nogods4me

I sort of like the saying: If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament

scigirl

Ok I just have to rant for a minute. This goes back to that thread I started about how evolution denying is hurting us in more ways than we can measure. Fuck! People are so quick to trust any conspiracy theorist that can put two sentences together without spelling a word wrong, but they don't trust or believe good science that came from world-wide collaborative efforts and was tested over and over again (and continues to be that way)

This whole "AIDS is caused by lack of morals" really fucking pisses me off. Why just AIDS? What about lupus, or multiple sclerosis, or amyotropic lateral sclerosis? What about Hirshprung's disease? Why pick on AIDS?

Why - because it started in the gay community. All of this nonsense is mainly because of rampant homophobia, thanks to our wonderful Christian influences. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

I took several classes on microbial pathogenesis and viruses in graduate school. There are a lot of scientists who think that exposure to certain wierd viruses causes a lot more diseases than we know. For instance, autoimmune disorders such as MS or lupus. This HIV denial is going to hurt science, hurt progress, and stunt our scientific growth for who knows how long.

People who buy into that nonsense that says "AIDS caused by lack of morals" do me a favor - read a science book. Any science book!!!! Get a clue. Or even better - volunteer to be a test case. If you are a "good and moral christian," than you will never get AIDS, right? So you won't mind if scientists inject you with an LD50 of HIV, right? OH you DON'T want to volunteer? Hmm, maybe you don't reject scientific findings after all.

scigirl

[ July 30, 2002: Message edited by: scigirl ]</p>

Oolon Colluphid

Sure, malaria’s one hell of a killer. But why should we have, by your logic, less sympathy for a child with AIDS than for those who simply fail to use adequate protection from mosquitoes? Why feel sorry for them? They should get themselves some netting and bug sprays, steer clear of stagnant water, and get in some chloroquinine or mefloquine tablets. Simple. They bring it on themselves.

How about sympathy for a child with AIDS? How many dead babies have been having unprotected sex or shooting up smack, eh? There’s been over four million under-15 year-olds AIDS deaths since the start of the epidemic, and over thirteem million children orphaned. Was it bum-sex or poppers that did for them, eh?

How about sympathy for those who “simply fail to use adequate protection during sexual intercourse” where none is available -- ie in large parts of sub-Saharan Africa?

False dichotomy. We could ignore you; we could pull faces at you; we could argue as I have that you are morally fatuous and repugnant, or we could tell you to go screw yourself. See? Lots of options.

TTFN, Oolon, scourge of fuckwittery

[ July 31, 2002: Message edited by: Oolon Colluphid ]</p>

seanie

Oolon

Great post.

Oolon Colluphid

Excellent rant Scigirl! Go Scigirl!

That's the biggest pisser about it. It did NOT start in the gay community. It started in Africa as a HETEROSEXUAL disease, and only came to the world's attention when it hit western countries. To be sure, the social habits of western gays and drug-users, among whom it was first noticed, acted as amplifiers for outbreaks. Many behaviours and circumstances can amplify epidemics. In early Ebola outbreaks, one thing to avoid was going to the local hospital -- staffed by Christian nuns. Diseases are no respecters of personal ethics, and diseases have fuck all to do with morality.

For more then you could want to know on emerging infectios diseases, see Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague.

Oolon

KC

From a bumper sticker:

Someone Jesus Loves Has AIDS


Nuff said.

KC

Dr Rick

The origins of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are not known. It appears that simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) has been present in the monkeys and chimps of central Africa for hundreds but not thousands of years. We can only speculate about what triggered the zoonotic transfer of the virus to humans, and whether recombination between different species of SIV and HIV was possible. It's widely believed that the virus arose through zoonotic transmision and mutation of SIV since there are many similarities between HIV and SIV, but the method of transmission and how the virus survived to mutate into an infectious human disease is unknown as most SIV cannot survive and replicate in humans.

A variety of different studies have documented high prevalence rates of SIV with cross-reactivity on HIV-1 antibody tests in monkeys There is also a high prevalence of SIV in bush meat -- slain monkeys used for food, but eating the virus should not cause infection. One idea forwarded is that Africans may have ritualistically innoculated themselves with infected simian blood early in this century with the introduction of needles and syringes to the region. This practice may have developed through the belief that the parenteral administration of primate blood could strengthen a warrior, and repeated innoculations might have been just what was needed to allow the virus to adapt to the human immune system.

It has also been postulated that transmission may have occured sexually between humans and other primates; beastiality is part of some Voodoo rituals, but it is practiced primarily in the Carribean and not so much in Central Africa where the highest levels of exposure to SIV are seen and where it is thought that HIV first originated

Our incomplete understanding of HIV has left fertile ground for all sorts of fanciful beliefs about HIV; they range from CIA conspiracies to wipe-out Blacks to unintended side-effects of the Salk polio vaccine to the "deniers" exampled on this thread. That the available evidence contradicts these "kooky" ideas has not detered the true believers.

Rick

pangloss

I wonder how many of these HIV deniers also believes that 9/11 was the result of God being angry at us for straying form righteousness....


In all honesty, I truly believe that fundamentalist religious belief is caused by a neurosis of some kind. No sane, rational person could really believe such bullshit...

Could they?

Valentine Pontifex

Poor health and chronic malnutrition have existed for thousands of years. HIV has not and AIDS has not.

Albion

People somehow prefer mysteries to explanations. Used to drive Carl Sagan wild on numerous occasions, if I remember right.