There is no debate, vaccinate

I'll discuss pretty much anything, with some measure of decorum, with anybody.

Abortion? Let's talk. 

Nuclear Energy? There are reasonable arguments on both sides.

Vaccines? This is where my blood boils. I flip my lid. Here's a response I wrote to someone who wanted to have a 'reasonable' discussion with me on the issue:

"You're a perpetrator who should be prosecuted for endangering the lives of the most vulnerable children in our society."

Dear Sir,

Thanks for admitting you're a freerider, more than willing to 'reevaluate' if things get worse. I suspect every anti-vaxxer will 'reevaluate' once diseases might infect their own lives.

Thanks for the discussion. I'm sure your arguments mean a lot to parents of children with cancer who cannot get their vulnerable children vaccinated.

I have zero desire to get along with you or any of your type. What I want is for you to take up your most basic social responsibility, to have the most rudimentary courtesy, it takes to have your children vaccinated.

Barring that, I'd like you to keep your children out of public. And, if you leave the country, then you should stay out of the country.

But, 'yah freedom to vector vanquished diseases back into the society you're taking advantage of (until maybe it threatens your kids)' right?

Every time my children get their shots I remind myself how lucky I am that I'll never have to watch one of them suffer some deadly disease. But it also really pisses me off that I live with a group of people so rude that they're willing to let other people keep the defenses up while they lolly-gag around in illogical, self-serving narcissism.

No, we can't have a reasonable discussion--it would be akin to having a discussion with a climate change denier where all of the facts, all of the history, every available observation, 99.99 percent of the science, and every statistic is on my side and yet I have to pretend like you have a real argument to make.

Nah, dude. You want to see nature in action? How about not vaccinating your kids and then taking 'em on a tour of the Central African Republic or India. We'd see how you felt about vaccines real quick, I suspect.

Got smallpox? Nope. Why? worldwide effort to vaccinate.

Still got polio? Yep. Why? A bunch of morons got scared of vaccines literally months before polio was wiped off the face of the earth. Thank ignorance, self-righteousness and unreasonable fear for vaccines.

Measles is one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available. Why? Because of people like you. Nope, I'm not your buddy.

You're a perpetrator who should be prosecuted for endangering the lives of the most vulnerable children in our society. No, we can't have a reasonable discussion and I refuse to even pretend that you have valid points for fear of falsely giving them any legitimacy.

Take this from a kale eating, no-chemical-gardening, vegetarian: Go back to nature, dude, nature will eat you alive.