I haven’t posted here about the Virginia Tech massacre, because I had nothing adequate to say. I got in an argument about guns over at LP, and that was one reason I didn’t write on it here either. Sadly No! summed up most contributions aptly as everybody thumping their usual tubs and bellowing that “this massacre proves that I was right all along!” (paraphrase). Even the best contributions had some whiff of furthering established agendas about them, and I didn’t want to add any more to that than was already out there.
But when some ghoul starts linking the massacre to Cho’s alleged autism diagnosis, and then further goes on to thump their discredited vaccination-causes-autism tub, (therefore Vaccines Are The Real Killers) I can’t stay silent.
Thankfully, Orac (Respectful Insolence) has the rebuttal covered:
Never mind that blaming autism for the rampage is bad enough, but Moses has to compound the vileness by implying that vaccines can turn children into killers. Never mind that there is no good evidence that the mercury in thimerosal in vaccines in any way contributes to the development of autism or autism spectrum disorders. Never mind that the latest statistics from, for example, California show no decrease and, indeed, a continued increase, in its autism caseload in 3-5 year olds in the first quarter of 2007, now four years since thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines other than the flu vaccine, when by now, if mercury causes autism, we should have seen a huge decrease in the caseload. Never mind that there’s lots of other evidence that shows no link between vaccines and autism.
Thimerosal has been utterly discredited as the cause of autism, and removed from vaccines in the West for years now, yet still autism cases are on the rise. When are these pseuds and quacks going to give up on this bullshit?
Categories: health, Science, skepticism
Hoyden About Town 
Once again Making Light have their finger on a perfect response
” In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.”
Dave, that nails it alright.
Also, as many feminist bloggers predicted, it’s come to light that the whole “the face that led to massacre” narrative is a crock: far from being a current or ex-boyfriend, Emily Hilscher didn’t even know Cho, according to her roommate.
Not that Cho would have been any more justified in his murders if Hilscher had been his girlfriend of course.
Oh, but women are still to blame, says the Times Online and Camille Paglia:
Would it be boorish of me to suggest that this and similar acts of violence reflect the crisis of young males in an insufficiently feminised society?
Oh. Okay. Never mind, then.
Admirable point, Brooklynite.