this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2024
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I think the anti-vax movement started from far left. Wanting to be so close to nature and protecting the body.
Also anti intellectualism, where science embodies the establishment that oppresses us.
These are very real things that the far left made impacts.
But the far right loves these too now, they just co opted them.
The original anti-vax movement was always weird to me, the issue screams "muh freedums" so I always found it strange that it came from the left. I guess it goes into the same box as all the hippy dippy wellness stuff, which does have some things like meditation that turn out to have real benefits, but there are just some people who take to all that really strongly without evidence.
Anti-intellectualism I always considered a right leaning thing, like, you always hear republicans saying universities are tools of left-wing indoctrination and not the other way around? But I suppose hippies had that "don't trust the man" thing going on.
Are hippies how people's idea of the far left formed? My understanding is the whole hippy movement, while memorable, was quite short lived?
How did it come from the left? The "vaccines cause autism" wasn't connected to any political side as far as I'm aware. Just because you're a hippie doesn't mean you're left-wing, or politically conscious at all even.
I might be wrong but I always associated hippies with left-leaning, liberal politics. And I'm not sure where the association between the left and the anti-vax movement came from but I know it was a thing that was frequently made fun of. I even remember catching a Simpson's episode where they went somewhere and commented on how progressive/liberal it was (forget the specific word), then Marge asked a random woman if she vaccinated her kids and she responded "of course" then Marge said "and not TOO liberal".
Now that I think about it, maybe the political association of the original anti-vax movement was manufactured?