After hearing some anti-vaxxers on my local radio call-in program, it got me thinking about an interesting parallel scenario.
The topic of the call-in show in question was about doctors firing patients for not getting themselves or there kids vaccinated. The topic was framed very much as a freedom of choice and the rights of the patient and it got me wondering.
Could I take my car to my mechanic, and when he tells me I need new brakes, can I say "I don't believe the science on brakes is in yet. You can fix my window wipers and lights, but don't touch the brakes."
The mechanic could protest "But without brakes your car won't stop. You will be a danger to everyone else on the road."
I could reply "You are just part of the automotive industrial complex and you are paid off my Big Auto to push the idea of brakes."
The mechanic could tell me about the many times he has seen brakes save lives and how he would never personally drive a car without brakes.
I could then tell him I found a website called "Brakes-R-Bad" and how brakes cause bad fuel mileage and increase green house gas emissions and no thinking person could ever approve of the use of brakes.
I will even tell him about how I saw Jim Carrey on The Tonight Show speaking to how brakes destroyed his dad's car and gave his son asthma from all the dust particles brakes cause.
After hearing all this, the mechanic tells me he can't fix my car and he can't have me as a customer any longer. He can't in good conscience allow me to drive away in a car with no brakes.
This would offend me, he is violating my rights as a consumer to not use brakes. What gives him the right to tell me what should go on my car? Just because some fancy experts show me graphs on stopping distance and statistics on deaths caused by no brakes. What do these experts know anyway? Didn't they ever him Jim Carrey talk about the evils of brakes? These experts must be in on the conspiracy.
The mechanic then tells me its against the law to drive on public roads with a car that doesn't have working brakes.
Well that just gets my blood boiling, the nanny state is just trying to control me and force me to believe in these so called brakes.
What gives the government the right to force my to use brakes on my car? Just because they claim I'm endangering the public they believe that gives them the right to tell me how to use my car?
Its my car, its my choice!
I hope everyone reading this can see the parallel's between this anti-braker and the common arguments anti-vaxxers employ.
So let me ask you these 2 questions:
Do I have the right to refuse vaccines and endanger everyone in the doctors waiting room?
Do I have the right to refuse brakes on my car and endanger everyone I drive with on the public roads?
No and no. Brilliant post.
ReplyDeleteYes and yes. This is America, fuckers.
ReplyDeleteActually, it's not. It's Canada, eh?
DeleteNo and no...excellent and accurate parallel drawn.
ReplyDeleteNo and no. @Anonymous, then knowingly and willfully putting people at risk for contracting preventable communicable disease will result in your arrest, prosecution, conviction and incarceration.
ReplyDeleteVery nice analogy. I may just steal it if I ever get in an argument with an anti-vaxxer who won't listen to reason.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to be rude, but I'd really like to retweet this -- it's superb argumentation -- except it's really full of spelling mistakes and times where you've rewritten a sentence but left bits of the old sentence behind.
ReplyDeleteIf you could proof it once more, I'll definitely retweet.
Teaches me to edit on a blackberry, criticism accepted and editing underway
DeleteI agree. My phone keyboard regularly skips letters. Here's another typo in your otherwise excellent post: "Didn't they ever him Jim Carrey"
DeleteExtremely dumb
ReplyDeleteYour eloquent and well-reasoned argument has persuaded me of the validity of your position.
DeleteI'm also a skeptic from a small town in Ontario. Retweeted.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful argument. I may also have to borrow this sometime.
ReplyDeleteYes, you have a right to both of those things. They still both make you an idiot. And you must deal with the consequences.
ReplyDeleteExcept that since your actions affect others ... no, you really don't.
DeleteThis is awesome. Can I help you make a spoof/hoax website?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYes, and yes. However, those ignorant folk also need to respect the right of the doctor to not offer them his or her services. And, much like why public smoking has been restricted, they need to keep their unvaccinated asses out of public spaces.
ReplyDeleteThey don't get to be stupid and kill everyone else, too.