{"id":127,"date":"2010-06-15T22:15:15","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T22:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/2010\/06\/15\/just_when_i_thought_i_was_out\/"},"modified":"2010-12-21T19:28:57","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T19:28:57","slug":"just_when_i_thought_i_was_out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/2010\/06\/15\/just_when_i_thought_i_was_out\/","title":{"rendered":"Just when I thought I was out…"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case you\u2019re wondering where I\u2019ve been<\/strong> (and I\u2019m sure no-one was): apart from grading a few essays, and servicing my growing Twitter addiction, I have done what I regularly swear I won\u2019t and got involved in an argument with the anti-vaccine people.<\/p>\n

This time it is in a thread on the Guardian<\/em> website.<\/a> The thread is a Story Tracker<\/a> following the recent Nature<\/em> paper on autism genetics<\/a> and the media and blog reaction to it.<\/p>\n

Now, you would think that the genetics of autism was relatively uncontroversial, but apparently not. The activists who insist vaccines can cause autism are not keen on other theories of autism causation, including genetic ones (no prizes for working out why).<\/p>\n

In particular, they have been making a fuss by accusing the study\u2019s lead author<\/a> of undisclosed conflict of interest<\/a>, since he apparently occupies a Chair endowed by GlaxoSmithKline.<\/p>\n

(Again, you can try and guess why they insist this is a Conflict Of Interest, or simply click on over to the Guardian<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

The activists are also offended that the Guardian<\/em> linked a blog which ridiculed their objections.<\/p>\n

Which is where I came in. No, the blog wasn\u2019t mine \u2013 it belongs to American surgeon\/scientist\/hyperactive blogger Orac<\/a> \u2013 but I have been, er, debating a couple of the anti-vaccine activists in the comments under the thread.<\/a> My first comment is at 5.41 pm, and there are more if you read down (You will probably have to hit \u201cShow all Comments\u201d<\/span> or \u201cGo to latest comment\u201d<\/span> )<\/p>\n

Two things are perhaps notable.<\/p>\n

One is that the activists object to the term \u201canti-vaccine\u201d<\/span>. One told me it was \u201clibel-labelling\u201d<\/span> and \u201cpejorative\u201d<\/span>. I suggested it was a statement of fact. Readers can probably make up their own minds.<\/p>\n

The second is the habit the activists have of decrying \u201cad hominem\u201d<\/span><\/em> attacks and accusing their critics (like me and Orac) of \u201cplaying the man, not the ball\u201d<\/span>. This is usually accompanied by an insistence that they themselves never<\/em> do this. I might disagree, as you will see from one of my comments.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I know I should leave vaccine-related threads alone. This is partly because the main tactic of the anti-vaccine activists is to outlast you, and then declare victory when you are so bored that you give up. And they are always more obsessed than you are, so you can never win. Hence the resolution to keep clear\u2026.<\/p>\n

…but\u2026 …sometimes keeping clear is difficult<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Which is why the title. The quote is:<\/p>\n

\u201cJust when I thought I was out \u2013 they pull me back in!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For those that don\u2019t know the source, some clips are here<\/a> and here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case you\u2019re wondering where I\u2019ve been (and I\u2019m sure no-one was): apart from grading a few essays, and servicing my growing Twitter addiction, I have done what I regularly swear I won\u2019t and got involved in an argument with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,21,5,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annoyances","category-medicine","category-pseudoscience","category-the-interwebz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}