You Can Not Cure Stupid

I was quite excited about the whole retraction of Wakefield's so called findings.

But as the day wore on and I read the comments springing up all over the internet I began to understand a fundamental truth.

Stupidity truly cannot be cured. Regardless of how many ways the wakefield - mccarthy - oprah - safeminds - ageofautism etc etc etc followers are shown that autism is in FACT a neurological difference not a disease, that vaccinations do not in FACT cause autism, that woo is in FACT woo....well regardless of any court case, science, logic, glaring truths these persons will insist on being right. They will not allow the smallest bits of information that do not coincide with their already firm beliefs to enter their narrow minds.

They simply will not.

I have seen this phenomena before. It is not restricted to conspiracies, pseudo science or autism in general. I am sure Kim can give us a proper label for it :), but it does seem that a great majority of people are unable to intake information that contradicts their beliefs.

So while I am still smiling gently over the long awaited retraction of the bogus wakefield study, I am not holding my breath that it will change much for the persons whom were already sucked in to believing the woo. I hope that the new comers to the fray will be less likely to fall into a woo-wagon in light of the recent retraction.

But I will no longer hold out in hopes that such wonderous events will cure the stupid that already exists.