The Skeptical PWNage of Darth Wakefield & His Anti-Vax Woosters Continues

I just want to provide a quick follow up to yesterday’s post about how the Women Thinking Free Foundation’s (WTFF) crew from the nascent Hug Me! campaign skeptically ninjaed the anti-vaccination rally hosting uber-douchebag Andrew Wakefield. It seems that since I blogged about it, the story has exploded all over the skeptical blogosphere, with the famous photo of Wakefield getting skeptically pwned making many appearances 🙂

The two skeptical ninjas shown here on either side of Andrew “Douchebag” Wakefield are Jamie Bernstein and Bruce Critelli.  In the words of another of my skeptical colleagues, these two “are the mayors of Balls City!”  Indeed 😀

Jamie recounts her experience of the rally over at The Friendly Atheist – feel free to follow Jamie via Twitter .@UAJamie

and

Bruce shares some really interesting video he shot at the rally

Of Bruce’s video, the most unnerving part was, to me, a story that Wakefield told the “crowd” (less than 100 people is hardly a crowd) with one woman who was talking about her son…

About 15 years ago a mother from London approached him and said “Do not judge me too harshly Dr. Wakefield, but when I die I am taking my son with me. You see, I’m all he has. I’m the only one who loves him.”

“I didn’t judge,” said Wakefield. “I was moved by the love that a mother must have for her child that she would take his life rather than have him fall upon a society that really didn’t give a damn.”

Holy shit.  I had no idea Wakefield had gone so far down the rabbit-hole of woo – either he’s gone off the deep-end of being a true-believer, or he’s a completely callous charlatan trying to salvage some sense of credibility by bilking the desperate & gullible (probably both, in my opinion).  He seems to be doubling-down on the crazy, actually telling people that he supports the idea of this woman “taking her son with her” when she dies, just because he’s autistic and “society doesn’t give a damn” because it recommends vaccines.

Wakefield is nuts… just plain nuts.  That, and he’s damned dangerous.  It is somehow fitting that only a few people showed up to see him speak, and it attests to his fringe status.  Of course, it’s also a little disconcerting to see that he could actually rally even 100 people to show up and hang on his every word, as if he’s some kind of modern-day guru.  Spooky.

Anyway, here are more links to photos & blog posts about the event…

It’s been Pharyngulated! 🙂

Orac, scourge of anti-vaxxers everywhere, chimes in with a great analysis

Skeptic Dave took a lot of nice photos

This UK blog notes the lackluster attendance at the rally despite Wakefield’s “star power”

Anti-vax rally fizzles – I really like the closing on this one…

Rally organizers clearly expected much larger crowds, as evidenced by dozens of anti-vaccine signs still unused by 5 pm, when the park started to clear out. A sign-in sheet listed about 35 names and email addresses. Hundreds of free bananas remained unclaimed, and most of the vendors’ tables that surrounded one side of the quad remained empty.

Meanwhile, the rest of city carried on as normal. In this case, that was a good thing.

And, just in case anyone on the anti-vax side claims those of us grounded in reality of painting Wakefield and his rally in a bad light due to poor attendance, take a look at this post over at the anti-vax Age of Autism website. Check out these pictures…

These are photos by the anti-vaxxers themselves, and they clearly show the sparse attendance.  So much for this “rally”.