62 thoughts on “Well sprayed!”

    1. The billboard’s message is a lie. Quite difficult to avoid seeing it, especially children.

  4. A very compact demonstration that the solution to incendiary speech is more speech.

  5. I saw on another post where someone said “I never had a polio shot”. I responded “well the rest of us did and that’s why you didn’t get infected . I am waiting for your thank you.”

  6. vandalism in this case really is a reaction to policy not adhering to “except” clause in “free speech, EXCEPT when it directly incites violence, etc.”, all well-accepted in utilitarian societies.

    1. It’s certainly not interrupting the billboard’s message in any meaningful way, unlike a political candidate being shut up by “The Heckler’s Veto” (such as what happened to Bernie Sanders in Seattle several days ago).

  7. To anti-vaxxers, like all delusionists, no amount of evidence proves anything. Spray their signs!

    1. I have a friend who is anti-vaxer. (He also thinks raiku works…a true woo meister.) You’re right, nothing will persuade them. We had an email battle re. vaccines last week as a matter of fact. I’m going to email him this.

        1. Ask him what’s his take on pharmaceuticals, why doesn’t he doubt (maybe he does), e.g., blood pressure meds, which can be taken either by mouth or intravenously. Is his pharma knowledge such that he can pronounce on the efficacy of any med? Does he ever take anything for pain?

          Yep, spray on. (Could it have been a male moggie?)

  9. I thought long ago they were going to prohibit these large bill board signs and help beautify our ugly streets. Just like the idiot mentality that put this sign up – they will only do the right thing after everything else has failed.

  10. While living in one of the reddest of the red states Wyoming, PETA put up a billboard on I-80 with that famous painting of handsome white Jesus with the caption: Jesus was a vegetarian. The day after it was put up, someone tore it into ribbons. Hopefully PETA got their money back.

    1. I think PETA was a little, “off” on that one: I don’t recall any Babble passages where Jesus says to not eat meat or that he didn’t, not to mention the fact that he DID command his disciples to drink his blood and eat his body!

      1. Also, he had no objection to them eating fish–think of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Maybe he was a fishetarian.

        1. In my experience it is not uncommon for vegetarians, as opposed to vegans, to consider fish to be a different category than meat, and just fine for a vegetarian diet.

          I’ve never been sure how they reason that but I bet, judging by Catholic explanations, they’d have an even harder time trying to rationalize eating Jesus flesh.

          1. “Vegetarians . . .consider fish to be a different category than meat.” I imagine that this comes from the common use of the word “animal” to mean “mammal” or “quadruped” while “fish” [and “birds” for that matter] are seen as something different. People will say “The pet store sells a lot of birds and animals” or “The woods are full of animals and fish.”

          2. I think it’s just ignorance. Back when I was a vegetarian, a date got mad at me for not eating chicken. He considered “vegetarian” to mean “no meat” and “meat” to mean quadrupedal livestock. As for fish and seafood? Don’t ask. He probably didn’t even consider them as having ever been alive.

          3. Yes, I’ve known “vegetarians” who differ from vegans (who consider themselves somehow superior to mere vegetarians) and apparently didn’t pay attention in biology and think striated muscle from fish is significantly different from mammalian striated muscle.

          4. “harder time trying to rationalize eating Jesus flesh.”

            Not really that hard. To explain magic, you just invoke more magic.

          5. You know, your right. I forgot that the whole idea is to be able to give up any responsibility for having to figure things out. “Magic Man dun’it” is the sovereign specific for whatever ails yer cogitator.

    1. I avoid Discus (the commenting system applied there and so many other places) the same way I avoid FaceBook, so I’ll leave my comment here:

      The story yanks heartstrings over the “vaccine injury” to “Kathy” at age six, ultimately causing her death at age 36, after swollen knees, then paraplegia, children-bearing, then divorce. Her father refused to accept any other diagnosis, despite multiple doctors.

      My comment is a question: How many other children shared any of the same medical history with Kathy? If she was the only one, and the story is clear that onset was not immediately after vaccination, then what grounds does Kathy’s father have, to qualify his diagnosis?

      1. correctamundo. It might as well say:
        Henry was vaccinated and lived a healthful life until he reached the age of 92 and died of a a cancerous heart attack and stroke. Need I say more?

    2. The comments on that page are so crazy! A lot of them think vaccines are a plot to kill everyone and depopulate the earth. Given that the world population has more than quadrupled since vaccines were introduced, I’d say they must not be working very well, so they really shouldn’t worry so much!

      And that’s just one of their crazy theories…

      1. Yeah. And sex ed and contraception are secret eugenics plots to wipe out humanity.

        Wtf is with the obsession with population control?

        1. My theory: cheap labor.

          If the populace is dumbed down enough to be controlled through religion, offerings of false hopes of wealth, etc., while keeping them just educated enough to work, then those who own the large corporations can pay the actual workers a tenth of what the work they do brings in, and make them feel lucky for having the job, while humiliating those who won’t take it.

          As the work and low wages wear down the employee’s health, lack of medical insurance or money for copays will help bring death on all the sooner.

          No matter, because, with abortion rights being erased, and abstinence being taught as the only form of birth control good religionists use, if they want to get into heaven, there will be more than enough babies birthed to replace the workers worn out at early ages.

          Added benefit: Any babies born without strong constitutions also die before costing taxpayers too much money, since Pro-Lifers care only between conception and birth.

          And, if any workers get despondent enough to commit crimes or do drugs, they go to jail, where slave labor will be reinstated, before long, on the grounds that they should “pay” for their crimes, not the taxpayers.

          As for those taxpayers, they’d be the rest of the work force, not the rich overlords who right the tax laws.

    3. Given the message on his billboard, and with reference to his claims about the cause of his daughter’s illness, we might challenge the guy to Prove it, or retract.

  14. I am afraid these folks are not looking for argument or evidence or science. What they are looking for is money to push their agenda and I suppose send us all back to 19 century. No thanks…

    1. Indeed. I am very happy with my vaccines and antibiotics. My grandmother got rubella and it screwed up her heart valves. She was one of the first to get artificial ones and I remember her “clicking” when I was young.

  15. That’s funny- I thought EVOLUTION was, “The greatest lie ever told”- you mean we’re not in first place, anymore?

  16. I wonder what % of holocaust deniers are anti-vax loons and/or deny there ever were polio epidemics?

  17. It’s not vandalism as much as a public health service notification ; ) I have watched documentaries about the pre-Salk vaccine Era and talked to my family members who through those dark days. My grandmother lost two out of her five children to illness. One of them died from meningitis and another the doctors just didn’t know why. The advances made by evidence-based medical science and practice have saved an untold number of lives. I guess there will always be some people who need to live through those pre-vaccine times again, watch their children get sick and die before they finally accept the “truth” about vaccines.

    1. The advances made by evidence-based medical science and practice have saved an untold number of lives.

      True. but that untold number is considerably smaller than the number of lives saved by provision of clean water and sanitation.

  19. I don’t know how to think about this. On the one hand I approve of this message, on the other hand I dislike vandalism. And just because you have a good cause doesn’t make it right. I feel that the ends don’t justify the means.

    I also feel the same way about Greenpeace and similar organizations. While I (sometimes) approve of the message I don’t approve of the methods.

    But one way or another: I certainly won’t loose any sleep over it in this case since the organization that is the damaged party is causing so much harm.

  20. There are many people who do not remember the pre-vaccine days. And a number of them are alive because of vaccines. I remember as a child being frightened of “iron lungs”, and being told stay away from swimming pools in the summer for fear of polio. The anti-vaxers are either badly informed or plain stupid.

    1. The anti-vaxers are either badly informed or plain stupid.

      Inclusive “or”, or exclusive “or”? I.e., do you include the possibility that they’re both extremely stupid AND badly informed?

  21. I well remember being Vaccinated in the mid Fifties,I cannot believe how irreedeemably stupid some people are with regards to Vaccine and all because of that criminally spurious Paper linking it to Autism, he got struck off the Medical Register, he should have been gaoled as well because of the trouble and Deaths it has caused through People refusing to Vaccinate their Children I applaud the person who sprayed that Billboard, anti-vaxxers should have it tattooed on their Foreheads.

  22. I disagree with everyone here it seems. A principled commitment to free speech and debate requires refraining from, and condemning, vandalism and attempts to shut people up. Imagine a website of the Faithful chortling over attacks on bookstore displays of Faith vs Fact.

    1. Except that the billboard demanded proof, and the proof, or at least the evidence in support of the conclusion, is sprayed right over the demand.

      1. Then you aren’t even pretending to debate anymore. “God said it” sprayed on Faith vs Fact?

    2. I’m a very staunch defender of free speech, I wouldn’t ban being allowed to put up such a billboard, and I think the correct response to bad ideas is more speech – and that graffiti was more speech. The graffiti still allowed the original ‘speech’ to be heard while succinctly making the point that vaccines do in fact work.

      Anti-Vaxxers are killing people. I think little vandalism is a good response.

    3. Initially I had the same thought. It’s not good to deface free speech. But, on the other hand, the pope wanted to punch anyone in the nose who denigrated his mother.
      This protest is not quite like tearing the billboard down or obliterating it’s message. The subtlety and restraint is very important.

    4. I say good on the sprayer, some speech requires acts of rebellion. Without it, I’d still be sitting in the back of the bus.

  23. I also oppose the vandalism. I don’t think free speech rights were violated, and yes it’s appropriate in general to respond to speech with speech, but there are other rights such as not having your property vandalized.

    It’s tricky, but ultimately I think respect for rights is slightly more important than morality, such that you shouldn’t be allowed to violate someone’s rights even when you think it would result in a small moral good. (But a large moral good may justify violating some rights. It’s like a weighted sum…)

    I doubt any minds were changed or lives were saved by the vandalism, so it wasn’t justified or right, I say.

    I’m still amused, though. 😛

    1. On the off chance it caused even one person to think about it for a minute and go get themselves or their kids vaccinated, I think the graffiti was well worth it.

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