[plg]

How come there aren't any "anti-civil engineers" who go around claiming bridges aren't safe or "anti-aeronautical-engineers" who "believe" through common sense that planes can't fly? Electricity is reading our brainwaves. Vacuum cleaners suck out our souls. If there are they are rightly recognized as crackpots in need of psychiatric help.

[slavik81]

> "anti-aeronautical-engineers" who "believe" through common sense that planes can't fly?

There are plenty of people who won't fly because they're afraid it will crash, despite that being tremendously unlikely.

> Electricity is reading our brainwaves.

I got some great pamphlets in my mailbox about how the neighborhood powerlines were going to affect my mood.

But, no. They are not in need of psychiatric help. They're just wrong about something.

[Ensorceled]

> There are plenty of people who won't fly because they're afraid it will crash, despite that being tremendously unlikely.

I know people like this. They don't think their view is rational and they do things like buy plane tickets for their kids.

[jacquesm]

Regardless of how irrational their views are they are actually less likely do die in a plane crash.

[NickM]

Because the examples you're giving are clearly ridiculous, even to the layperson. Obviously planes can fly, nobody has ever gotten their soul sucked out by a vacuum cleaner, etc.

Now first let me say I think vaccines are a Very Good Thing, but people have actually been harmed by vaccines: it's extremely rare, and happened more in the past than it does today, but it can happen which makes it much harder to shake peoples' paranoia.

Believing electricity can read your thoughts is clearly crazy, but believing vaccines are harmful can just be a case of not understanding/respecting the probabilities involved.

[chillingeffect]

The difference and paranoia arise from the intangibility of microbes and electricity/software. The closest you'll find are the "jet fuel can't melt steel beams" people who exercise doubt in the face of the strength of structures.

[donkeyd]

There's a 'flat-earthers' movement apparently. Compared to them, anti-vaxxers seem like sensible people.

[goodJobWalrus]

There is also a "religious" movement, who believe all kind of crazy things about the universe and evolution. And there are a lot of them (in the US at least)....