311 Comments
User's avatar
Ethereal Fairy Natalie's avatar

🎯This is an excellent point.

Expand full comment
Mehmeisterjr's avatar

We need more people like this.

Thank you, Heather,

Expand full comment
Ethereal Fairy Natalie's avatar

That means you probably actually are, then.

Expand full comment
Ethereal Fairy Natalie's avatar

That was Aristotle Onassis's kink, he was famous for that.

Expand full comment
Star Geezer's avatar

Decades ago I read in The Scientific American I think it was, an article that described the progression of tetanus as it led to the death of a soldier in the 1800s. That terrified me, just saying it's "lock jaw" does not give you a clue of how bad it was, how horrifying.Recently there was an article in the Smithsonian about Diphtheria and the way it killed so many children and the development of the vaccine for that. I've read about what whooping cough is.People just know the names, not how bad the conditions are. We are all spoiled by good public health measures.

Expand full comment
gingerwentworth1's avatar

It's everywhere. She got it from everywhere. I got the opposite constantly (from grownups) but it meant zero to me. What counted was what I heard from other kids and that was often really hostile and that I was ugly, and that's what I believed. And I wasn't black or poor or a bunch of other things that operate for kids.

Expand full comment
mrpuma2u's avatar

DING DING DING DING DING!!!!!!!!!!

Expand full comment
Jeff Mc Donald's avatar

I'm just glad they've changed...and that they weren't around when polio and small pox vaccines were being given. Boy, if they had to get those to go to school? Karenpocolyps!

Expand full comment
Stranger Than Friction's avatar

Are you referring to the Los Angeles Unified School District with that abbreviation, or something else? (Not familiar with it, obvs)

Expand full comment
Stranger Than Friction's avatar

"I also recently read Maria Konnikova's book The Confidence Game, and she makes the point over and over that people fall for cons not because they're stupid (necessarily), but because it touches on some emotional vulnerability that makes them ignore the red flags that are so obvious to everyone else. Any of us could fall for a con if it presents itself at a time when we're emotionally labile and con artists know exactly which buttons to push."

Yup--young people fall in love or lust with the wrong people all the time. I feel lucky that I survived my first boyfriend without contracting any STDs. And don't get me started on the narcissist that later tried to upend my life--and my kid's life. She moved to the other coast and I hope I never see her again.

Expand full comment
Dolmance's avatar

Schadenfreude. It releases health promoting endorphins, and provides just a hint of actual revenge. You know, just an ethereal sort of scent of sweet payback. All we need, really, is real payback. This way helps you keep your eyes on the ball, so to speak, for that glorious time I refuse to give up on, when we'll get what it is we need so desperately.

Expand full comment
Brian Bixby's avatar

the vaccine will "kill their kid that night!"

It is truly bizarre to me that you could parade a score of children past them who had been vaccinated a day, a week, a month before with no ill effects and it will **NOT** shake their belief. I just don't get it.

Expand full comment
Brian Bixby's avatar

I've read that there were smallpox anti-vaxxers, and they were quite vocal. Fortunately Darwin took care of a lot of them.

Expand full comment