What is an Anti-Vaxxer?

a psychosclerosis case study

I’ve been thinking a lot about psychosclerosis lately, since evidence of it is all around me. It seems worthwhile for all of us to start noticing it, both inside and outside of ourselves.

Can We Make Curiosity Safe Again? Redux

British-American anthropologist Ashley Montagu coined the term “psychosclerosis,” which he described as the “hardening of the attitude which causes a person to cease dreaming, seeing, thinking and leading.” In his book, Growing Young, he warned against the ossification of our thinking in adulthood, which impairs the ability to wonder, explore, and learn new things.  Many of us readily acknowledge that calcification and rigidity in our bodies are associated with aging and deterioration, but we have failed to make the connection when it comes to our thinking.

Obviously, it’s easier to recognize the calcified thinking outside of us, so let’s start with a little case study.

Here’s a 2 minute video from now defunct Stronger.org (transcribed below with links and notes from yours truly):

What is an Anti-Vaxxer?

Most people do not think they’re in danger to falling prey to false information about Covid-19, but resisting bad vaccine info could be harder than you might think. And the anti-vax movement had already been growing for many years before the coronavirus came along. In fact the Center for Countering Digital Hate released “The Anti-Vax Playbook” exposing anti-vaxxers’ five point strategy for stopping vaccinations.

Step One: Setting the Stage

Misinformation requires baseless assumptions and the anti-vax movement has a few. They assume that Covid-19 is not dangerous, the vaccine is dangerous and you can’t trust the companies making it. And frankly, these ideas do warrant some discussion. But the anti-vax movement treats them as unshakable truths never to be questioned.

https://stronger.org/blog/covid-19-booster-safety-vaccine-hiv

Step Two: Adapt the Script

There is an anti-vax group for every kind of person. It’s simply easier to convince people when the message speaks directly to them.

https://stronger.org/about

Step Three: Enter the Bubble

The first two steps created questions and this one answers them. Anti-vax message boards and chat groups allow doubtful people to seek information and this is where they find links to all kinds of misleading and manipulative materials.

https://stronger.org/abou

https://stronger.org/resources/how-to-spot-misinformation

Step Four: Student Becomes Recruiter

After a recruit shows interest, they are often graduated to the inner ring, given access to info that feels more exclusive and told to recruit more people. This is the step where people are likely to start investing their own money in the cause.

https://stronger.org/join

https://stronger.org/resources/how-to-report-accounts

https://stronger.org/about

Step Five: New Platform New You

Anti-vax groups constantly live in fear of being shut down or infiltrated so they often create identical groups on new platforms rally the true believers and snare curious newbies and heighten the sense of exclusivity.

So what motivates people to spread this misinformation? It’s hard to say. It could be a hunger for fame, a conspiracy obsession or just dishonest people looking to make a quick buck. The most important part is to remember that we’re all vulnerable. Always check your sources. Be aware of recruitment techniques.

And please. Get your Coronavirus Vaccine.

Stronger.org has a VERY different perspective on “Anti-vaxxers” than I do.

So let’s take Stronger.org’s advice and “Always check your sources”.

Who is (was) Stronger.org?

stonger.org

stronger.org/about

From their website:

Stronger is a new national campaign on behalf of science, medicine, and vaccines. It is the first vaccine advocacy campaign to focus on the root cause of vaccine hesitancy - misinformation.

So Stronger.org has already decide that misinformation - not legitimate concerns about potential harms from vaccines or a preference for other methods of maintaining health - is the reason not everyone embraces all vaccines.

That bias impacts the whole mission:

Our mission is to dispel vaccine misinformation so that more adults get vaccinated, kids receive their routine immunizations, and everybody who can get a COVID-19 vaccine does.

There appears to be a profound absence of curiosity.

Our aim is to cut through the noise and normalize the truth.

They already have “the truth” and they seek to make everyone else embrace it.

Is it possible that Stronger.org has failed to challenge it’s own assumption that more adults should get vaccinated, that all kids receive routine immunization and that everyone who can get the COVID-19 vaccine does? If not, could this be a “baseless assumption”?

What’s the truth?

Apparently, it’s whatever the Immunization Action Coalition or the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases say it is. If in doubt, we are told to use their recommended fact-checkers, FactCheck.org, Snopes.com and FactSparrow.

When determining whether something is “misinformation” Stronger.org’s guide on How to Spot Misinformation makes this suggestion:

Look at what is being said. Is the website or person known for conflating facts and opinions? Is it mostly “us vs. them” rhetoric?

In it’s video, Stronger.org conflates vaccine hesitancy with anti-vaxxers. It conflates information that conflicts with pro-vaccine messages with misinformation and danger as well as “misleading and manipulative materials.” It feels pretty us vs. them to me.

Where did the information originally come from? Is there an abundance of claims with no real evidence? Understand why it’s being said. Are they just trying to get views/clicks? Are they just looking for anything that supports their own worldview? (emphasis mine)

The video cites the Center for Countering Digital Hate as it refers to “The Anti-Vax Playbook.” You can read more about CCHD here and here.

Let’s see if we can get a sense of CCDH’s “worldview”.

From CCDH’s The Anti-Vax Playbook”

These malignant actors have developed their strategic understanding over years of advocacy and practice. Their strategy is simple. Exploit social media algorithms’ predilection for controversial and engaging content to hammer home three key messages - Covid isn’t dangerous; vaccines are dangerous; and mistrust of doctors, scientists and public health authorities…

Our response must be equally simple: to inoculate against misinformation by ignoring the individual memes generated by the anti-vaxx industry and instead focus on communicating our core message - one that has the benefit of being true: 1. Covid is deadly; 2. Vaccines are among the safest, most effective, most consequential human inventions in the past two centuries, saving countless lives from disease, disability and even death; and 3. Doctors, scientists and public health professionals chose those professions because they want to help people and better understand the world.

CCDH CEO, Imran Ahmed, suggests social media companies “stop providing services to people whose business is in enabling the spread of disease and death.”

I’m going to say there’s a “worldview” and a motive.

Ironically, this is what comes up when I go to the CCDH website:

Some other excerpts from CCDH’s Anti-Vax Playbook:

Leading anti-vaxxers were amongst the first to spread misinformation about Covid and downplay the threat of a pandemic. Their principal messages are that the deadliness of Covid has been exaggerated or that Covid can be treated without vaccines.

I wonder if CCDH ever stopped to revisit this “misinformation”.

We can pull in many more examples of how assertions on Stronger.org and CCDH’s websites represent calcified thinking, but I think you get the idea. Perhaps this is why Stronger.org is no longer operating. It has become increasingly difficult to make the same assertions about the safety and efficacy of Covid vaccines and boosters and I’m not sure why anyone is still trying. What would be the harm in considering new studies and information if you were really interested in the truth?

However, finding the flaws in someone else’s thinking is easy. It’s much more difficult to identify the calcification in our own minds. And I think it’s critical that we try.

How Do We Heal Psychosclerosis?

Learning curves are more fun when we navigate them together. Let’s stay on one!