because growing your own food is harmless and effects no one.
Oppose GMOs
Opposing GMO foods does not make you a terrorist. It might make you someone who doesn't understand the science behind GMO foods, or someone who has embraced anti-GMO propaganda, but not understanding science or embracing some group's claims without questioning them doesn't make you a terrorist.
If opposing GMO foods made you a terrorist then there would be no organic foods in any grocery store or farmers market anywhere, and no laws meant to either label GMO foods or prevent them from being grown or sold would ever be proposed, much less passed.
Prefer natural medicines
If this was true then how come the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a official United States government agency that researches and promotes things like natural medicines, even exists?
While the government does restrict multiple types of alternative and natural medicines, this is only because some of them are dangerous, or the manufactures claim it can do something when infact it cannot.
If natural medicines made a person a terrorist then all forms of alternative medicine would be illegal and people who sale it or even promote it would be going to prison.
Refuse vaccinations
Refusing vaccines does not make you a terrorist as there no laws that say that you have to get vaccinated. However, it does make you dangerous to others, as well as your own self as it puts you at greater risk for getting infected with a disease that could kill you, as well as spreading said disease to others who either weren't vaccinate because they also choose not to (or their parents choose not to have them vaccinated) or a person whom couldn't get vaccinate for various medical reasons, or someone whom did get vaccinated but the vaccine did not take affect for some reason.
Have a Ron Paul bumper sticker
This does not make you a terrorist, it just makes you someone who likes Ron Paul and refuses to accept the reality that he'll never be President, and someone who doesn't know when to take a bumper sticker off of their car.
Question 9/11
Believing in 9/11 conspiracy theories, or any other conspiracy theory for that matter, doesn't make you a terrorist. If it did then people like Alex Jones and Mike Adams would be in prison, and their websites, as well as any other websites that promote 9/11 conspiracy theories, would be shut down. This also include Youtube videos, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts that also promote 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Object to geo-engineering
I would ask what exactly do they mean by this, but I think they're talking about chemtrails.
Being opposed to geo-engineering chemtrails does not make you a terrorist, but this is due to the fact chemtrails don't exist, and even if they did, there are no laws that says that you cannot object to it.
However, if you threaten to shoot down a plane because you believe that it's spraying these imaginary chemicals, then you are a terrorist, or atleast someone whom has the potential to become one.
Oppose war
How does opposing war make you a terrorist? If anything it makes you the exact opposite, unless you oppose war via violence.
Support the Constitution
Why would supporting the Constitution make you a terrorist? I can't think of any reason why.
Certain people and places may not like it when a person expresses their rights as outlined in the Constitution, and have even tried to stop people from doing so, but whenever taken to court those people and places almost always lose.
If supporting the Constitution and standing up for your rights made you a terrorist then the people who stand up for their rights would always lose court cases where argue their Constitutional rights, and would go to prison for doing so.
Reject the NWO and Agenda 21
Rejecting the NWO does not make you a terrorist, but this is mostly due to the fact that the NWO does not exist.
As for rejecting Agenda 21 this also does not make you a terrorist. At worst it might make you someone that believes in the conspiracy theories about Agenda 21, but that only makes you uninformed about what Agenda 21 is, as well as someone that only listens to what other conspiracy theorists say it is rather than looking it up and reading about it yourself.
Believe your gov't is corrupt
I guess that means that I'm a terrorist! Because I think the government is corrupt.
Almost everyone believes that the government is corrupt, and there is a very good reason for that. Because it is, or atleast certain parts of it is.
If believing that the government was corrupt made you a terrorist, then you would never ever hear or read about in the news about any sort of corruption that goes on in the government because if a news organization did report on government corruption they would be labeled a terrorist group and shut down.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
5 Things I've noticed about... Autism cure promoters
Autism cure promoters are people who claim they "cure" people with autism.
The claims made by these people are very conversational, both in their claims about autism and it's causes, and what they say can cure autism.
Now there are a lot of different things I have noticed about autism cure promoters, but I've narrowed it down to five different things.
So here are five things I've noticed about autism cure promoters:
5. They're closely aligned with the anti-vaccination movement.
Autism cure promoters and the anti-vaccination movement are pretty much like peas in a pod. Anti-vaccers often promote these so called "therapies" that the autism cure promoters claim can cure a person with autism, and autism cure promoters also tend to publish on their websites anti-vaccination movement propaganda, mainly in the form of claims that certain chemicals in vaccines can cause autism.
Some of these promoters also like to use certain words that the anti-vaccination movement also uses inorder to sell their therapies to people with autism or have autistic children, such as "vaccine damage", "vaccine injury", or "autism epidemic".
They also ignore the fact that such words are not only incorrect and misleadinf, but very insulting to people with autism. Ofcourse they're not actually promoting their therapies towards people with autism, they're really promoting them towards parents of children who have autism and just want their kids to be normal.
4. They exploit the fears and desires of parents with autistic children.
For some parents when a child is diagnosed with autism it can be devastating to them, and the fact that there is no way to cure autism can make that devastation to them even worse. Then comes along someone who claims they can do things that the medical industry cannot do and can "cure" their child of autism, and if they don't know any better they may take that person up on their offer.
A person who is misinformed about what autism is and what causes autism, mixed with both the fear of what will happen to their child and how their life will turn out due to their autism, combined with their desire to have a "normal" child, would be very temped by someone whom claims they can cure their child of autism and give them a chance at a normal life and be willing to pay whatever price they can inorder to do so.
The people who are promoting these so called autism cures know this and know that they can exploit these fears and desires to sell people products and services that scientific research has concluded are useless at curing autism.
4. They're trying to give a simple solution to a complex issue.
Autism is a neurological disorder, and like all neurological disorders it's complex without any simple solutions.
Autism cure promoters try to make it look like autism is caused by toxins in the body, and that by removing these toxins a person whom has autism one can be cured of autism.
While some toxins can cause neurological disorders, all legitimate scientific research has shown that autism isn't one them.
While the actually cause of autism is still technically unknown, most scientists who study autism agree that it's most likely caused by genetics.
The therapies these autism cure promoters promote are just a bunch of quick fixes for something that can't be fixed quickly or entirely. There are legitimate therapies out there to give autistic people the tools they need inorder to thrive in society, but they don't cure people of autism, which is not something that many people can accept. This fact is exploited by autism cure promoters that claim that they can cure autism, but in reality they can't.
2. They promote therapies that are dangerous and abusive.
Not only are autism cure promoters promoting therapies that don't work (atleast for curing autism), the therapies they are promoting are considered to be dangerous if used improperly, or even used at all.
Chelation therapy for example, which is a legitimate medical treatment for treating people with toxic metal poisoning, is often used by autism cure promoters as a way to cure autism. Infact it has never been proven to cure any person of autism, and if done improperly could harm a person, and even kill them.
Miracle Mineral Supplement, another product that is said to cure autism (along with many other things) contains 28% sodium chlorite, a toxic industrial chemical, and can cause a person to become very ill, and possibly kill them. MMS is very dangerous and should never be used for anything and is approved by no one.
These are just two of the many useless so called "cures" for autism, but there are many other kinds out there that are not only useless, but also dangerous, and forcing any child to use one of this therapies, autistic or not, is viewed by many people to be child abuse, and could be legally considered child abuse too.
1. They try to make autism look like something that it is not.
Autism cure promoters try to make it look like people with autism are "damaged" and that autism itself is bad and that a diagnose of autism is the end of the world, and thus your child must be cured of autism no matter what.
Autism is not bad, nor is a diagnose of it the end of the world, and autistic people are not damaged, they just think differently than everyone else.
Most autistic people are considered high functioning, and can live relatively normal lives. Some are so high functioning that you couldn't even tell that they were autistic unless they told you.
Autism is not a problem. The real problem is with people who claim that autistic people are "damaged" and they can cure autism.
They are the ones who make autism look worse than what it is, all so they can exploit parents who just want their children to be perfect, when they can't see that their children are perfect just the way they are.
The claims made by these people are very conversational, both in their claims about autism and it's causes, and what they say can cure autism.
Now there are a lot of different things I have noticed about autism cure promoters, but I've narrowed it down to five different things.
So here are five things I've noticed about autism cure promoters:
5. They're closely aligned with the anti-vaccination movement.
Autism cure promoters and the anti-vaccination movement are pretty much like peas in a pod. Anti-vaccers often promote these so called "therapies" that the autism cure promoters claim can cure a person with autism, and autism cure promoters also tend to publish on their websites anti-vaccination movement propaganda, mainly in the form of claims that certain chemicals in vaccines can cause autism.
Some of these promoters also like to use certain words that the anti-vaccination movement also uses inorder to sell their therapies to people with autism or have autistic children, such as "vaccine damage", "vaccine injury", or "autism epidemic".
They also ignore the fact that such words are not only incorrect and misleadinf, but very insulting to people with autism. Ofcourse they're not actually promoting their therapies towards people with autism, they're really promoting them towards parents of children who have autism and just want their kids to be normal.
4. They exploit the fears and desires of parents with autistic children.
For some parents when a child is diagnosed with autism it can be devastating to them, and the fact that there is no way to cure autism can make that devastation to them even worse. Then comes along someone who claims they can do things that the medical industry cannot do and can "cure" their child of autism, and if they don't know any better they may take that person up on their offer.
A person who is misinformed about what autism is and what causes autism, mixed with both the fear of what will happen to their child and how their life will turn out due to their autism, combined with their desire to have a "normal" child, would be very temped by someone whom claims they can cure their child of autism and give them a chance at a normal life and be willing to pay whatever price they can inorder to do so.
The people who are promoting these so called autism cures know this and know that they can exploit these fears and desires to sell people products and services that scientific research has concluded are useless at curing autism.
4. They're trying to give a simple solution to a complex issue.
Autism is a neurological disorder, and like all neurological disorders it's complex without any simple solutions.
Autism cure promoters try to make it look like autism is caused by toxins in the body, and that by removing these toxins a person whom has autism one can be cured of autism.
While some toxins can cause neurological disorders, all legitimate scientific research has shown that autism isn't one them.
While the actually cause of autism is still technically unknown, most scientists who study autism agree that it's most likely caused by genetics.
The therapies these autism cure promoters promote are just a bunch of quick fixes for something that can't be fixed quickly or entirely. There are legitimate therapies out there to give autistic people the tools they need inorder to thrive in society, but they don't cure people of autism, which is not something that many people can accept. This fact is exploited by autism cure promoters that claim that they can cure autism, but in reality they can't.
2. They promote therapies that are dangerous and abusive.
Not only are autism cure promoters promoting therapies that don't work (atleast for curing autism), the therapies they are promoting are considered to be dangerous if used improperly, or even used at all.
Chelation therapy for example, which is a legitimate medical treatment for treating people with toxic metal poisoning, is often used by autism cure promoters as a way to cure autism. Infact it has never been proven to cure any person of autism, and if done improperly could harm a person, and even kill them.
Miracle Mineral Supplement, another product that is said to cure autism (along with many other things) contains 28% sodium chlorite, a toxic industrial chemical, and can cause a person to become very ill, and possibly kill them. MMS is very dangerous and should never be used for anything and is approved by no one.
These are just two of the many useless so called "cures" for autism, but there are many other kinds out there that are not only useless, but also dangerous, and forcing any child to use one of this therapies, autistic or not, is viewed by many people to be child abuse, and could be legally considered child abuse too.
1. They try to make autism look like something that it is not.
Autism cure promoters try to make it look like people with autism are "damaged" and that autism itself is bad and that a diagnose of autism is the end of the world, and thus your child must be cured of autism no matter what.
Autism is not bad, nor is a diagnose of it the end of the world, and autistic people are not damaged, they just think differently than everyone else.
Most autistic people are considered high functioning, and can live relatively normal lives. Some are so high functioning that you couldn't even tell that they were autistic unless they told you.
Autism is not a problem. The real problem is with people who claim that autistic people are "damaged" and they can cure autism.
They are the ones who make autism look worse than what it is, all so they can exploit parents who just want their children to be perfect, when they can't see that their children are perfect just the way they are.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Anti-vaccers go to far... again.
This weekend members of the Anti-vaccination movement/cult proved once again just what type of people they really are, and just what lows they are willing to go to inorder to spread their propaganda.
And by "people" I mean scum bags.
This whole thing that I'm p*ssed off about starts off with something that has nothing to do with either vaccines or autism, but actually has to do with the kidnapping of over 200 school girls in Nigeria by the terrorist group Boko Haram, who are threatening to sell the girls off as "wives" (i.e. sex slaves).
So far there has been a huge outpouring of both condemnation against the terrorists who kidnapped these girls, and support for bringing the girls home.
Infact First Lady Michelle Obama recently posted this picture on the internet to show her support for these girls and their hopefull rescue, and also encouraging the terrorists to let them go:
Unfortunately there are some people who don't care how serious or sensitive a situation such as this is and will take a photo like this and digitally manipulated a photo such as this inorder to promote their own propaganda...
That is exactly what happened with this photo:
Now I could get into how BS the information on this poorly photoshopped picture is, or how insulting it is to autistic people, but I just want to focus on the group that decided it was okay to manipulate a photo of the First Lady showing her support to bring home a group of kidnapped school girls who may very well be sold as sex slaves if they aren't found and freed!
The group who manipulated the photo is call The Canary Party, a Anti-Vaccination group that barely pretends to be a political group.
Besides just publishing lies about and conspiracy theories about vaccines, they also publish anti-GMO propaganda, pro-alternative medicine propaganda, insist that autism is an epidemic, makes autism look like it's something that is life destroying and that autistic people can't function in society, both of which are horrible lies, and declares that anyone that says they are wrong to be bullies.
All of that is bad enough by itself, but then they go and manipulate a photo of the First Lady showing support for those many kidnapped school girls inorder to promote their lies while completely and totally disregarding the seriousness of the kidnappings, as well as being completely insensitive to what these girls are going through.
I guess there really is no low for the Anti-Vaccination movement. But on the bright side it does appear that this "stunt" has backfired on them, as they are receiving a bunch of negative comments on their Facebook page.
One last thing: I really hope these girls are freed and freed soon, and that the scum bags who kidnapped them are left in such a way that they can never do something like this ever again.
And by "people" I mean scum bags.
This whole thing that I'm p*ssed off about starts off with something that has nothing to do with either vaccines or autism, but actually has to do with the kidnapping of over 200 school girls in Nigeria by the terrorist group Boko Haram, who are threatening to sell the girls off as "wives" (i.e. sex slaves).
So far there has been a huge outpouring of both condemnation against the terrorists who kidnapped these girls, and support for bringing the girls home.
Infact First Lady Michelle Obama recently posted this picture on the internet to show her support for these girls and their hopefull rescue, and also encouraging the terrorists to let them go:
That is exactly what happened with this photo:
The group who manipulated the photo is call The Canary Party, a Anti-Vaccination group that barely pretends to be a political group.
Besides just publishing lies about and conspiracy theories about vaccines, they also publish anti-GMO propaganda, pro-alternative medicine propaganda, insist that autism is an epidemic, makes autism look like it's something that is life destroying and that autistic people can't function in society, both of which are horrible lies, and declares that anyone that says they are wrong to be bullies.
All of that is bad enough by itself, but then they go and manipulate a photo of the First Lady showing support for those many kidnapped school girls inorder to promote their lies while completely and totally disregarding the seriousness of the kidnappings, as well as being completely insensitive to what these girls are going through.
I guess there really is no low for the Anti-Vaccination movement. But on the bright side it does appear that this "stunt" has backfired on them, as they are receiving a bunch of negative comments on their Facebook page.
One last thing: I really hope these girls are freed and freed soon, and that the scum bags who kidnapped them are left in such a way that they can never do something like this ever again.
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