I guess I'm just going to have to face it. I'm entering a period of lots of vaccine blogging again. After all, Jenny McCarthy's book is coming out this month, and I've heard rumblings that she's scheduled to be on the undisputed Queen of Woo Oprah Winfrey's TV show later this month; so beware. Already in some bookstores is Paul Offit's book Autism's False Prophets, and there's little doubt that the antivaccination smear machine is gearing up to slime him as hard as they can.
It's going to be a depressingly busy fall on the antivax front.
I keep hoping I can take an extended break from this particular topic. After all, even I get tired and demoralized rebutting the same nonsense again and again and again. I've been at it for over three years now. It's all so repetitive, too. In fact, whenever I have an invasion of antivax trolls, their blather is so similar that I think their comments are computer-generated.
Now I know that they might be.
You know, the results generated by this tool above are indistinguishable from comments from real anti-vaccinationists. A fun exercise might be to use the Jabs-O-Tron for a little fun in discussion forums and see if real antivaccinationists can tell if it's a joke. In the meantime, I'm going to try to avoid the topic for a at least a few days, if not longer. I need to recharge my batteries and be ready for the onslaught that I know will be coming soon, and dwelling on other topics is a good way to accomplish that. I can only hope the antivaccine activists will let me.
I'm not optimistic on that score.
OH GOD NOT THIS AGAIN!. IT'S OBVIOUS THAT THE HEALTH SERVICE IS ARPING OUR KIDS BECAUSE THEY'RE USING OUR BABIES AS LAB RATS. WHEN WILL GORDON SPEND MORE ON OZONE THERAPY. IT COULD ONLY GET WORSE IF THE FRENCH START COMING OVER!!!!!
Not quite the same level as the postmodern generator, but amusing none the less.
I just got
I am so wise, do you have a url for the postmodern generator?
Wow. That's convincing. Does it just draw from a pile of catchphrases and buzzwords?
Natalie, you might want to check out http://www.generatorland.com It might be there.
Damn you, Orac!
Here I am, immobilized thanks to orthopedic surgery, and you give me a perfect reason to gen up an AoA bot on the eve of a weekend.
Hmmm....
Don't know about this one, but some of them are pretty sophisticated. Point them at a body of work, and they'll find statistical relationships among word groups, which they can then use to generate random paragraphs that read a lot like a group member.
No quotations and semi-coherent replies that I know of yet.
Well ... it's adequate, but needs more acerbity and vitriol.
Hi Orac,
Did you see this recent poll? http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/35753
Browsing the comments at the bottom of the story reveals more indistinguishable rants.
Keep up the great vaccine-related posts. It is undoubtedly wearing to answer the same misconceptions/rants over and over, but it is also indispensable.
I have become aware over the past few years that bad doctors mean to place us all in death camps. All in order to cover up their mistakes. Those who care about children need to stand up and be counted.
(Bad grammar and composition hurts my hair, sue me.)
Natalie, check out- http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/
Orac, an argument I've found useful, particularly with people who are concerned about vaccines, but not crazy, is pointing out smallpox. After all, if responsibility for the reduction of diseases like smallpox is not due to vaccines byt the better sanitation, nutrition, and health care as many in the anti-vax movement claim, well where is smallpox?
It's not a bot, it just strings phrases together using javascript. You can see the pile of phrases if you "view source" on the page.
I think it's funny, but it needs to be updated to include something about mito.
I got
Its obvious that the allopathic idiots are killing our kids because of Ben Goldacre!.. All parents should chelate... LOL!!!
A little too realistic there.
(Killjoy mode /on)
One of the myriad reasons I blog about vaccines and autism is to try and ensure the world knows that not all parents of autistic people are antivax psychos. I'm a little perturbed to see us all make the Jabzotron in quite so general a way.
(Killjoy mode /off)
"A fun exercise might be to use the Jabs-O-Tron for a little fun in discussion forums and see if real antivaccinationists can tell if it's a joke"
yup, over at badscience they already did that: JABS took about 3 or 4 days till they twigged.
Hrm. the postmodernist generator composes some amusing babble.
I thought the random JABS generator should have more instances of "I'm not against vaccines but" as a first phrase. Oh, and the misspellings were good, but they need more all caps and eleventy-ones.
Kev: Don't take it personally. It's meant to mimic the style of anti-vaxxers, who probably would try to claim that all parents of the autistic were on their side. No more true than their other claims, of course.
Please, please. Let's stop these maddening blog wars and get a good old fashioned live debate scheduled. The public deserves nothing less. Orac can show that he is a paragon of genius and the "Woos" will no doubt go back underground until the next crisis gets their attention.
I do not "debate" cranks, for reasons I explained here and elsewhere:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/10/homeopathy_debate_at_the_univ…
The public deserves nothing less [ than a live debate ].
Oh piddle! What people are getting is a resurgence of dieases for which there are safe and effective vaccines. People's children are being threatened by the breakdown in herd immunity caused by too many people being frightened or threatened into not immunising children. People do not need a debate about the blatantly obvious; the debate, if any is needed, is what to do with/about those who are causing herd immunity to be lost (i.e., what to do with/about the anti-vax woos). Are new laws needed, and how would they be enforced? Is social rejection part of the answer? What role does education have to play? What can family GPs do? Etc.
Look at the bright side, Orac. You are blogging about Jenny McCarthy, a former Playboy bunny!! It does not get much better then that. Now if only you included a few nude pictures every time you write about her, your blog would be a hit!!! Maybe even surpass PZ Myers'. Now how good is that? Then we can focus on her mind as we are suppose to./sarcasm
Jenny Mccarthy the queen of Woo?
And she is dating Jim Carey too btw. LOL
Not bad, but it needs a button where you can post it in comic sans.
sailor, the html tag for that is <font face="Comic Sans">
I almost forgot about Comic Sans. Times Roman may be the "Wonder Bread" of fonts, and Helvetica the cheddar cheese, but... I'm not sure I want to extend the metaphor here.