[LexiMax]

I am also friends with a fair few anti-vaxers and have attempted the reasonable and kind approach based on the facts. After many, many attempts, the conclusion I finally came to is that there isn't truly a gap in communication, but in culture.

This can take many forms, be it religious, political, or just whatever social groups they are a part of, but I believe that this form of motivated reasoning isn't necessarily something you can reason someone out of. To that effect, I don't believe trying to inform them is productive, but rather asking probing questions that attempt to reveal _why_ they believe what they believe.

In my own personal experience, I've found that nearly all of the anti-vaxxers I've talked to root their dismissal for vaccinations in religious reasons or in grievance politics.

[NoGravitas]

You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into in the first place.

[LexiMax]

It's not so much that they didn't reason themselves into a position, as much as that they actually _do_ have a reason - just not the one they're telling you.

If anything, it reminds me of an X-Y problem. They don't really believe Y, but they are a single issue voter on X, so if their party takes Y position they feel obligated to take it as well.

And often, if you dig enough, the X that I keep encountering is the desire for a christian nationalist ethnostate. It's something they'll readily admit to if you aren't combative and just keep asking questions in the tradition of socratic irony.