Vaccinations + Parenting
Anti-Vax Parents Are Neglecting The Most Basic Parenting Principle
Caring for ourselves is supposed to be the priority that ensures we can support and care for our children
Another day, more seemingly avoidable COVID deaths. They’ve become common on social media. Far too many stories. Our family has several of our own. It’s been that way for more than a year. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost. In the flood of so much grief are the stories of people who refused to wear a mask or get vaccinated. Only to die of the virus they deemed a hoax more times than not. Many used their children as human shields to defend their extremist positions. Just as they did to justify their beliefs in a satanic cabal that eats babies.
While the basis for the most popular conspiracy theories revolves around parents presumably standing up for their kids, none are really about protecting children. We never saw them speak out about immigrant kids in cages or making an effort to feed impoverished children. There’s a reason for that. Regardless of which of these conspiratorial thought processes they follow, all extremists parade children around as if that’s what motivates them. But one thing you’ll notice about them and their rhetoric is that they’re only concerned with white children. Like their own.
In other words, it’s all bullshit.
The current trend tells us that anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers seem to be dropping like flies. All of the screaming and yelling about tyranny over a mask or a vaccine isn’t saving anyone. Even worse, it’s leaving kids across the country without parents. The circular logic and absolute ignorance attached to an extreme level of aggression remind me of the most important aspects of parenting: caring for ourselves so we can be present and care for our children. In this sense, anti-vax/anti-mask parents are failing their children and the children of others they convince with their outlandish beliefs.
It’s easy to laugh when some of these people die. I see it often. I get it. However, I don’t see the humor in what feels like an epidemic within a pandemic. An enormous amount of people are dying because they’re buying into overly-simplified narratives. They’re creating a strain on our infrastructure that in many cities is showing signs of distress. A major factor in this trend is Facebook. As per standard operating procedure, the platform is doing a poor job of shutting down misinformation groups and pages to buy fraudulent vaccine cards.
A quick peruse of Facebook groups for alternative cures such as Ivermectin tells us just how far people are going to avoid the simpler scientifically proven solution. Post after post, parents are beginning to ask about the proper dosage of livestock dewormer for their children. The people in these groups are not doctors or scientists. That doesn’t stop them from sharing dosage charts while commenters offer a broad range and contradictory dosage recommendations.
This is a disturbing trend that can lead to severe injury and/or death in children.
Paradoxical Thinking
Circular logic, or circular reasoning as it’s more commonly known, is somewhat of a logical fallacy that purports “A is true because B is true therefore B is true because A is true.” While elements of an argument may be valid because the premise is true, the assumption that the conclusion must also be true makes for sometimes humorous fallacies. Essentially, paradoxical thinking begins when a person making a claim starts their argument with what they’re trying to end with. Think Ben Shapiro, the sharpest, fastest talking, paradoxical thinker in America today. He uses a lot of words and rarely says anything material.
This type of logic leaves little room, if any, to share anything of substance as the argument always comes back to the beginning without having proven itself. When it comes to COVID, the latest arguments are based on the notion that vaccinated people are still getting sick from the virus. Basing a contention on this alone and circling back to that singular fact without proper context is a form of paradoxical thinking. Leaving out the facts that vaccinated people handle the virus better and are less likely to be infected is the basis for many of these positions.
There is a lot of circular reasoning in conspiratorial thinking in addition to the idea that there are no coincidences. Many people are aware of their logical fallacies. They use them with great success to convince others to follow their lead. This is how hate groups operate as well. As someone who tracks extremists groups and their activities, I can’t help but notice the similarities in how recruitment works. It all begins with grooming using seemingly benign memes and quotes and gradually grows into some sinister plot in their minds.
When you think of more prominent voices in far-right media, you can’t help but notice their paradoxical logic. Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and many others display their fallacious thinking when promoting the “Great Extinction” (of the white race) conspiracy theory. In fact, all racist and bigoted logic is based on circular reasoning. Racists and bigots know it, but as long as they continue to find others who think like them, they dig themselves in and are less likely to listen to any reasonable person trying to reach them.
There are many people on social media trying to influence those who are putting their families and friends at risk to no avail. A big part of that problem lies in the hands of social media giants who by now should have policies and procedures in place to address misinformation. While they will claim they do, the reality is, they’re reluctant to remove posts that gain traction because interaction means more eyes on ads. And ads are what makes them money.
Parental Failure
As parents, we are sometimes asked or wonder if we should put ourselves or our kids first. We almost always put our kids first. However, there are just as many occasions where we must think about ourselves first. I know, it sounds selfish. But, it’s not. What happens to our kids if we don’t care for ourselves first? In the case of vaccinations, we’re putting our kids at risk of being left without their mothers or fathers when we opt to not be vaccinated.
That’s selfish.
What do anti-vaxxers say to the families alongside them when one of them loses? When they die from pure ignorance and circular reasoning to justify their willful intentions. Kids are seeing their parents and neighbors make complete fools of themselves threatening school board members and city and county leaders. These parents are again failing their children by teaching them that violence is okay when they don’t get what they want.
More repeated narcissism.
At the end of the day, anti-vaxxers are taking a huge risk ingesting horse dewormer along with all the other crap they’re taking. In addition to that, they’re putting their families and friends at risk by convincing them that these medicines not approved for human consumption are safe. They’re not. Now, children in schools are being exposed to unvaccinated teachers, some who’ve come to work infected in addition to being exposed to their parents who keep dying. I don’t know how many people have to die before some of these folks get the message, but maybe if they listen to someone who appeases their beliefs, they might start getting it.
Personal Note
In closing, I just want to say that I would never put my children at risk the way some of these parents are. It’s shameful and disgusting. As a father of three young men and as a grandfather, you’d have to shoot me to prevent me from getting the vaccine. I got it early and I’m fine. As are hundreds of millions of people who have been vaccinated thus far. If that doesn’t tell them the vaccine is safer than some paste for livestock, I don’t know what will.
Anti-vaxxers are needlessly putting their children in harm’s way neglecting the key principle of parenting: being present for our kids.
At this point, I fear nothing will reach them.
Arturo is a first-generation Cuban American father of three young men, an anti-racist, journalist, and publisher of The Antagonist Magazine. If you’d like to learn more about the issues covered here follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also support his work here and here.