[bluedino]

I almost married an anti-vaxxer. And then I realized there are another couple million people in this country I could marry and not have to fight over that stuff about the rest of my life.

It wasn't just vaccines she was worried about. She was also vegan. Only ate organic. I'm fine if those are your choices but I don't want them forced upon me, or a lecture when I eat a hotdog, take an aspirin, or drink milk.

Constant fear of everything in the environment requires psychological help.

[Grishnakh]

You made the right choice. I wish someone had convinced me to avoid my marriage. My last wife wasn't a really strong anti-vaxxer (we never had kids, so it never was a big issue), but she did buy into it and closely related, she was really big into "alternative medicine". She spent a ridiculous amount of money on that crap, and of course that was one of the big factors that lead to our marriage failing.

I agree with the other guy though about you conflating things. You're right that being anti-vax and using alternative medicine is largely about fear (which she has problems with in many other areas too: she's afraid of terrorists, she's afraid of illegals, I could go on and on), but veganism, as far as I can tell, is not about fear, it's about an extreme philosophical position where those people don't want to hurt or abuse animals in any way. (The problem with the position, of course, is it's just not very practical.) I don't see the two as the same at all; my wife wasn't into veganism at all. She was into organic stuff though, which of course is based on fear, though not completely irrational as a lot of our food in this country is of shitty quality and many farming practices are questionable (for instance, giving livestock tons of antibiotics even when they don't need it, which is causing more antibiotic-resistant bacteria to arise).

If you're in the position of dating someone who you might have kids with, and she's anti-vax, I recommend getting out ASAP. You're going to end up having horrible fights over it. If you're past the age of having kids, it's less of an issue, but it's still a good indicator of a very different worldview, so I recommend avoiding those people.

[chrisbennet]

Asprin is derived from the bark of the willow tree.

From Wikipedia: "The therapeutic properties of willow tree bark have been known for at least 2,400 years, with Hippocrates prescribing it for headaches"

"By definition, alternative medicine has either not been proved to work, or been proved not to work. You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine;" (From Tim Michin's poem "Storm") http://www.timminchin.com/2011/04/08/storm/

[issa]

Sounds like you're conflating a few different things here. I don't know any vegans who are vegan out of fear. Usually it is a question of empathy for animals, or for the health benefits.