A great response to anti-vaxxers

[The Blue Flower]

This is from Rob Breszny's weekly newsletter:
STARHAWK ON VACCINATIONS

Karyne Kuzawski writes: Many people in the alternative spirituality community are anti-vaccine. When Neopagan feminist Starhawk got vaccinated, she received a lot of negative feedback from people saying she was going against her values. Why wasn’t she letting/helping her healthy immune system take care of her? I loved her response:

Starhawk wrote: What about herbal medicine and natural methods? Hey, I drink ginger tea whenever I feel fluish, or chomp on turkey tail mushrooms, and that generally works fine for me. I have a good, strong immune system.

But Covid-19 is not the flu. It's something our immune systems have not yet evolved to deal with.

When Europeans arrived on this continent, the indigenous people of the Americas were amazing herbalists, incredibly skilled healers, extremely knowledgeable about all the medicines of the land, and they ate completely wild, nutrient dense organic food—but they had never developed immunities to European diseases and tens of millions died.

For that matter, the old Witches of Europe were damn good herbalists but that wasn't much help, either, against the bubonic plague. I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm in their league, anyway.

[Binkie The Clown]

1. A blast from the past.

Wow! Has it really been 40 years since the publication of Spiral Dance?

[rhiannon55]

19. The Spiral Dance has always been one of my favorite books

Starhawk is one of my heroines.

[niyad]

24. As she is one of mine, as well.

[crickets]

2. That *is* a great response. Good for Starhawk. Bookmarked. nt

[Orrex]

3. I admit that this is a more elegant response than my usual one,

which usually goes something like "why don't you ignorant fuckheads go choke on your horse paste and then go fuck yourselves some more!"

[Geechie]

5. Ahhaaaahaaa!!!

[smirkymonkey]

8. Still though,

yours works.

[pecosbob]

13. What was the one I heard recently?

Fuck off. Then keep fucking off until you get to the sign that says no fucking off beyond this point...then man up and go around the sign and fuck off some more.

[wackadoo wabbit]

35. Oooh, I like that one! /nt

[IronLionZion]

15. And they can drink their own urine

chug as much as they want

[jaxexpat]

37. and never run dry

[IronLionZion]

40. That one seems a bit circular

[Wednesdays]

53. Recycle often!

[Pacifist Patriot]

16. That's just a different brand of eloquence.

[Captain Zero]

20. I'm using this one.

Less elegant works for me.

[niyad]

25. That works, too.

[smirkymonkey]

42. Still though,

yours works.

[XacerbatedDem]

47. LMAO!!!

[Joinfortmill]

4. 👍

[wendyb-NC]

6. Excellent response

She is a very gifted, inspiring, spiritual feminist writer, and sage.

[niyad]

26. She is indeed.

[pnwmom]

7. It's from a public post on Facebook. Here:

https://www.facebook.com/WitchesResistance/posts/2726296804349411

[niyad]

31. Thank you. A most excellent read.

[Jakes Progress]

9. The difference is that this is an educated woman.

Her critics are twitter heads.

[AZLD4Candidate]

12. Twitter - the home of tweets by twits.

[ShazzieB]

10. I just have to comment on this bit...

When Neopagan feminist Starhawk got vaccinated, she received a lot of negative feedback from people saying she was going against her values. Why wasn’t she letting/helping her healthy immune system take care of her?

And here we have yet more proof that those who oppose vaccination don't understand squat about how they work. "Letting/helping her healthy immune system take care of her" is exactly what the vaccines are for!

[myccrider]

36. Plus they don't understand evolution.

Mother nature doesn’t take sides. Whoever can survive to have descendants are the ones who win the race. Some of the little microbes have been and continue to evolve much more rapidly than your immune system can and the way some of them will survive is to get around our immune systems. It took untold thousands to millions of us homo sapiens dying to get our genes/immune systems to achieve a kind of detente with colds and flu and measles and chicken pox, etc (although too many still die without modern medicine) Diseases like rabies, Mad Cow Disease and HIV/AIDS, etc are nearly 100% fatal without modern medicine regardless of how strong your immune system is.

[Farmer-Rick]

49. To this day, you can die from a cut on your finger.

You can reduce your chances of dying by disenfecting your cut immediately. But that Clostridium tetani bacteria will get into your body and spread quicker than you can run to disinfect it. And sometimes you don't get all the bacteria cleaned out and it can spread through your body just from a little cut. If you get tetanus, you will die. It is 100 percent fatal unless you get vaccinated at least once in your life, though every 10 years is recommended.

The only way to stop that bacteria from killing you is to get the tetanus vaccine. I work on a farm and have stepped on rusty nails, cut my hands from wire and slashed my leg with a plastic dog feeder. I never got tetanus because I keep my vaccine up to date.

My immune system is very good especially since I get vaccinated regularly. People are just buying into magical thinking when they bypass life saving vaccines to rely on potions and pseudo science.

[myccrider]

56. 100%!!! n/t

[wnylib]

45. They have no clue what a vaccine is or what it does.

They think that vaccines are a treatment medicine and don't realize that vaccines are a boost to the immune system, just like good nutrition and healthy living are.

[Farmer-Rick]

50. Well said.

So true

[AZLD4Candidate]

11. Native Americans and Influenza/Smallpox. Same thing. Foreign pathogen in new population

It was the same with me when I got Dengue Fever living in Malaysia.

[grantcart]

43. Exactly. Got Dengue in Thailand

The locals who routinely get it in infancy watched in amazement at the Malaria like experience.

[wnylib]

46. Measles from missionaries in Hawaii

nearly wiped out Native Hawaiians in the 19th century.

[True Blue American]

14. Notice!

Order your free tests here today. They start shipping in late January.

https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.covidtests.gov%2F&data=04%7C01%7CCLopez%40uft.org%7C137c3112749b4082514608d9daaf80fc%7Cda02d0cf35ff4d259837a92821130bb1%7C0%7C0%7C637781269577936143%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=PQqjDAva51GwqiJv%2B9b3ZCwH5UNGI6I%2FHTyLYKUyAys%3D&reserved=0

[lastlib]

17. So how do you boil it down to two *short* sentences a tRumper would grasp?

IDK

[niyad]

27. How about, "MY BODY. MY CHOICE. You f'n lackbrain." Sorry, that is three. One can

use a comma instead of a period to make it two.

[pnwmom]

28. That's basically their phrase, using it to mock pro-choice people who advocate for vaccines. n/t

[niyad]

32. Reclaim it Or, as Auntie Maxine might say, "Reclaiming my choice."

[pnwmom]

34. That ship has sailed. We need a better way to get our point across,

even if it takes more than 4 words.

[XacerbatedDem]

48. How about, 45 did it, how about you.

Rub it right in their faces.

[grantcart]

44. The only defense against a virus is antibodies made by your body

You have two choices

1) wait until you get Covid and take your chances with death or other long term disabling conditions

2) give your body a head start by producing the antibodies before the virus starts.

In other words if you are building a house that you are living in during construction would you put on a roof at the earliest possible time to keep the rain out or would you leave it until last just prove a political point that doesn't have anything to do with anything.

[Captain Zero]

18. Sorry. 5 paragraphs there and no short answer

So not sure any of that is the magical zinger we need for the antI-vax numbskulls.

[Lucky Luciano]

21. Here is one of these nutcases I went to High school with.

She’s a total conspiracy loon that thinks reiki and yoga will make her invincible and anyone who doesn’t do that has only themselves to blame for their maladies. I always thought spirituality was about a higher consciousness that eliminates selfishness, but I guess not!

[niyad]

23. Dear Goddess, what a nutbar.

[niyad]

22. As a Pagan Feminist Witch myself, my answer is, "Do I look stupid? I know how to

take care of most things. But this is new, and outside our experience."

Funny, all of the Pagans know, whatever their paths, were amoung the first to get vaccinated. We are not stupid.

[canetoad]

29. Kick

Inescapable logic. Thanks for posting.

[Biophilic]

30. I never knew Starhawk to put up with stupid for too long.

I've been out of the community (actively) for 15 years and I was going to say that I thought most people were reasonable thinkers. But I got thinking about various members that I had known and I realized that yes, they would let themselves be caught up in this type of thinking. Damn. I hate it when even pagans can't get their heads out of their asses.

[niyad]

33. It is depressing, is it not? And they are probably not even the fluffy pink bunny magic

types.

[Silver Gaia]

38. LOL

I haven't heard (or read) anyone mention fluffy bunny magic in a really long time.

[niyad]

41. Happy to provide a chuckle. A friend was telling me about an encounter with one

just last week.

[Emile]

39. I just tell them they might want to step back 6 feet, I woke up today with flu symptoms!

The look of fright on their faces will cheer you up!

[Farmer-Rick]

52. When an idiot says something about my mask at the feed store

I tell them I have COVID and the doctor told me to wear it. But if they want me to take it off I will. Then I cough lightly.

I haven't had any takers yet

[SouthernDem4ever]

51. The lady has common sense

[colorado_ufo]

54. Let's hear it for Starhawk!

[CaptainTruth]

55. Rob Breszny was lead singer for one of my favorite bands of all time...

World Entertainment War

I saw them in San Francisco a bunch of times. Darby Gould, one of their female vocalists, went on to perform with Jefferson Starship after Grace Slick left the band.

Their lyrics were excellent, things like Rob singing "what is the difference, between apathy & ignorance" & Darby singing back "I don't know, & I don't care."

Check them out:

[link:World Entertainment War https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000008MGO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_glt_i_BNXJV69TZXH7DKRGSM1C|]

[calimary]

57. I like all the responses in here!

[shenmue]

58. Wonderful