Ciarán

She was trying to the best for her kids and just didn’t know how to interpret the validity of information or its sources, an actual skill that can be actually difficult and that is under-taught and a necessary first step to being able to trust vaccination research, so chose no action over taking an action she wasn’t sure of. She kept looking into it with family and friends and even eventually came to the right conclusion before her kids became sick, but it was still too late.

Honestly it was pretty brave of her to publicly admit she was wrong. She could have just quietly vaccinated her kids and not become a national news story, but instead she spoke out, even saying “I’m writing this from quarantine, the irony of which isn’t lost on me.” and also “I am not looking forward to any gloating or shame as this ‘defection’ from the antivaxx camp goes public, but, this isn’t a popularity contest.  Right now my family is living the consequences of misinformation and fear.  I understand that families in our community may be mad at us for putting their kids at risk.”

The movement is pushed by women, especially suburban moms, because they know damn well you cannot trust doctors. You cannot trust the medical industry, the billion-dollar corporate zone of “you should lose some weight and maybe the pain will stop.” Cannot trust the ones who keep changing diet advice - is it no sugar? No carbs? No fats? Is it dangerous to let kids eat things in wild colors? Food pyramid: good or bad? They cannot trust the BMI chart that says they should lose 75 lbs to be “healthy.” (Whether or not they “should” lose 75 lbs, they know damn well that “healthy” does not describe any part of the journey to getting there.) Cannot trust the ones who keep giving them incomplete and sometimes incorrect information about contraception. The ones who said “that’s false labor; you have two weeks more” 12 hours before they gave birth. And so on.

So they have their kids, and they want so much for their kids to be safe, and the doctors and nurses say: Get them vaccinated.

So they ask: What about if there’s complications? An allergic reaction? Side effects?

And the doctors and nurses say: Get them vaccinated.

This is… not reassuring.

And they ask, My sister-in-law’s cousin had a really bad reaction to the MMR shot and I want to know how I can tell it’s safe for my kids.

And the doctors and nurses say: Get them vaccinated.

Throw in the right-wing/libertarian faction yelling YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO and the insurance companies saying “hey um you need a specific type of coverage for that; we probably cover those vaccinations but you’ll need this special paperwork to be sure” - and then you have the actual anti-vax propagandists yelling some combination of cherry-picked statistics and outright lies, and you get a whole lot of moms willing to say BUGGRE ALL THIS FOR A LARKE.

There is no amount of facts that can fix this. They’re swamped with facts from 300 directions. What they need to fix this is empathy and the kind of connections that lead to trust.

Kindness doesn’t just matter because it’s more ethical - it'salso a more effective strategy.

Because, for all we know, Wymark is the first adult male that Andrew has trusted. Not only trusted, but the amount of respect they have for each other... Idk. It's such a beautiful thing. There's something in the way that Wymack lets Andrew be, but at the same time is constantly concerned about him.

We're constantly talking about how Wymack knew about Andrew and Neil before Neil did (obviously, it's hilarious). But for him to do that he had to assume Andrew was gay. No judgment. No doubts. No explanations needed. Just looking at them and seeing them. Seeing Andrew.

i am a little person. i am 4'0, i have ccd and achondroplasia. i have various other genetic conditions that affect me but i will be mentioning my identity as a little person mostly.

quit using little people as the butt of your jokes. no, you cant use the m slur it is a slur, no you cant call us gnomes or elves or dwarves or whatever the fuck you call us. we are real people, we arent little characters or creatures. we are LIVING BREATHING PEOPLE. quit treating us like kids or idiots. you dont have to baby us. quit making fun of little people's heights, ESPECIALLY PEOPLE WITH DISPROPORTIONATE DWARFISM. you are fucking ableist if you make fun of little people, you dont see us as people you see us a joke. im sick and tired of people i love and care for treating me as if im a joke and making fun of my height. fuck off

i dont care if we "look funny" or "haha tiny" its so fucking annoying and disrespectful to be treated as if the body isnt a living, breathing, full grown adult.

taking a break from rote to relisten to aftg. i missed my boy neil josten dearly