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Del Bigtree, a longtime ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., isn’t just anti-vaccine. He’s pro-infection.

Over coffee at a Starbucks just outside Austin, Texas, Del Bigtree told me he wants his teenage son to catch polio. Measles, too. He’s considered driving his unvaccinated family to South Carolina, which is in the midst of a historic outbreak, so that they can all be exposed. He prefers pertussis—whooping cough—to the pertussis vaccine, which he later described to me as a “crime against children.” It’s not the diseases that Americans should be afraid of, Bigtree insists: It’s the shots that stop them.

Spreading that message is Bigtree’s lifework. He produced Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, a 2016 documentary that helped mainstream the modern anti-vaccine movement by alleging—spuriously—that the CDC suppressed evidence of vaccine harms. His weekly internet show, The HighWire With Del Bigtree, mostly targets the pharmaceutical industry and has helped raise millions for his nonprofit, the Informed Consent Action Network, which files lawsuits to overturn school vaccine mandates around the country. He’s been a close adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and served as communications director for Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.

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[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 171 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

This man is out there trying to murder his living family.

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 40 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

It'll be manslaughter, unless they find evidence that he knew he was a shill.

Though, I wonder if this sort of admission is anything welfare services can work with.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

At what point does negligence/stupidity outweigh intent. If you go on YouTube and say you don't believe bullets kill people, and that's all a sham brought about by gun companies, "it's very clear people like 50 cent have been shot numerous times and it hardly effected him.". Then go and push someone in front of a shooter at a gun range, I can't imagine any judge would side with, well fuck he's just stupid enough to believe bullets don't kill people and call it manslaughter. Seems like premeditated murder attempts to me.

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[–] starik@lemmy.zip 18 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

It’s illegal to intentionally infect another person with a disease, no matter what your beliefs are

[–] Pirat@lemmy.org 9 points 2 weeks ago

Well, there used to be a thing where you would put your child in the way of mumps because a child getting mumps is much less severe than an adult. There may have been other such diseases that it was better to have as a child than as an adult.

This was before vaccines which basically does the same thing.

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[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 73 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

The amount of absolute stupidity these days is shocking.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 40 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 children)

It was always there, the internet just gave them leverage to find each other and make professional sounding networks of absolutely rock stupid fucking people.

It's honestly the biggest downside of the internet.

Because pro-asbestos and anti-seatbelt people existed, but they didn't have megaphones to reach the whole world.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah you start to see this stupidity increase in size with every major information transmission breakthrough. A lot of these people would probably be hit with a big stick for being stupid and causing problems historically.

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[–] aeiou@piefed.social 13 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

I swear that America - well the world at large, but especially America - has a reality problem.

I see the swell of anti-science anti-intellectual 'experts', the aggressive evangelicals beating queerfolk with holy books they haven't read, the facebook addicts praising pyramid oils and herbs and crystals instead of medicine, the pearl-clutching racists shouting off statistics as justification to expel the 'others' ... and I just wonder if we've collectively lost the ability to think.

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[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

A reminder that the human brain has not changed since modern humans emerged about 300,000 years ago.

Think about what that means.

The people who spent millennia throwing rocks at the moon, drawing stick figures on walls and hunting mammoths with pointy sticks? That's just us. That is exactly what we would be doing in that time and place. The people that burned witches? That is us too. Those people had the exact same capacity for intelligence, compassion, and reason as we do.

What I am saying is that the capacity for human stupidity is boundless. It is our intelligence and civilization that defies our nature. We can always be dumber. We might not be able to get any smarter.

[–] paper_moon@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

There's this weird phenomenon that people tend to think those in the past were less intelligent than now, when really it was history being spun a certain way. For example: the witch burning thing, most people accusing witches, etc didn't actually believe that shit. Its coming to light in modern times, that they realized they could grab land and money by accusing vulnerable people, and then just taking their land when they couldn't defend themselves against a confession under torture.

Keep in mind all the advancements and progress humans have made in mathemathics and sciences over the last few thousand years. Those people weren't stupid, if they were doing stupid things, its probably because they were evil (like burning witches for their own financial gain)

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[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 49 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

In a sane world his children would be taken from him and he would be jailed for reckless child endangerment.

Can't let your kid walk to school but can do this ? Fuck that

[–] axx@slrpnk.net 12 points 2 weeks ago

You actually have a point, the guy is openly discussing ways to harm his kids and is in all evidence not a safe person for them to be with.

[–] DCErik@lemmy.zip 46 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Normal people: I need to have a medical procedure.

Republicants: I need for you to not have a medical procedure.

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[–] santa@sh.itjust.works 35 points 2 weeks ago

I Genuinely Am Upset That Your Kids Are Vaccinated

That’s a you problem.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

this guy belongs in some sort of highly controlled environment. Either prison or a secure psychiatric facility. I'm not sure which.

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[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Did you know that Gandhi was an anti-vaxxer?

Vaccination is a barbarous practice and one of the most fatal of all the delusions current in our time. Conscientious objectors should stand alone, if need be, against the whole world, in defence of their conviction.

And

…there is absolutely no need to be afraid of small-pox.

I cannot also help feeling that vaccination is a violation of the dictates of religion and morality.

The vaccine is a filthy substance, and it is foolish to expect that one kind of filth can be removed by another.

Until he wasn't.

I can’t sleep. These kiddies are fading away like little buds. I feel the weight of their deaths on my shoulders. I prevailed upon their parents not to get them vaccinated. Now the children are passing away. It may be, I am afraid, the result of my ignorance and obstinacy; and so I feel very unhappy.

It turns out that if you expose children, unprotected, to deadly diseases, they die.

I wonder who this fucknut is gonna blame when his kids take an "unexpected" turn for the worse?

[–] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Well, seems like he learned his lesson. Would have been better if he had learned it before his bad advice got children killed, but at least he learned instead of doubling down.

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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

The main reason lifespans were so short in the past was because so many kids died of disease that it pushed the avg lifespan down with it. I used to work to restore old cemeteries with my local historical society. I'd find family plots that would have 3-4 kids all dying within a few months of each other.

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[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

I hope he dies of a horrible and preventable disease then

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[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 27 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Of the 4 Chaos gods of Warhammer, I could understand people being tempted by power, sex or violence, but disease never made sense to me. Who would want to be a Nurgle cultist? Now we know.

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[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 24 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I think the fact that we pretty much crushed so many diseases via vaccines and other care in the 20th century that many forgot what it was like to live in the shadow of those diseases all the time. That lack of familiarity (the one thay spurred the acceptance of vaccines and treatment) is what is fueling this shit today.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This is my conclusion too. It takes roughly 2 generations for all lessons to be forgotten. Add in a lack of empathy or critical thinking and here we are.

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[–] TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Its completely insane this isnt legally child abuse. These people are allowed to try and kill their children for a cult.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Except the supreme court has said there needs to be a religious exemption to these things. So then it becomes voluntary. Then there's some kind of cultural association attached to it (MAGA, for instance.)

Imo, other parents should be able to sue you/fine you if your kid gets the disease and your kid wasn't vaccinated. Its a type of reckless behavior like speeding in a school zone or shitting on a sidewalk in front of a public toilet.

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[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 19 points 2 weeks ago

Please be The Onion. Please be The Onion.

Fucking damnit

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 18 points 2 weeks ago

If watching his son either die or become crippled is what he wants, then no, he should not have that. That is completely unfair to his son, and his children should be taken away from him. He’s a menace to both his family and society.

[–] Earthman_Jim@lemmy.zip 17 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)
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[–] Chaotic_Altruist@lemmy.zip 16 points 2 weeks ago

Sounds like a job for child protective services. A father wants to intentionally infect his children with known fatal diseases, call CPS today!

[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

At what point is it child abuse

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 25 points 2 weeks ago

It's been child abuse.

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[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

I'm genuinely upset that you are a dangerous moron.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 weeks ago

I prefer letting my kids get hit by cars traveling at 100mph instead of having cars with brakes and speed limits.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

Platform the anti-vaxxers more, that'll get rid of them!

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

remember the MAGATS that were posting "plague spreading memes" on thier social media. Its on anti-vaxxers who take advice from a heroin, cocaine, steroid addict.

pertussis , rsv is one of those disease that is the reverse for adults, more severe in children than adults.

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

“I genuinely am upset that your kids are vaccinated, because it’s keeping my kids from getting chickenpox. It’s keeping my kids from getting measles,” he told me. “I believe their health depends on them catching those live viruses.” I asked him if he wanted his kids to catch all of the illnesses against which American children are routinely vaccinated. “Yes,”

To me that really sounds a whole heck of a lot like an open admittance that he'd like his children to die painfully.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

This is the problem with vaccines, they've been so successful that demagogues and morons exploit the fading memory of diseases to play on people's ignorance and our fears from not understanding medicine and biology.

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[–] tgm@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

What an idiot.

[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago

He hit all the stupid branches on the way down that Bigtree.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 8 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

So ... he wants his family to get all those diseases because he thinks they don't exist, or because he agrees that a sufficient prompt to the immune system will prevent future infection?

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

If only there was a way to exercise the immune system in a safe, controlled manner. It would be truly groundbreaking and save untold numbers of lives.

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[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

We can just call this guy a "virus advocate".

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[–] Jaysyn@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Well how about you die mad you abusive piece of shit?

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm genuinely upset that media wastes attention on such idiots.

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[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

JFC, people like this are absolutely infuriating.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sorry. I prefer my children alive.

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