Today, another anger-fueled article against anti-vaxxers popped up on Facebook. It was a piece for Time, written by Jeffrey Kluger, entitled, “Dear Anti-Vaxxers: You Want Pure Nature? OK, Die Young.”

The message (if you didn’t get it from the title) was essentially “Alright, anti-vaccination parents, we’ve tried reason, we’ve tried evidence. Now, the gloves are off, and we will treat you like the slime of the earth that you are.” If parents would not listen to reason, argued Kluger, then it’s time for them to succumb to the science they would ignore, and for them to die a painful death, as previous generations did from a variety of diseases.

Is it possible this rhetoric against anti-vaxxers has gone too far?

Last week, it was a similar addressment piece that made the rounds, albeit somewhat softer in tone. “Dear parents, you are being lied to…” started the blog post. Like many, it laid out the evidence, and suggested more softly that instead of pure stupidity, egotism, and being spoiled by living in healthy times, as Kluger suggested, parents were the victims of complex manipulation by fearmongering groups and uninformed celebrities.

Look, I get it. We all want to help the children. These parents are risking the lives of their children, and because of things like herd immunity, are potentially risking the lives of other children and other vulnerable individuals who cannot be vaccinated for one reason or another. I’ve been there. I get angry about it too.

But, today, reading Time’s Kluger spew his reams of judgment and death wishes upon Those Who Make Unscientific Choices™, I suddenly was much less sympathetic to the way that these arguments against anti-vaxxers are being made. I mean, c’mon, parents make thousands of decisions on behalf of children, and sometimes those decisions put children at unnecessary risk, and affect the lives of others around them. For example, obesity and obesity-related illnesses are reaching (or, arguably, have already reached) epidemic levels, and while some parents may frown upon another parent taking a child to McDonald’s, I’ve never seen the kind of hate-filled articles that wish death upon that parent. And sorry, scientific people, but obesity is much more likely to lower the quality of life and end in an earlier death for that child than polio. It will affect the quality of their future relationships, and impact future generations, and causes an economic burden on the society at large.

So, what’s the difference here? Maybe, for something like herd immunity, we feel that it’s not a decision that parent makes in a vacuum. “It’s our kids too!” we shout. But we all make uninformed or selfish decisions that negatively affect other people and future generations. I mean, unless we’re all driving electric vehicles recharged by solar power, and have stopped using plastic and none of our products are built using underpaid labor, can we calm the eff down a bit here?

When there’s lack of education about safe sex in poverty-stricken nations, Time doesn’t run an article about how all those Africans should probably just die of AIDS anyway for not being educated. You know why? Because it would be a pretty shitty thing to say to someone under any circumstances.

Vaccination has an education problem, and it has a misinformation problem. Does it really need a shitty person problem? Do you really think that helps?

I have a friend who is anti-vaccination. Do I believe she should be vaccinating her child? Yes. Do I think the rising anti-vaccination rates are alarming? Yes. I agree with Kluger that we may see preventable deaths go up as a result of this trend.

But what do we do with those facts? What do we have a right to do? In what way do we have a right to treat other people because of those facts?

If I’m honest with myself, I take actions every day that might very well contribute to the death of another human being somewhere else on this ball of earth. And so do you.

So, before you share that next angry, anti-vaxxer article on Facebook, think about who you’re sharing it for. Is it really to educate? Is it really for them?

Childhood illness and suffering makes us angry. Death makes us afraid. What if there was a shot that would reduce illness, and prevent death? Wouldn’t we feel more safe about protecting the innocent? Wouldn’t we feel more control over our fear of death? How would we feel if someone started to undermine that control? How might we react?

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that your anger at anti-vaxxers was about you.

You were saying?