“Trust me… I’m from the Government.”

Part of the anti-vax problem stems from lack of trust in authority and claimed expertise. It is part of the American Dysfunction, that we expect to be lied to, gas-lighted, taken advantage of by those who are meant to protect and serve. We have witnessed and suffered too much corruption, too much plain incompetence and malfeasance. These are not necessarily under-educated or stupid people. They simply and passionately do not trust what they’re being told by authority.

This is also a reason why people don’t vote, why they resist education and deny science. These are people whose choice as they perceive it, is to collude with those who abuse them, or refuse to lie down and take it: to be dumb suckers or weak victims, or courageous rebels. 

I am not saying these ‘solutions’ are justified, I am pointing out the repercussions of authority consistently abusing its power; of out-of-control capitalism cynically shaping what we think we should want and have; of corporate profit-over-people strategies of withholding information and outright lying to take advantage of our ignorance; of power-institutions whose first purpose is to build and protect the institution and create pliability in the people whose money will fund the perpetuation of the institution, whether it is governmental or religious or educational.

The solutions lie in our own power to question, to learn, to be aware. We have to ask the right questions, we need to diligently seek answers and sources of information that are free of corruption. We need to critically assess what we’re told, to consider well the credentials of our sources, and their true interests.

We need to know where to go to educate ourselves when the government-managed educational system lets us down. We need to read, to do our own math, to do our own research, to find and recognize reliable sources so we can check up on who is telling us to give them our energy, our money, our support, our trust. Understanding the basics of scientific method, we can see where the ‘scientific authorities’ go off the rails, to catch the misinformation whether it stems from incompetence or design. We need to use our distrust, to drive us rather than to shut us down. We need to make sure our children also know.