It’s easy to find lists of dumb things creationists say, and I’m familiar with that lot, but here’s a fun new time-waster: Things Anti-Vaxxers Say. Here’s a beautiful example of something I’ve rarely seen so clearly stated: they get the facts totally wrong, actually the reverse of the actual situation, but nope, that doesn’t stop them from inventing a bogus rationalization around them.
You can do your own research but it comes down to chromosomes — the X chromosome is shaky, and boys have two of them. So they are quite literally twice as likely as girls to be adversely affected by genetic and environmental factors that can lead to the development of autism — they are at twice the risk, purely because of their gender alone.
Uh-oh. I have 22 other chromosomes besides my sex chromosomes (I’ve actually seen them!), and…they’re all in pairs. I’m doomed.
But wait! I only have one X chromosome! I’m saved by the reduction in its pernicious influence!
If I had a desk, my forehead would be sore.
It even has one ‘like’.
chigau:
I think that is, like, an expression of, like, I, like, pressed the, like, button, y’know?
Ogvorbis
furr shurr
When I saw the title, I thought it was going to be about the 62 year old idiot republican in Ohio questioning the capabilities of his opponent, a 30 year old woman.
http://theslot.jezebel.com/ohio-state-senator-thinks-opponent-shouldnt-run-against-1755766108
How would having a shaky chromosome lead to autism? I think it might lead to better dancing ability.
I’d like to assume the anti-vaxxer got mixed up with X-linked recessive genetic conditions (which do generally affect men more than women)…but given the incredible lack of even the most basic knowledge on display here, I think that is far too optimistic.
I bet they’ll claim it was a typo:,
The embolded were inadvertently dropped, they’ll claim. Totally disregarding all the other half-baked assertions they farted.
Wow. My kid would have laughed at that when he was six. That’s really fucking dumb!
Antivaxxer also has two X‘s.
They’re thinking of fragile X syndrome. It’s a real thing that does what it says. But the problem (as you are all aware) is the lack of a second X chromosome in boys to compensate, not that there’s two.
But it’s still very, very wrong. There should be a special word for this amount of wrongness. They’re taking a nugget of truth, misunderstanding it, adding a mistake and drawing the wrong conclusion from even that cocktail of cockups.
Not just wrong, Trump-wrong.
I would use it as a verb – “She really trumped that fact.” – of course, this is not really a new usage at all, it seems closely related to “Trumped up” as in “The charges against me were trumped-up” – meaning false or fake. It is almost weird how the meaning of the word ‘trump’ so closely shadows the behavior of the man with that name.
My daughter has one X. (Turner Syndrome) She isn’t autistic. She’s an accomplished athlete and a high achiever at everything she attempts. Although she has to work very hard at math, she’s ready to start nursing school. The X chromosome is exceptionally powerful — it can stand on it’s own and the result can be a fully functioning human that makes exceptional contributions to humanity. The Y chromosome can’t do the same.
And then the antivaxxer learns about X chromosomes silencing and concludes that the good one will be silenced due to environmental factors and it’s amazing that all boys aren’t autistic.
re “trump”(v) @12:
I too have been bamboozled about how to turn “Mr Trump” into a verb connoting blatant wrongness. The problem is my previous, conventional, use, from the game Bridge and variants. Where one suit is declared TRUMP, any card of which will win the current “trick” (jargon again). To win a trick by playing a trump card is known as “to trump”.
I’m sure Mr T has been trying to amplify the coincidence of his name with that detail, to declare himself the TRUMP of the Business World. And
It might be better to mangle up the spelling of the word trump to apply to trumpater.
My go-to is “Fractally Wrong”, as in wrong at every level of magnification.
Also, “Not even wrong” is always useful. This one certainly seems to fit the fractally wrong category nicely.