I'm not home for daytime TV and I don't think I'd be much of a View fan even if I were around to watch it, but I'd absolutely support an advertiser boycott if this happens:
... [Jenny McCarthy] became a vocal advocate for dangerous health nonsense, including the idea that vaccines are full of toxins and cause autism....Of course, McCarthy wouldn't be the only anti-vaxer with a prominent TV gig -- Donald Trump also believes this nonsense, and he still has The Apprentice and his regular Fox commenting gigs. But he talks this nonsense only in passing. McCarthy's made it a crusade.
I just heard that McCarthy is being considered to replace Joy Behar on ABC's talk show The View....
The type of misinformation McCarthy is spreading is incredibly dangerous, and the mainstreaming of her is a tacit acceptance of it. She has the right to believe whatever she wants, but we have the right to condemn her for it and to let the media know about it. The kind of anti-vax propaganda she promotes has an impact, and sadly that impact can fall on infants who go unvaccinated because their parents have been misled....
McCarthy is a frequent guest co-host on the show, and I guess there haven't been a lot of complaints. So I won't be surprised if she gets the job.
Opposition to vaccinations is Alex Jones thinking gone suburban -- believers are misinformed, but they think they're the savvy ones, the ones who really know what's going on. As The New York Times noted a while back, it's an upmarket phenomenon, a fact that embarrasses me:
Parents who refuse vaccines tend to be more educated, and often more affluent than the average, researchers say.I really hope McCarthy doesn't get this job. But if she does, I won't be surprised. Conspiratorialist skepticism is trendy.
Jonathan Bell, a naturopathic doctor in Washington State who encourages his patients to vaccinate their children. Those who opt out, he said, tend to distrust the public health establishment because of what they see as its unsavory connections with the pharmaceutical industry. "The argument is, 'Oh no, I'm putting off vaccines,'" he said. "'I'm part of a group that's smart enough to understand the government is a pawn of big pharma.'"
4 comments:
"Conspiratorialist skepticism is trendy."
While it might be trendy on the left, it's rampant on the right.
Revolting. McCarthy and the entire "too cool for school" upper class/granola anti vaxx thing is truly dangerous.
Call me pedantic but there is a difference between 'skepticism' and 'cynicism'.
The first implies... the option of '*prove* your case'.... questioning the conclusion ... the latter doesn't, it assumes it's wrong/ self serving.
A fundamental tenant of science is skepticism but cynicism definitely isn't.
Victor,Steve, therefore I'd say that (corporate i.e. authority) cynicism is trendy and rife.
Sadly for the great unwashed, it's often a case of 'throwing the baby out with the bath water'.
And much of the media is selectively ( read self interested) the cheer squad...
I remember reading yrs. ago that Christian Scientists are generally upper-middle class, educated & so on. This stuff is the 21st century version of M.B. Eddy.
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