^ My mother-in-law is into conspiracies and all of that sort of thing, including some anti-vaccination BS. Just prior to the birth of our son 3.5 years ago, she sent my wife an email about vaccines, how they are horrible, big pharma, autism, etc. etc. etc.
Our response was "sorry, but that's all complete crap" and dismissed it in favour of actual science. But it brought out a number of emotions that were new for us in our relationship with her. Was she really that gullible? Does she not know that this is a potentially harmful to her future grandson? Had she lost all ability to judge "sources" on the internet?
She even pulls out the "the whooping cough vaccine gave her daughter (my wife) whooping cough". But out of the other side of her mouth, she also says that there was a bit of an outbreak and even my wife's cousins had it around the same time. You don't suppose that her cousins, that she was often in close proximity with, gave her this highly contagious disease? Of course not - that would be too logical. Blame the vaccine.
But despite being reminded of that each time she tells the story, and even after she shrugs and says, "I suppose", you can bet that the next time vaccines come up in conversation, it will inevitably descend to "well my daughter got whooping cough from the vaccine."
Now we just avoid conversations about stuff like that. Nice lady, and we love her, but god damn it is disappointing to see her lack of logic on some things.
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