Engaging Those People
NextDoor is a helpful app that allows people within a specific area to post questions, notices, and news. Folks report missing pets or sightings of animals. Neighbors ask for recommendations for plumbers, dentists, or odd job providers. Someone may wonder what the loud noise was or if anyone knows about a traffic accident.
The other day, someone asked for recommendations for doctors who don’t require their patients have vaccinations for COVID-19. The responses and replies quickly turned to “it’s my choice not to be vaccinated” versus “your choice has serious consequences for other people.”
One comment dropper argued repeatedly that everyone except Faux News was perpetuating misinformation about the safety of the vaccines. Still having the educator mindset, I responded several times that he had it backwards. He accused me of being close-minded for not accepting Faux News as a reliable source and gullible for accepting other news organizations, the CDC, and public health authorities as reliable sources. I even acknowledged that my reliable sources publicly correct themselves when they have made an error.
After a long day, the guy stated that reputable researchers had found that some doses of the vaccines caused serious side effects. On that basis, the government and employers should not try to mandate vaccinations.
My response was, “out of hundreds of millions of doses produced and used, you are going to say that the vaccine is unsafe because ‘some’ doses have been bad? People are taking hundreds of medications that can cause serious side effects in a very small number of people who use them. How is the vaccine any different? Brake failure occurs in ‘some’ new vehicles. Does that mean we stop putting brakes in vehicles? Your response to the few instances of the vaccine causing a problem is the seriously irrational conclusion that people ought to avoid the vaccine when doing so means they have a far greater chance of dying from Covid-19 than they did from having a bad side effect. Avoiding the vaccine means more people die from Covid-19. That is an indisputable fact. You are supporting a position that kills people. I am not.”
In my life as a student, college professor, lawyer, creator of communications to at-risk college students, and essayist, I am confident that I can write or speak knowing that my information, reasoning, and conclusions are accurate. That is not my assessment. It is the feedback I have received from professors, students, judges, clients, parents, supervisors, and readers.
This person has chosen to be a contrarian. Everything I wrote was turned on its head. Ignoring the definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result — I continued to engage with the guy. There is some part of me that believes everyone can be persuaded to accept that they are wrong. I do it, they can too.
Finally, though, I wrote, “Your words are right there for everyone to see, and yet you deny writing them. You are not processing anything I write. You are calling black white and expecting people to agree with you. Thank you for providing me with a perfect example that some Americans have gone over a cliff and cannot recognize their irrational opinions are nonsensical and would receive failing grades if presented in a class paper.” Then I blocked him.
I particularly like the idea of these people submitting their opinions and conclusions to an instructor to be graded. From first grade all the way through grad school and law school, I never questioned a grade I received. Except, given how people think they can tell teachers what they should teach or not teach, chances are these contrarians would dismiss the grades they receive. They truly have gone over a cliff. Is there any point engaging them?
