4 Reasons Right-Wingers Are Embracing Anti-Vaxxer Conspiracy Theories

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/4-reasons-right-wingers-are-embracing-anti-vaxxer-conspiracy-theories

Republicans are already warm to anti-science conspiracy theories. Anti-vaccination advocates are, at their core, conspiracy theorists. You’d have to be in order to believe that all major health organizations in the world are colluding to cover up the supposed dangers of vaccines and that only a few non-scientists on the internet have access to the truth. The anti-vaccination conspiracy theory resembles nothing so much as the widespread right wing conspiracy theory, endorsed by most Republican leaders, that holds that the vast majority of climate scientists worldwide are colluding to hoodwink the world about the realities of global warming.

Republicans are already practiced at spreading lies about health care. Through the anti-choice movement, Republicans have become adept at spreading lies and misinformation about basic health care practices. They lie about emergency contraception, claiming it’s “abortion” when it actually works by preventing pregnancy. They lie about abortion, claiming it’s dangerous and needs all these extra regulations (that just so happen to put safe, legal clinics out of business), when in fact abortion is one of the safest outpatient procedures you can get. They claim abortion causes breast cancer and mental illness, both of which are not true. They claim that birth control is so cheap women don’t need health insurance coverage of it, which is a lie. They claim fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks, another lie. Republicans have perfected the art of lying about women’s health care, so moving on to lying about children’s health care is a natural transition. Hell, one reason so many conservatives oppose reproductive health care is it’s seen as impure and unnatural, which is exactly what anti-vaxxers say about vaccines.

Republicans already support giving parents broad rights to mistreat their children. Justifying his opposition to mandatory vaccination, Rand Paul said,” The state doesn't own your children. Parents own the children.” It’s not true (sense a theme here?), as the constitution explicitly forbids any human being owning another, with no exceptions made for children. But sadly, Paul was speaking for a widespread belief on the right that parents should be treated less as guardians for children and more like owners. It’s one reason that conservatives are forever trying to undermine public schooling and, when they can’t do that, trying to remove the ability of schools to teach facts that parents want to shield kids from. Particularly on the Christian right, there’s a lot of hostility to the idea that children are people with rights instead of property. The reason the U.S. hasn’t ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child when nearly all countries elsewise in the world have is because conservatives are afraid that it might limit their ability to beat children or force religious beliefs on unwilling children. Any attempt to put limits on how badly you can treat your children, from bans on forcing gay children into discredited “pray the gay away” programs to limits put on homeschooling, is bound to be met with opposition by conservatives who think we should treat children like property instead of people.

Republicans are already hostile to the idea of the common good, particularly when it comes to health care.The ongoing battle over the Affordable Care Act really goes back to one basic principle, which is that Republicans reject the idea of universal health care. At its core, hostility to universal health care is rooted in the deep classism of the right: They don’t want to share their neighborhoods, schools, or churches with lower class people, so of course they don’t want to share the medical system. That’s why myths about “waiting lists” and “death panels” persist despite the evidence: It’s a way to suggest that letting poor people into the health care system is going to ruin it for everyone. Even if that means people die unnecessarily, conservatives will demand that we maintain that separation between the rich and the poor, even on something as basic as health care.