The Conspirituality Report

The Anti-Vaxxers Who See Child Abuse Everywhere

Moral panics are easier than looking in the mirror

One of the most tragic and telling parts of watching conspiritualist adults and parents rage-post — or now, scream at families entering vaccination sites — that masks are child abuse, and vaccination is like rape, is that I don’t believe they’re really paying attention to children.

I’m not a child psychologist and I don’t know if there’s solid data yet on the psychological impacts of anti-COVID measures. But my kids, and the vast majority of children I’ve encountered during the pandemic, seem to express a normal range of responses to the restrictions, from accepting, to bored, to resistant.

Most interactions with children I’ve seen complaining about masks peter out after the child gets absorbed in play. On a few occasions I’ve seen a child flat-out refuse and teeter on the brink of tantrum, and sometimes melt down. But this might be what happens for them in response to any request that falls in the…