How upsetting people think

[mtbc]

In attempting to blend in among the humans, I like to try to look out for clues as to how they work inside. A couple of weeks ago, a conversation with an anti-vaxxer (who shall remain anonymous) included a couple of choice comments, one following the other:

I want credit for my antibodies which are better than the shot. Ppl who think like you hate the antibodies

I never knew so many people hated freedom. Perhaps one day something will be forced on you that you don't want. I find it an interesting social and psychological study how covid crazed so many are... neurotic and anxious to the point of being covid enthusiasts excited to have something to be upset about

Apart from just how much lunacy the above packs so tightly into a small package, I found this curious rant particularly telling: not only do they uninquisitively seem to presume that those urging vaccination are not doing so on any good basis but, further, in both, they suggest that opinion is motivated by hatred. If they are projecting, I wonder if this gives us any clues as to how to actually reach them, or what might help them learn to think more rationally.

Comments

[aldabra]

It is really very striking how deeply their modelling of us as brainwashed and consumed by hate mirrors our modelling of them as brainwashed and consumed by hate. (I think we over-assume a mapping of MAGA onto anti-vax.) I think ours may have come first.

[mtbc]

That's quite possible. This example did happen to be from a MAGA person, possibly hence the part about freedoms, but it's true that, for instance, many of the MMR skeptics are/were firmly out there on the left of the spectrum, maybe some of the current are likewise.