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Druggie meme set up to enflame vaccination rage

bit_pattern

bit_pattern

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 17, 2008
Messages
8,128
This is actually very good because it's so believable. Saw the pic on Twitter before and was going to share it here but wanted to find an article to support it - sadly it's just a piss take :D

BpWzEpgCUAAUXs9.jpg


Seems to have fooled the Sunshine Coast Daily if the "UPDATE" header is anything to go by =D

UPDATE: MEMBERS of the online community have claimed responsibility for an internet meme linking vaccination to drug abuse.

The meme found its way on to Sunshine Coast Facebook pages- some for and some against the messages the meme was sending.

The sharing of this images prompted outrage from Sunshine Coast doctors.

The image flies in the face of experts driving a campaign to boost vaccination rates across the Coast.

The Sunshine Coast has the lowest vaccination rate in the state and the third lowest in Australia, with only 87% of five-year-olds fully immunised.

An alarmingly low 64% of five-year-olds in the 4552 region - which takes in Maleny, Conondale, Witta, and Crystal Waters - are fully immunised.

The image, which depicts a drug addict slumped in a corner with the text "their first injection was a vaccination: protect your children from vaccinations", has gone viral on social media and has recently found its way to Coast news feeds.

A post explaining the meme said: "... the most effective satire is nearly impossible to distinguish from the truth. As such, occasionally a graphic or quote which has been created as a parody is shared on social media, creating confusion, fear and outrage among a wide range of people… particularly those not familiar with the source and their particular brand of humour.

"One such example is currently doing the rounds; a graphic which appears to be an anti-vaccination claim, which seems to suggest that childhood vaccination leads to heroin use, due to needles being regarded as something positive.

"I'd like to reassure anybody concerned that this has not been created by an anti-vaccinationist (though, being familiar with the wide range of bizarre claims made by anti-vaccination campaigners, I can understand why it could be read as real).

"Furthermore, in case I need to clarify this, there is no known causal link between vaccination and intravenous drug use later in life.

"This graphic was created as a part of Something Awful's Photoshop Phriday in 2013, in which SA forum participants tried to create over the top parodies of anti-vaccination posters.

"After showing some examples of actual anti-vaccination memes, the SA admins issued a challenge: "If they can take anti-vaccination posters to this level of absurdity, imagine what we can do!"

"Unfortunately, this one has escaped its context and repeatedly gone viral..''

Sunshine Coast Local Medical Association president Dr Di Minuskin described the image as "outrageously incorrect" and reiterated that vaccinations remained a safe and effective measure of protecting children and the larger community.

"I am horrified that this type of message should gain any validity," Dr Minuskin said.

"If anyone receives this image via social media I would recommend they swiftly assign it to the trash box where it belongs.

"Not only is the information outrageously incorrect, it is irresponsible to be creating unwarranted fear about such an important issue."

The image, which is not new, but has recently gone viral across the Coast, comes just weeks after anti-vaccination campaigner Meryl Dorey was allowed to deliver a 90-minute address at the Sunshine Coast Healthy Lifestyle Expo.

Ms Dorey declined to comment about the image.

Sunshine Coast Public Health director Andrew Langley said while vaccination rates had been on an upward trend since the 1990s, the current level in the region should be higher.
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So many lulz

http://evidenceplease.net/2014/06/05/psa-the-vaccinations-lead-to-herion-use-graphic-is-a-parody/

PSA: The “Vaccinations Lead To Heroin Use” Graphic Is A Parody

It has been said that some of the most effective satire is nearly impossible to distinguish from the truth. As such, occasionally a graphic or quote which has been created as a parody is shared on social media, creating confusion, fear and outrage among a wide range of people… particularly those not familiar with the source and their particular brand of humour.

One such example is currently doing the rounds; a graphic which appears to be an anti-vaccination claim, which seems to suggest that childhood vaccination leads to heroin use, due to needles being regarded as something positive.

I’d like to reassure anybody concerned that this has not been created by an anti-vaccinationist (though, being familiar with the wide range of bizarre claims made by anti-vaccination campaigners, I can understand why it could be read as real). Furthermore, in case I need to clarify this, there is no known causal link between vaccination and intravenous drug use later in life.

This graphic was created as a part of Something Awful’s Photoshop Phriday in 2013, in which SA forum participants tried to create over the top parodies of anti-vaccination posters. After showing some examples of actual anti-vaccination memes, the SA admins issued a challenge: “If they can take anti-vaccination posters to this level of absurdity, imagine what we can do!”

Unfortunately, this one has escaped its context and repeatedly gone viral – on its current round, it has managed to spread far enough to grab the attention of the media, with the Sunshine Coast Daily reporting, “Viral anti-vaccination meme shocks professionals“.

“The image, which depicts a drug addict slumped in a corner with the text “their first injection was a vaccination: protect your children from vaccinations”, has gone viral on social media and has recently found its way to Coast news feeds.”

The version of the image which has been received by the Sunshine Coast Daily has been cropped of the Something Awful watermark and as such, is not identifiable by doing a reverse Google Image Search. Generally though, reverse image searching is an excellent way to check the source of an image – and if there is a watermark present, do check the nature of the website it came from before sharing.

If you see this image on social media, my recommendation is not to share it, but to let others know that it is both factually incorrect and was created as a parody by the Something Awful forum participants.

UPDATE 05/06/2014 11:41am: The Sunshine Coast Daily have updated their article, with information from this post.

UPDATE 05/06/2014 10:30pm: Ten News Brisbane have also reported on the meme, acknowledging that it is a parody image. Video report: Confronting Parody
 
I can't believe someone could actually believe this.
Just common sense really: if it was true there would be millions more IV users than there really are.
 
same difference, it is political satire that uses (seemingly) obvious sarcasm about IV drug usage. or maybe Australians really are that stupid and thats why this is news period
 
The opposite may actually be true. The needle is a traumatic experience for a young child, and it creates a profound aversion to injections.
 
... said:
The opposite may actually be true. The needle is a traumatic experience for a young child, and it creates a profound aversion to injections.
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On the flip side, I still *love* going to the dentist just because they stick me with a needle. There's something about being tipped upside down on a dentists chair so the blood rushes to your head, being stuck with a needle, then dribbling and not being able to talk for a few hours that still kind of appeals to me
 
subotai said:
or maybe Australians really are that stupid and thats why this is news period
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Correction: something about Queenslanders - or, at the very least, about shit eating Newscorp journalists from Queensland ;)

(not sticking up for Autralian's. On the whole, we're a pretty gullible and dimwitted bunch. Trust me!)
 
ComfortablyNumb95 said:
I can't believe someone could actually believe this.
Just common sense really: if it was true there would be millions more IV users than there really are.
Click to expand...

I did! For a moment. At least, I believed that the anti-vaxxers could be this stupid.
 
subotai said:
same difference, it is political satire that uses (seemingly) obvious sarcasm about IV drug usage. or maybe Australians really are that stupid and thats why this is news period
Click to expand...

Australians - en masse - are pretty fucking gullible. Admittedly, you're right and I'm splitting hairs - i was going to ask who you thought had failed to comprehend the satirical element, but I wasn't sure how to read comfortablynumb95's post. I don't think they neglected to read the text - but I deleted it in a moment of self-doubt. Haha.
Apologies; carry on :)



Edit - regardless, that picture really makes me wanna go cop a bag hehehehe
 
we have fake outrage in the US as well but usually it has more to do with race than anything else

just look at the Donald Sterling situation

you dont have to apologize lol thats the whole point of the internet imo

say what you mean, let other people decide if it offends them or not, and dont give a fuck accordingly
 
I think it's super fucking hilarious that the dimwits at the Sunshine Coast Newscorp Rag actually cropped the Something Awful watermark from the image before publishing it and *then* had a bit of a sook about being taken for suckers. Fucking idiots.
 
Indicative of their fact-checking, not to mention their journalistic integrity.

I believe their stupidity has already been mentioned.
 
lol nothing makes me happier than when stupid people get trolled irl
 
The Sunshine Coast has the lowest vaccination rate in the state and the third lowest in Australia, with only 87% of five-year-olds fully immunised.

An alarmingly low 64% of five-year-olds in the 4552 region - which takes in Maleny, Conondale, Witta, and Crystal Waters - are fully immunised.
Click to expand...

heh. me and a friend who just came back from byron and mullumbimby with her young kid were talking about this topic a bit last night, she was telling me that some people she stayed with there told her that mullum has THE lowest rate of vaccination in Aus. I guess it's not really that far from mullum to the sunshine coast either.
 
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