The Stupid! It Hurts! (Anti-Vaxxers Edition)

Lord knows I've wasted too much time on the fuckwads inhabiting the anti-vaccination ecosystem, but every now and then something opens a +3 Bag Of Egregious Stupidity, and sets me off.

In this case, its the Wasington Post (motto: "Yeah, we used to be a newspaper"), with a profile of some numbnut named Wolfson who appears to be a doctor of some kind, though I have no idea how his anti-vaccination beliefs jibe with the Hippocratic Oath

Oh, don't get me wrong, its not that they justify his goofy ideology - its just that they're pretty much playing into his shtick by reporting this as "news".

ITS NOT NEWS YOU IDIOT! 

You don't do feature articles on the nutjob standing at the street-corner!  You know why  Because, ITS NOT NEWS!

If you want to write about ballistic ignorance, write about it properly, with none of this "opinions on the shape of the earth differ" crap!

To see how it should be done, go check out Albert Burneko on Deadspin, who - expertly - demolishes Wolfson.
Choice bits below, but go read the whole thing

The claims of this lunatic fringe have been debunked so utterly, repeatedly, and absolutely, by literally every single credible authority that has ever, ever, ever examined them, that to acknowledge their existence, even for the purpose of repudiating them, is to lend them a credibility they will never come close to earning for themselves. 

And so it is that a psychotic clownfraud like Jack Wolfson must be treated with more seriousness than the sad raving crazy person wearing a sandwich board in your local city intersection: Wolfson, unlike that feverish, bad-smelling outcast, is an actual danger to the public.

Jack Wolfson's medical certifications, in the context of a disgracefully under-educated culture accustomed to treating the "Dr." honorific as a badge of expertise in all medical matters, compound the dereliction. He is in a position to mislead, meaningfully and harmfully, even certain people who might be smart enough not to take medical advice from Jay Cutler and his criminally derelict idiot of a wife.

The ongoing measles outbreak—84 confirmed infections so far, in 14 states—is proof of it, and it shouldn't just jeopardize the credentials this pied piper uses to lend gravity to his insane, irresponsible pronouncements; it should jeopardize his access to his fellow humans. Jack Wolfson is fucking evil. To the extent that any kids ever have been exposed to inoculable disease because their parents followed his medical advice against vaccination, he belongs in prison.

Vaccinate your goddamn children.