This is being cross posted from Mainlining Pop Culture.
I’ve never been a fan of idiotic humor. For instance, the Ace Ventura movies annoy me much more than they entertain me. So, other than the fact that she is a very attractive woman, I’ve never had much use for Jenny McCarthy, but I could understand her appeal.
I mean, of course I can understand her appeal. I’m a heterosexual man who has seen her Playboy spreads. Her appeal is obvious!
So, when you need advice on how to raise your children and to fight autism why wouldn’t you turn to a former Playboy model with a mediocre(at best) acting career?
Sounds ludicrous, right? Well, it would be if thousands of people weren’t doing exactly that.
Now, I can’t imagine how hard being a parent is (I don’t want to experience that because I don’t want anything to be that dependent on me for their existence). That experience is made exponentially harder when you have a situation where your child is diagnosed with a major medical disorder, like autism.
Unfortunately, McCarthy was faced with exactly that scenario about 5 years ago. I truly couldn’t possibly imagine what it felt like. In a situation like this you forgive people for making stupid mistakes and decisions. However, when you take your idiocy public and begin to spread the dangerous pseudo-science that your claims are based on to the unwashed masses, then you’ve moved out of the realm of sympathy into the world of “woo-woo and hokum”, in the words of James Randi.
What is the crime that has put Jenny McCarthy firmly in the land of “I Don’t Get It”?
She has, as anybody who has heard her speak in the last 3 years knows, become the public face of the anti-vaccination movement. She claims, at every opportunity, that vaccinations cause autism. While there is absolutely no legitimate medical evidence that vaccinations and autism are linked in any way, whatsoever, she continues to espouse this dangerous idea.
Unfortunately, parents not vaccinating their children for fear of the non-existent dangers does not prevent autism. Some say that we shouldn’t get so worked up about it, as it doesn’t do any damage. But that is not true. By not vaccinating their children, followers of Ms. McCarthy are putting children whose parents have vaccinated their children at risk by letting diseases remain active in the public for longer than they should. If you doubt this, look at the data regarding the frequency of whooping cough in America today. A disease that was almost entirely eliminated before Ms. McCarthy and her ilk’s crusade has had a resurgence.
So, while I grant that having a child is one of the hardest jobs a human being can take on, I also think that it is a responsibility. So why, if you love your child, would you listen to a wannabe actress, former adult model instead of the reams of medical data on the subject?
I just don’t get it.
If you want more information on this subject, I highly recommend that you check out the great episode on the subject done by Penn & Teller on their show, Bullshit!.
