[ SECRET POST #3396 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3396 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Robert DeNiro]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 015 secrets from Secret Submission Post #485.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Except he's not anti-vaxx. His quote:
De Niro and his wife, Grace Hightower, issued a statement on Friday, defending the screening. “Grace and I have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined. In the 15 years since the Tribeca film festival was founded, I have never asked for a film to be screened or gotten involved in the programming.

“However this is very personal to me and my family and I want there to be a discussion, which is why we will be screening Vaxxed. I am not personally endorsing the film, nor am I anti-vaccination; I am only providing the opportunity for a conversation around the issue.”

[(Anonymous)]

But there's no conversation. Wakefield is a quack whose papers have literally gotten children killed. The only possible conversation is about why parents would rather have a dead kid than an autistic one.

[philstar22]

This.

[diet_poison]

+2

[sparrow_lately]

+3000

[(Anonymous)]

Anon you're replying to:

Oh, I understand fully.

[(Anonymous)]

Autism parent here. THIS.

[(Anonymous)]

*cough*bullshit*cough*

[kallanda_lee]

Okay, this is sort of more nuanced.

[diet_poison]

I think that's being generous.

[kallanda_lee]

It probably is, though I've know families with severely autistic kids and it can sort of...I don't know how to put it, but, make the whole family about autism?
It sort of distorts things.

[diet_poison]

That makes sense. I think it's irresponsible and super ignorant at best, but I do understand the basic psychology of why the anti-vax movement has such steam - people are desperate for answers and a professional-looking "study" sets up a fine scapegoat.

[(Anonymous)]

It only looks nuanced. Saying "we need to have a conversation about this" is a little disingenuous because there's no real debate amongst scientists about whether or not vaccines cause autism. They don't. That's a pretty short conversation!

But anti-vaxxers who refuse to accept this know that they've got a bad reputation now, so they're dialing it back a bit and revising their phrasing. It's like FOX News saying oh, we're not saying that black people are violent, we're just saying that the nation needs to pay attention to black on black violence, and all lives matter, etc. etc. That's not nuance. It's just indirect enough to fool people into thinking they're being reasonable.

[diet_poison]

Ok but he is literally implying here that vaccines are a contributing cause of autism. They are not. That assertion has been thoroughly debunked so taking the position he's taking here is very irresponsible and definitely lends steam to the anti-vax movement.

[(Anonymous)]

Is De Niro an anti-vaxxer? Probably not.
Is he extremely anti-censorship? Yes. It's the only thing that explains what he said, IMHO.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not censorship to call out bullshit beliefs that are killing people.

[(Anonymous)]

True, but trying to sort through information about vaccines and autism when you're not scientifically trained to do so can be a total migraine, to say the least. If DeNiro wasn't perfectly well informed about the latest scientific verdict against vaccines causing autism, I personally wouldn't blame him, I'd just be upset that he didn't know any better.

[(Anonymous)]

But it's not like this super-obscure stuff. The Wakefield debacle is extremely widely reported mainstream news. You don't need to go digging or need specialist training to understand "Fraud" and "Struck Off" and "No evidence".

What's at issue here to me is that he intervened in the programming of this festival - something which he had never done before - to push his own personal hobby-horse. It happened to be vaccination, but it could have been chemtrails or Roswell or some other hooey. By doing this, he undermined the integrity of the festival and the people who work hard to programme it. It makes it look like all you need to do to get your film in is to make nice to Bob and get him to over-ride the selection process.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not anti-censorship to NOT want to spread false medical information, though. Look at it this way-- it would be highly irresponsible of me to claim that rubbing toads on your junk will cure cancer. I'm not a doctor, I've done no studies that support this. If people were desperate enough to believe me, my misinformation could end up killing people who rub toads on their junk instead of seeing a real doctor and getting chemo.

Not giving me a wide platform from which I could spread my false information isn't censorship. It'd be not allowing someone to yell 'fire' in a crowded building when there is no fire.

[(Anonymous)]

Why should we be opening the conversation up to actors and other non-doctors and non-scientists? I don't really want to explore the possible causes of autism with uninformed parents trusting their gut and the dude who starred in Taxi Driver.

[(Anonymous)]

+1 Everyone has a right to their opinion, but not all opinions are equal. There is absolutely no reason for a sane person to value the medical opinion of a non-medical professional (or one that has been publicly, internationally discredited like Wakefield has) on an equal level as someone who IS a medical professional.

[dragonscrawl]

...Last I heard, they decided not to screen Vaxxed and DeNiro issued a statement about that the very day after the statement you posted. In fact:

“My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family,” De Niro said in a statement released late Saturday afternoon. “But after reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca Film Festival team and others from the scientific community, we do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for.”

(from this article on Entertainment Weekly).

[diet_poison]

That is good!

[shortysc22]

They didn't screen it at Tribeca because there was such an uproar over the movie.

Really, there's so many other things at Tribeca I'm glad it was pulled almost immediately.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep, that's how cautious anti-vaxxers sound. Oh, they're not ABSOLUTELY saying vaccines cause autism! They're just saying we don't know all the science behind it (except that we do, vaccines don't cause autism) and we should keep an open mind (we have, but science says vaccines don't cause autism) and we should let this doctor (Wakefield, who is a total quack and is in fact the original quack whose junk science is behind the anti-vaxx movement) have his say, etc. etc.

Again, vaccines don't cause autism. That's the conversation that science and repeated scientific studies done by doctors whose work hasn't been discredited multiple times have had. DeNiro is not offering to have THAT conversation, he wants to give a platform to a charlatan. There is no benefit in that, except to the charlatan.