Wednesday 10 August 2016

Censorship of Vaxxed

Andrew Wakefield... or Dr Andrew Wakefield as I still call him, has lost his career for trying to alert the public to the dangers of vaccines, see here for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/dr-brian-deer-at-westminster-skeptics.html. He has since moved to the United States of America and produced a film called Vaxxed, an autobiographical documentary about his experience and his work, see: http://vaxxedthemovie.com/. I have not yet seen this film, so can't say too much right now, but I'm familiar with some of the themes involved; see the background links above and below. The actor Robert DeNiro, who has an autistic eighteen-year-old son, took the brave decision to show the film at the Tribeca Film Festival which he organizes. The skeptics have predictably lambasted the film, Dr Wakefield, Robert DeNiro, the production team and everybody else associated with it. The most vocal of these critics is a rather frenzied young woman from Ireland whom I will not identify at the moment for legal reasons. She has been speaking on both the skeptic and mainstream media about the film in extremely harsh terms. She says she can do this because it is her right to free speech. I agree. No matter how vehement and disparaging her criticism of Vaxxed is, I would defend her right to express it. The problem is she is also actively trying to obstruct the film's distribution in her country and others. Can you see the contradiction? Yes, it is the typical skeptic free speech double-standard. She wants free speech for herself and her fellow skeptics... but not for those who oppose her. I address this double-standard in detail here: https://youtu.be/kT6LAfDybKU?t=1h17m59s. So this Irish pro-vaccine activist is shamelessly advocating censorship of the film Vaxxed. I wish the film's distributors good luck in stopping her.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Neurodiversies should not be identified autistic. Autism is brain and nervous system damage following the MMR vaccine given too soon.

Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

Oh, OK.