New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[warellis]

Uh most anti-vaxxers in the US are rich types in places like California and such. And they're not that "right-wing" at all from what I remember.

Also, France has the highest percentage of anti-vaxxers from what I remember as well.

[Flyndaran]

Anti-vaxxers are conspiracy theorists. That is its own form of ideology unrelated to "wings" or general political bend.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Anti-vaxxers are conspiracy theorists. That is its own form of ideology unrelated to "wings" or general political bend.

I know. I I just remember that most American anti-vaxxers are the more the wealthy coastal types, who' use claims about vaccines being full of chemicals and not being "natural" as their excuse.

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Anti-vaxxers are conspiracy theorists. That is its own form of ideology unrelated to "wings" or general political bend.

I have known more than a few religious conservatives in the South who believe that vaccines are part of a government conspiracy to sterilize their children (or to implant the Sign of the Beast or to give Christians terminal cancer, depending on who you talk to). When you stop trusting science, it is not much of a step to stop trusting medicine.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by warellis

I know. I I just remember that most American anti-vaxxers are the more the wealthy coastal types, who' use claims about vaccines being full of chemicals and not being "natural" as their excuse.

I wouldn't count on that memory.

With that in mind, vaccine skepticism is mostly ecumenical. The Pew Research Center finds modest differences in views about vaccination—34 percent of Republicans, 33 percent of independents, and 22 percent of Democrats believe parents should have final say on vaccination—while we know from anecdotes that vaccine rejection is present in conservative religious communities (like the Amish in Ohio) as well as in crunchy college-town communes like Boulder, Colorado. In fact, the available data shows stability in anti-vaccination views across ideology—neither side is substantially more likely than the other to hold anti-vaccine beliefs.

[Flyndaran]

That phrasing is rather suspicious. Saying parents should have final say on medical choices for their kids is a very different issue than whether vaccines are necessary for most people.

But real world politics is getting afield of the thread topic.

[Astromancer]

{The Lanterns}


Besides, I specified a time about thirty years in the future, about midcentury. I now specify the year 2052 CE. Which sets the campaign in 2082CE.

This is basically a post-apocalyptic setting with a couple of major premises reversed. Example: most post-apocalyptic settings hit the USA hardest or turn the USA or whichever country survives into a fascist dictatorship. In this setting the USA is less disrupted than most of the world. Also the USA, and this is a point I haven't touched yet, the USA has gone though democratic renewal.

The antiVaxers explain in setting why the American right-wing, which would totally reject a Wilsonian foreign policy, put up with it. Having the American right-wing suddenly eclipsed durring a crisis, which is seen as well handled by the surviving left-wing, would cause a long term political shift. To maintain a basically Wilsonian policy for more than thirty years, such a major shift would be necessary.

It's all part of the setting.

[Astromancer]

{The Lanterns}


The Pentalpha Nations have, like some isolated regions, avoided outbreaks of Shrivel. They have finally developed a strong vaccine against the disease and they are now getting the vaccine distributed. But the plague and the long brutal aftermath have left much of the world phobically afraid of medicine. Also many people, remembering past social service systems, demand full medical systems and not just vaccines. Between those terrified of medicine, and willing to kill to prevent new plagues, and those demanding a world health system, and both unable and unwilling to contribute to such, yet fully willing to take hostages to enforce their demands, visiting nurse is a job that comes with combat pay.

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by warellis

I know. I I just remember that most American anti-vaxxers are the more the wealthy coastal types, who' use claims about vaccines being full of chemicals and not being "natural" as their excuse.

Here's a summary of survey data. In short, it's not a political binary, but it's not exactly neutral.

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Anti-vaxxers are conspiracy theorists. That is its own form of ideology unrelated to "wings" or general political bend.

Conspiracy theorists in general tend to cluster towards the loopy right in my experience. Anti-vaxx is a conspiracy theory that seems to have an appeal to the loopy left as well, I think because it fits a certain type of hippy/naturalism mindset.