It's easy to be stuck where you are, to think of the world around you as an inconvenience where anything that doesn't quite match the values you have is wrong. After all, it doesn't agree with you, it must be wrong, right?
And then something happens. It could be a conversation, or maybe it's something you watched, or perhaps you just woke up one day and suddenly realized the thing you thought you knew was wrong.
And it's okay.
Learn from it.
Like these people.
Reddit user, nathan_thinks, wanted to know what finally got you to change your mind when they asked:
"When was the last time you changed your mind about an important belief, and what persuaded you?"
It doesn't even have to be anything super life-altering. Honestly, it could be a belief you've had since you were little because that's the only world you've known. It's the only path you were shown.
You Take Up Less Space?
"I was brought up to believe this:"
"Traditional funerals - with the body embalmed and buried in a cemetery 6 feet under, encased in a waterproof sealed vault - are the only way to go."
"But now, I much prefer the idea of a simple cremation with ashes (cremains) scattered or buried in a requested place."
Back2Bach
A Huge Failure
"I used to be very anti-drugs and kind of assumed criminalising drug use was OBVIOUSLY the only sensible thing to do. Like, a world where drugs are legal? Unthinkable."
"But watching The Wire and a documentary called The House I Live In really turned my thinking upside down as they introduced me to the reality of the failures of the war on drugs."
thinreaper
Just Enough To Get By
"1-a couple of years ago, i realized "i don't need to do my best" Sure, i could give my best to get a better paying job, but what use will it be if i don't even have free time between working and sleeping? None. I can do my best and make a really good presentation. But is it really that much different from a "slightly better than average" one?"
"I don't need to do my best, i just need to do enough."
"2- i don't need to be optimistic. I always thought i should believe in the best result possible, but then someone broke that belief. Furthermore If i don't expect anything good, i don't get disappointed."
Blowst
Doing Anything For That Cheddar
"I always wanted to become extremely rich, and was sure I would sacrifice whatever it took to achieve that goal."
"Now I want to have financial stability and have some passive income, but I prefer to enjoy life with my family and friends, or spend time doing my hobbies."
"I saw a really young son of a couple that are friends of my family lose his life to blood cancer. He did not have time to fulfill any important goals. His life vanished before he could start to enjoy true freedom."
"Time is a finite asset, and no amount of money can purchase more."
ezanchi
You know what helps make you a smarter person? Reading.
You know what helps make you a better person? Critical reading.
Don't believe all of it until you've done it the right way.
The Internet Being Used For Something Positive For Once
"Not the last time but the biggest change of opinion was believing vaccines cause autism. I had my first kid in the mid 00’s and most of my adult conversations were at a crunchy mom group. In 2006 we could finally afford to get a computer and internet and I dove in. Looked at stats, info from the WHO etc. and then talked to my wonderful doctor. Back before the anti vax movement was really organized online it was a lot easier to find reliable information."
awkwardlyherdingcats
"Thanks for the hope, going through this with my sister and her young family now. The amount of garbage I have to refute from her social group of also stay at home moms (not knocking the lifestyle just the credentials) is tiring."
It_Happens_Today
A Switch Flipped
"I left Mormonism."
"Why? I did some reading from sources that my faith didn’t supply. It was really that simple."
"It might seem crazy, but my religious beliefs were in a special column that meant I didn’t view them through a critical lens. The same way no one critically examines if their baby is cute or not, I never critically examined my faith. Some precious things we put on a pedestal. And then one day a switch flipped and I asked, “why can’t I examine it critically? Seems like it would be worthwhile.”"
"It took a matter of hours to see it was all a sham."
daveescaped
Right Under Our Noses, Flouting Their Nonsense
"The last few years have really brought into focus the difference between harmless conspiracies/beliefs and those that hurt people. My dad is really into alien conspiracy and younger me would have tried to argue with him. Now I'm just thankful that he's not a Sandy Hook denier."
"You want to believe in ghosts and LoCh Ness? Cool! Just don't force your kids to eat crystals instead of getting vaccines, thanks!"
TransFattyAcid
"I'm kinda the opposite. I used to think conspiracy theorists were relatively harmless. And then someone who bought into the lizard people thing blew up part of my city and people who believe in Q tried to overthrow the government within 2 weeks of each other. I'm pretty strongly convinced of the slippery slope when it comes to conspiracy theories now."
idreamoffreddy
Most beliefs come from a narrow view of the world, an inability to grasp the troubles and problems of others. However, a tiny moment, calling out to you, can make everything you thought you knew change.
A Situation To Help You See Through All Lenses
"Marriage equality."
"It's not that I was "against" it, I just didn't see what all the fuss and fighting was about. In my eyes marriage was just a piece of paper and that piece of paper doesn't keep people together. So why go through all the legal fighting and expense just to be able to get that stupid piece of paper."
"Then I was living with someone. We had been together a long time. He was involved in a very serious accident and was touch and go for a bit. I was not able to provide any input on his care because I was not his wife. I was just "a girlfriend". His parents - whom he had little contact with - were allowed to make all health-related decisions while he was unconscious, even though I knew what he would want (based on our end-of-life discussions). Not having that stupid piece of paper, made a huge f-cking difference."
"That situation really clarified the fight for marriage equality for me. Our society - rightly or wrongly - affords so many rights and protections for married couples. People aren't fighting for the right to spend 50k on some stupid wedding or to use labels like husband or wife. People are fighting for the right for their union be legally protected in the eyes of the law."
"It bugs me that it took for something to happen to me for me to change my mind. I try to be better than that. But I suppose it's better than never changing it at all."
EttaJamesKitty
A Broken System Meant To Help Ends Up Hurting
"I was in support of the death penalty, because I (still) believe there are some crimes heinous enough to warrant it. But in learning about cases where people who have been sentenced to death were later conclusively exonerated, I realized that our justice system is not nearly accurate enough to have the death penalty. We have absolutely put innocent people to death, and that happening even once should be enough to abolish it."
paulcosca
"I recently came to this same exact shift in belief. I’m a corrections officer. I work with a lot of scumbag pieces of sh-t, some of the crimes they committed are almost too heinous to believe. At first, my belief in the death penalty became more and more concrete as I learned about the sh-t some of these guys did."
"And then two months ago or so, a prisoner who had done 30 years of a 65 year sentence for breaking into a woman’s house and raping her was exonerated by DNA evidence… yeah, that’s when I started doubting that belief. Even with all the advanced forensic science we have, it still took until 2022 for that guy to be proven innocent. If we had the death penalty, not only would that man be dead, his name would have been tarnished forever."
"Yes, there are some crimes which warrant death. But the possibility of faulty evidence, bad trials, lying f-cks, etc is, in my opinion, just too great for me to support the death penalty."
New-Income1328
Always be willing to learn more, to gain as much knowledge as you can about the world and the people in the world. Never be content with stopping where you're at. That's the only way you can grow.
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Doctors see a lot of stupid things. Like, a LOT. Especially things that can be easily avoided. And when it comes to anti-vaxxers, it's a very big case of "I told you so." Horrible diseases can be prevented with the proper vaccination, but many anti-vaxxers continue to pass on treatment that can save their children's (and other childrens') lives.
ArcaneRuby asks: Doctors of Reddit, what are some of your anti-vax parent stories?
We hope they called CPS.
"We had a 14 year old female come in for abdominal pain one time. She weighed 80 pounds. Looked sickly. Her mother refused to let her eat anything but a handful of things, nothing with very much protein at all. She literally had a binder full of articles about how horrible vaccines are, all the bad things they put in food these days, etc. She had completely brain washed this kid so the kid believed it too. Her labs showed malnutrition, her teeth were horrible. Just a sad case all around."
That doctor has no chill when it comes to anti-vaxxers.
Giphy"When I was a med student, I had a parent who wanted to do a 'delayed vaccination schedule'. Basically it means that you get all the same vaccinations but you pointlessly and foolishly do it over a longer time period. The mom had read a book promoting this practice that was unfortunately written by an MD. My pediatric attending had zero chill: 'Is that the book written by Dr __? Yes? Well, then you should know that I was in the same medical school class as Dr __ but I got much better scores than he did.'"
Someone thought they were being smooth.
"In medical school I saw a kiddo whose parents refused vaccines and so when they were given the vaccine refusal form to sign. This form essentially said that the parents understood that refusing vaccines was against medical advice, that their kiddo could get sick from all those preventable diseases, and that the they wouldn't hold the doctor/practice liable for any complications that the kiddo may get from said preventable diseases.
This mom pulled out a sharpie and blacked out the part about the doctor not being held liable. The parents thought that we'd be cool with them just changing that form just for them and they wanted the doctor to be held liable for their moronic choice. Of course this didn't work and they were told to sign the form or they would be discharged from the practice and have to find another. They refused to sign and were told to leave after given a list of other pediatricians in the area."
Sound logic you've got there.
Giphy"Had a kid come in for generic upper respiratory virus. Asked mom if he was vaccinated, as is routine. She said no. When I asked why not, her response was "Well my boyfriend was vaccinated and he still got meningitis, so they don't even work"
I told her that's the same as saying your friend got bruised by a seat belt in a car accident, so you don't wear them when you drive."
Go Dad!
"Friend of mine is a military OBGYN. Was at a OB appointment with the pregnant dependent and servicemember. He had just returned from AFG a few months prior.
OB mentions about follow-ups after delivery in 1st year of life, including vaccines.
Wife says: 'I read on the internet that vaccines cause autism, I don't think we're going to do that.'
Husband says: 'I saw a lot of little graves in Afghanistan, sure as sh!t we are getting our kid vaccinated.'"
Why don't people just listen to their doctors?
"Doctor here.
Guy decided to not get a flu shot this year. Ended up in the ICU with flu infection in his brain
He has currently been in the hospital for a month most of which in the ICU. Has likely permanent speech difficulty and left sided weakness."
Wait....huh?
Giphy"I had a kid come in that was super sick. 3 years old and in septic shock. He had the flu and another compounded viral infection (I want to say pertussis). Heart rate was close to 200, respiratory rate in the 50s, blood pressure in the 70s. Kid was so fucking dry that we could barely get IVs into him and I almost had to drill an IO. We dumped a ton of fluids into him, started him on vasopressors and transferred him to the local children's hospital.
I had asked the mom if he was vaccinated and she said "No, vaccines have really bad side effects! They'll make you sick." I explained to her that NOT getting the vaccines had made her kid 10 times sicker than he ever would have been from any mild vaccine reaction. She told me I was a moron and that I obviously have no clue what I'm talking and that's the reason her kid was getting transferred.... She also told me that recommending she vaccinate her kids was racist."
You'd think they'd learn by now.
"I had a mother bring her child to see me as a new patient. When I saw that he wasn't vaccinated I asked my nurse why not and she told me that the mother had a "religious exemption." When I entered the room, I asked the mom what the religious exemption was and she said "oh, well when he was a baby he had a rash from the hepatitis B vaccine." I kindly told her that I couldn't care for her child because he was not only a risk to my staff, myself but also to other patients in my office. She went off on me and ranted about "how she can not believe that every doctor's office that she calls refuses to treat her son because he isn't vaccinated." And that "the only doctor in the county that will see him can't see him for almost 2 months." I kindly stopped her and said "if I was one of a few that refused to treat your child, I would understand your frustration. But don't you think there's a message that not a single doctor in the entire county (save for ONE doctor who did some really questionable practices, think essential oils and stuff) will treat your kid? That maybe there's a valid reason behind it?
Yeah, she definitely wasn't happy and left."
Seriously?
"I'm not a doctor, but an RN in public health. I recently had a mother call me to ask me if it was a smart idea for her child should get the MMR vaccine. Why was she asking this? She was worried that would make his autism worse."
Some people, man....
Giphy"I'm not a medical doctor but a mental health therapist, went to do a new client intake and while asking the mother about the kid's medical history, vaccination records etc she said he was not vaccinated because vaccines cause autism and she didn't want to risk her son getting it, then when I went to meet the kid within 5 seconds of laying eyes on him I could tell... he was autistic. Worst part was that when I told her she became very upset and started yelling at her husband saying he must have gotten the kid secretly vaccinated and then immediately ran out the house and took the kid to the emergency room for "testing" and just left me and the dad in the living room just kind of staring at eachother. Never answered my calls or texts again after that and I had to get DCF involved."
Well that's frustrating.
Giphy"My sister and I are both biomedical scientists. I study intellectual disability and autism related disorders. My sister studies viruses. You could not ask for two more appropriately-specialized people for this discussion.
My sister-in-law is still anti-vax, and she is not a fan of us lol. She's a nurse and a mom, so she thinks she knows better than the people whose literal job it is to be on the cutting edge of healthcare.
If I try to disagree with the nonsense she pulls off Facebook, she insists she "needs hard facts, not just opinions". If I offer her proof through well-sourced research, she's "here for discussions, not research articles".
Some people can't be reasoned with."
Um.....what?
"This one time this lady came in for a check up. The child had not been vaccinated yet and I told her she needed to vaccinate him. She said that she didn't want any needles touching him because she didn't want him to get autism from the needles. She wanted him to get an ass spray of the vaccine. To this day it left me very confused and I told her we didn't do that so she left. Maybe an anti-vax but idk anymore."
But brain damage for your daughter is fine?
"I've told this story before, but the worst was when I was in medical school. The woman actually brought her daughter in to get catchup vaccines. Why? Because her other daughter was in the ICU with fulminant meningitis from a vaccine-preventable illness, hanging on for dear life. The nurse there sat her down and told her point-blank that she rarely sees this disease because people are vaccinated for it. The mom couldn't understand how her girl had contracted it. We asked if she knew anyone who wasn't vaccinated. Apparently no one in her church vaccinated, and several had been sick recently. She couldn't believe the source could be them. The kicker? She also brought her son to clinic, but refused to vaccinate him, saying "he's my only son". No matter how we explained it to her, she believed giving her son the vaccine would result in brain damage."
Sound logic.
Giphy"Child A had an absolutely horrible time with chicken pox; to the point that I thought he might not make it.
So what does she do? Intentionally expose Child B to it."
This one's just sad.
"Not a doctor, but have taught one girl who's parents are anti-vax. Being anti-vax doesn't just affect health, but it affects a child's social development too.
Girl was sick for most of her life and missed out on school. Therefore, she missed out on socialising with her friends. Caused her to be anxious about coming to school and thus caused more absences. Apparently her mum would have to drag her screaming child out of the car everyday.
The girl becomes very sensitive about jokes children make and parents call in to demand that those who 'teased' their daughter be reprimanded. Those peers are talked to and turns out, it was a stupid joke about poo that children her age make.
Girl couldn't handle being around other children who joked and continues missing out on school because she was being teased.
What do parents do? Pull her out and home-school her instead."
Scientology Cruise Ship Carrying 300 Passengers Quarantined Over Potential Measles Case
The Church of Scientology is in the news again, and that's never a good sign.
Reports indicate that the Freewinds, the church's cruise ship, is quarantined in the port of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. According to Reuters, the St. Lucia Ministry of Health "ordered the restriction after conferring with the Pan American Health Organization and others about the risk" of measles exposure to the island's residents.
300 passengers and crew members aboard the Freewinds have been ordered to stay aboard the ship after a female crew member was found to have contracted measles.
Dr. Merlene Fredericks-James, St. Lucia's chief medical officer, said in a video statement that the quarantine was necessary, adding that recent measles outbreaks in the United States are to blame:
"We thought it prudent that we quarantine the ship. We have been listening to the alerts from the Pan American Health Organization. There are outbreaks of measles [in the United States] largely because persons have not taken the vaccine."
Dr Merlene Fredericks James on quarantine of cruise shipwww.youtube.com
Although the Church of Scientology has not spoken out publicly against vaccinations, the organization has been known to be aggressive in its opposition to other facets of Western medicine, particularly psychiatry.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared in 2000 that measles had been eradicated in the US. However, upticks in the disease have been attributed to the rise of anti-vaccination movements.
The news has already opened up Scientology to further criticism.
@cnni Once this anti-vax crap starts costing corporations millions of dollars, I guarantee you they will end it! An… https://t.co/uJcCdKC5Yv— Dolf Wayne Bundy Durden IV (@Dolf Wayne Bundy Durden IV) 1556808247.0
@nytimes That's okay. Their minds and positive vibes can get rid of those, right? Let's see if that gets ruled in o… https://t.co/MvqC0wyFOM— Lynnette Perry (@Lynnette Perry) 1556799811.0
@nytimes If only there was something to prevent this!🙄— Johanna K. (@Johanna K.) 1556814051.0
@TIME In other news, 300 additional Darwin Award recipients were named this week.— Nicole, Trained in Complex Thought (@Nicole, Trained in Complex Thought) 1556832565.0
Church officials have not responded to requests for comment.
While no one can disembark from the ship, St. Lucian officials say there's nothing barring the Freewinds from leaving port and returning to its home port of Curacao.
Massive, Decades-Long Study Reveals Once Again That There Is No Link Between Vaccines And Autism
Get ready, everyone. Here's the validation that you anticipated.
A study of more than 650,000 people in Denmark found no link between being vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella and developing autism. The study is the largest of its kind and discounts a tiny study "published more than 20 years ago that has since been expunged from the medical literature," according to one report.
This is a comprehensive study which shows the MMR vaccine does not cause autism. How about we make this go viral? https://t.co/tYoGKYv8mc— Sheera Frenkel (@Sheera Frenkel) 1551762327.0
The results, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was conducted by researchers at the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, give us insight into the scope of this study, which involved 657,461 Danish children born between 1999 and 2010. Some of the researchers involved in this study published an earlier article on this same topic in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002. That study based its data from 537,303 Danish children born between 1991 and 1998.
According to Anders Hviid, one of the researchers involved in the study, conducting similar research was important because the concerns from a very vocal minority that there could be a link between vaccines and autism is as present as ever.
He said:
"The idea that vaccines cause autism is still going around. And the anti-vaxx movement, if anything, has perhaps only grown stronger over the last 15 years. The trend that we're seeing is worrying."
Hviid notes that the size of the study allowed researchers to investigate other claims that are made about MMR vaccine, such as a rather common one: That children already considered "at risk" for developing autism could develop the condition by receiving the vaccine. The same argument has also been made in cases of children who have autistic siblings.
Guess what? No connection. At all.
As Hviid and his co-authors wrote:
"We found no support for the hypothesis of increased risk for autism after MMR vaccination in … Danish children; no support for the hypothesis of MMR vaccination triggering autism in susceptible subgroups characterized by environmental and familial risk factors; and no support for a clustering of autism cases in specific time periods after MMR vaccination."
If you're wondering how such nonsense began, you have Andrew Wakefield to thank.
Wakefield is a discredited former British gastroenterologist who was the lead author of a fraudulent research paper claiming that there was a link between MMR vaccine and autism and bowel disease.
In fact, this latest study found that MMR vaccine decreases the risk of autism in certain subgroups, dealing yet another blow to Wakefield's "work."
That's a relief, right? You bet.
My favorite thing about the new autism/vaccine study was that it actually found that in many subgroups vaccination… https://t.co/RIoW0mHPuw— Health Nerd (@Health Nerd) 1551820511.0
🚨A massive study of 657,461 children, in which 6,517 kids were diagnosed with #autism, shows that kids who received… https://t.co/OU6oHDl2Lr— Dr. Dena Grayson (@Dr. Dena Grayson) 1551794038.0
Again: MMR Vaccines Don't Cause Autism Now confirmed by biggest study of 657,461 Danish children. Remarkably, MMR v… https://t.co/5IJyDGQd4F— Bjorn Lomborg (@Bjorn Lomborg) 1551777438.0
A major decade-long study has found there is no link between the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine and autism. Examined… https://t.co/9lOpRyVbpK— C. S. Prakash (@C. S. Prakash) 1551749809.0
This news comes as reports of the consequences of anti-vaccination rhetoric continue to roll in. At this very moment, the United States is grappling with six separate measles outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that there were 206 cases reported in January and February. That amount is higher than all of the measles cases reported during 2017.
Get out there and vaccinate your kids, people! Science has spoken!