So I’m looking at the finalist videos for this “Lions for Lambs” youtube contest:
One of the videos there is about autism, so I clicked on it thinking that it would be somethign to raise general awareness of the condition.
GAH! It turns out to be spreading a misguided falsehood about how vaccines give kids autism. :rolleyes:
I’m sure you have all read the Straight Dope article about this issue and know the theoretical link between vaccines and autism is tenuous at best, but sadly now it’s getting plenty of airplay in this contest.
It’s disheartening - but maybe not surprising - that the contest organizers decided this video was good enough to be a finalist. Because, of course, how could a grieving mom ever be wrong?! If you disagree with a mom who is speaking emotionally about her precious child, clearly you are a heartless bastard.
I sympathize with anyone whose family has been touched by autism. I’ve worked with autistic kids enough to know that it must be heart-breaking for the parents.
Nonetheless, it really angers me to see this kind of potentially dangerous ignorance getting circulated. The more that parents decline vaccinations, the more likely it is kids are going to suffer or even die from preventable disease.
I wish one of you who is more talented than I am would make some slick, fancy, emotionally-manipulative video to post on youtube encouraging people to get their kids vaccinated!
Yea, Darth Nader’s second link was the main problem. A few threads self-destructed, but the really bizarre part was the several days after the problem threads were locked: a few of the participants ran around hijacking extremely random threads until the mods delivered a firm curb-stomping.
Blech. It wasn’t even well made. You’re going to have to do better than an emotional appeal if you want to persuade me of something. Spellcheck would help. And using something other than that trashy blue background.
There are some good folks over at IMDb who have been chasing moobats off the United 93, World Trade Center, and Loose Change boards. LC2 & LC: FC are virtually dead now. WTC was dead for quite a while after the admins wiped it.
Come to think of it, the last time I saw a moonbat at the SDMB was right after the IMDb WTC board had been wiped.
