Anti-Vaxxers Outdo Themselves With Amazingly Offensive Vaccine Comparison
Just when you thought anti-vaxxers couldn’t get any more out of control, they find a way to prove you wrong. Please avert your eyes if you feel triggered by graphic depictions of violence against women and/or sexual assault because yes, they went there: an Australian anti-vaccination group caused mass outrage this week after they posted a disturbing meme to their Facebook page comparing vaccination to rape.
According to Raw Story, The Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network posted the meme in response to Australia’s efforts to eliminate personal belief exemptions to vaccines and institute a “No Jab, No Pay” policy that withholds up to $11,000 in childcare tax credits to parents who don’t vaccinate. The vaccine skeptics see the move as forced vaccination and posted a gross meme to their official Facebook page illustrating their point:
The meme has since been removed from the page, but not before the group got a chance to double down on their abhorrent comparison after commenters told them how absolutely awful it is.
A screen capture was taken by Australian Women’s Weekly , preserving it for posterity and according to AWW the anti-vaccination group doubled down when called out on Facebook, writing, ”This post isn’t tasteless it is honest. What truly IS tasteless is our elected government trying to tell us that we have to vaccinate our children even if we don’t believe it is best for their health.”
That’s right, y’all. What’s really tasteless here is the government supporting medicine that saves lives, not abhorrent rape comparisons that exploit victims of sexual assault in order to prove, well, nothing really, because science is not on their side. I can’t even deal with that level of selfishness. The meme is more than ‘tasteless.’ It’s despicable.
According to Factually, Meryl Dorey, the founder of the Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network is trying to distance herself from the meme. In a statement posted on the official Facebook page, she claims she has no control over what gets posted there and deferred to the opinions of ‘another moderator,’ leading people to speculate that she is one of a few moderators for the page and is basically full of it.
Her apology is pretty much a non-apology, but what else could you possibly expect from a group that’s willing to post such inflammatory, damaging bullshit? The anti-vaccine movement doesn’t have a lot of credibility to begin with, but moves like this certainly aren’t helping their image.
(Photo: luiscar / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
