Originally printed in the Batesville Daily Guard
As we leave 2016, we leave behind a
year that was ruled by Facebook and Twitter. The two social media
sites had always been influential, but this year they became the
heart of the nexus which includes public opinion, propaganda and
information. They were places that regular people could actually say
something to their leaders and just maybe get a response, whether
they be national, state or local.
One consequence of this was that the
whole world also had access to those officials. Sometimes it’s a
good thing, sometimes it’s bad, but state boundaries are no longer
a deterrent when it comes into offering opinions to state officials.
But as far as the bad, one group that
has found a way to influence policy via social media are fringe
groups and conspiracy theorists, who rely on insinuation and
distortions instead of research and fact.
We had a case of that in Arkansas over
the last week.
Rep. Karilyn Brown (R-Sherwood) filed a
bill to remove religious and philosophical exemptions for vaccines
when it comes to children who attend public schools in Arkansas. It
did not remove the medical exemption.
Since even the Amish allow for
vaccines, the religious exemption doesn’t make for much purpose.
Aside from the Dutch Reform Church, there are pretty much no branches
of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism or Buddhism that bar their
members from taking vaccines, not even the Amish. And last I checked,
I don’t think there is a single congregation of the Dutch Reformed
Church in Arkansas at all, much less many Dutch.
On the other hand, the philosophical
exemption pretty much allow a person to not vaccinate a child for any
reason they want. Whether it be the debunked “vaccines cause
autism” claims, “making my kids take vaccines is communism”
claim or the “natural diseases are better than modern medicine”
ideas or “vaccines are mind control” conspiracy theory …
they’re all equally valid in the philosophical exemptions.
They are also all equally dangerous. It
bears to repeat that small pox, a disease that killed millions, has
been eradicated due to vaccines. Polio, which left many people
disabled, has been eliminated from most of the world, with cases in
the single digits worldwide — all in third world countries.
Measles, mumps and chicken pox all of which have been linked to
blindness, deafness and sterility have become very rare in the U.S.,
at least until the last couple of years when those diseases have
started making a comeback.
Those comebacks renewed calls to
tighten up or eliminate exemptions for people who lacked a medical
reason.
Makes sense right? People want to
protect their kids.
And I’m sure Brown took note of that
when she wrote her bill.
Of course, she probably didn’t expect
the swarm.
When I say swarm, I mean an
anti-vaccination social media group caught wind of her bill and took
to her social media, leaving shrill messages accusing her of being a
shill for “big pharma” to wanting to give kids autism. Most of
these messages don’t seem to be from people who are in her
district, or even Arkansas. I saw posts from people in Virginia,
Michigan, Kentucky and a person from Los Angeles who says he works
at, and I quote, “Stop Mandatory Vaccination” — which I suspect
is the source for many of Brown’s comments.
I’m not sure if Brown took this into
account when she withdrew the bill on Tuesday. But the same people,
not from Arkansas, gave her thanks for “representing her
constituents.”
Brown’s case, which is not unique,
shows the power of swarms on social media. The swarms can create the
impression that the majority of people are in favor of fringe
beliefs, anti-vaccination movements and chemtrail belief are two
examples of this, simply by drawing people from all over the country
to overwhelm an account with posts. Some of these go further, giving
out phone numbers and emails, leading to an endless stream of
harassment.
I hope Brown will reconsider her
withdrawal of HB1043 sometime in the future. We do not need to let
fact-based policies that would benefit our public health brought down
by a minority who just happen to have loudest mouths (er, fingertips,
I guess would be more accurate). If politicians start letting
Facebook and Twitter determine their actions, then we are putting our
fates in the hands of anyone who is capable of combining links with
the right hashtags on the internet. This may eventually cause our
policies to be driven by an alternate reality which thrives online.
Follow Joseph on Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment