<story><title>What I Heard from Trump Supporters</title><url>http://blog.samaltman.com/what-i-heard-from-trump-supporters</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jrs235</author><text>If you want to see some cognitive gear grinding and confusion, if you run into anyone that believes that vaccinations should be mandated by law, ask them &amp;quot;if it&amp;#x27;s my body, isn&amp;#x27;t it my choice?&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>spaceman_2020</author><text>What gets my goat is the kind of shouting down I get whenever I take any contrarian stance on non-GMO foods, or God forbid, vaccination.&lt;p&gt;I &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; that vaccines are critical and that there is nothing wrong with them. But to not even admit the possibility that there &lt;i&gt;might&lt;/i&gt; be a link between vaccines and some health problems is, to me, very anti-science.&lt;p&gt;My understanding for science has always been to question all assumptions, even ones you think are your sacred cows.</text></item><item><author>cylinder</author><text>Same thing, even with long-time friends, if I am trying to counter their hysteria (they&amp;#x27;re reading and sharing &amp;quot;fake news,&amp;quot; too, and I just want to point out the inaccuracy of their statements or test them with logic, I&amp;#x27;m called an &amp;quot;alt-right fascist.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Honestly, the level of discourse in this country is an absolute joke. It doesn&amp;#x27;t matter what side you are on.</text></item><item><author>Yhippa</author><text>This one gave me the most pause:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “Silicon Valley is incredibly unwelcoming to alternative points of view.  Your curiosity, if it is sincere, is the very rare exception to the rule.”&lt;p&gt;Substitute &amp;quot;Silicon Valley&amp;quot; for any major liberal enclaves, like universities and cities, and I think you see the same thing.  I am skeptical by nature and try to take a scientific view of new ideas.  However I feel like I get shouted down every time I merely bring up a contrarian view.  People start throwing link after link of facts and don&amp;#x27;t want to even reason about ideas.  It&amp;#x27;s hopeless and I end up keeping my mouth shut.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eridius</author><text>No it&amp;#x27;s not.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not about your body. It&amp;#x27;s about the society you&amp;#x27;re a part of and herd immunity. If you choose not to vaccinate, you are putting &lt;i&gt;everyone else&lt;/i&gt; at risk.&lt;p&gt;So yeah, you can choose not to vaccinate, but you need to understand that if you do so, the rest of society has a right (and in many cases an &lt;i&gt;obligation&lt;/i&gt;) to say &amp;quot;we don&amp;#x27;t want you here, if you&amp;#x27;re not vaccinated (for any reason other than medically unfit to be vaccinated) then you don&amp;#x27;t get to participate in our society, you don&amp;#x27;t get to put our members at risk, and you need to stay the hell away from us&amp;quot;.</text></comment>
<story><title>What I Heard from Trump Supporters</title><url>http://blog.samaltman.com/what-i-heard-from-trump-supporters</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jrs235</author><text>If you want to see some cognitive gear grinding and confusion, if you run into anyone that believes that vaccinations should be mandated by law, ask them &amp;quot;if it&amp;#x27;s my body, isn&amp;#x27;t it my choice?&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>spaceman_2020</author><text>What gets my goat is the kind of shouting down I get whenever I take any contrarian stance on non-GMO foods, or God forbid, vaccination.&lt;p&gt;I &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; that vaccines are critical and that there is nothing wrong with them. But to not even admit the possibility that there &lt;i&gt;might&lt;/i&gt; be a link between vaccines and some health problems is, to me, very anti-science.&lt;p&gt;My understanding for science has always been to question all assumptions, even ones you think are your sacred cows.</text></item><item><author>cylinder</author><text>Same thing, even with long-time friends, if I am trying to counter their hysteria (they&amp;#x27;re reading and sharing &amp;quot;fake news,&amp;quot; too, and I just want to point out the inaccuracy of their statements or test them with logic, I&amp;#x27;m called an &amp;quot;alt-right fascist.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Honestly, the level of discourse in this country is an absolute joke. It doesn&amp;#x27;t matter what side you are on.</text></item><item><author>Yhippa</author><text>This one gave me the most pause:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “Silicon Valley is incredibly unwelcoming to alternative points of view.  Your curiosity, if it is sincere, is the very rare exception to the rule.”&lt;p&gt;Substitute &amp;quot;Silicon Valley&amp;quot; for any major liberal enclaves, like universities and cities, and I think you see the same thing.  I am skeptical by nature and try to take a scientific view of new ideas.  However I feel like I get shouted down every time I merely bring up a contrarian view.  People start throwing link after link of facts and don&amp;#x27;t want to even reason about ideas.  It&amp;#x27;s hopeless and I end up keeping my mouth shut.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Marcus316</author><text>Let&amp;#x27;s push the thought experiment a bit. Let&amp;#x27;s suppose you have the option to opt-out from vaccination.&lt;p&gt;If the premise is that you are responsible for your own body, then shouldn&amp;#x27;t you also be responsible for any consequences that occur as a result of your choice to opt-out?&lt;p&gt;As a non-vaccinated person, carrying a disease that would normally be vaccinated against, can you be held responsible in the event that the disease you carry infects, for instance, a child that is not yet old enough to be vaccinated against that particular disease, or infects someone who was unable to be vaccinated due to other medical reasons? Should you be fined or prosecuted in the event that your choice to opt-out can be directly linked to a significant health event?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s hard to talk about disease on an individual basis. A person&amp;#x27;s choices with respect to their own health has an impact on the individuals around them, and I do think that people should be mindful of the community when making lifestyle choices. I&amp;#x27;m not saying a person shouldn&amp;#x27;t make their own choices, but should accept that those choices aren&amp;#x27;t just going to affect their own individual health in many cases.</text></comment>