Quick thread: I don't think most people know what antivaxx posts on Facebook really look like. That's good. Why would you? But I think people assume it's Suzy Turmeric plaintively yelling at you about the microchip, and it’s not. It looks like this. Like code. Or gibberish.
Antivaxxers are calling themselves something, anything else on Facebook. Once they change their group name, the adapt their whole vocabulary to fit it. Here’s a list of codewords for the group of people who don’t “go dancing” — or won’t get the vaxx. Pizza. Beer. Moana.
Antivaxx codewords have two purposes: Most importantly, they stay on Facebook. They’re still a community. But it also offers a sense of belonging, a secret code, a sense of mischief. People feel like they’re getting away with something, part of an ingroup.
No one's quantifying these groups. When Facebook reports on vaccine misinfo, they don’t mention Dance Party’s 40k members. They can't. They don't know it exists. It’s also how these groups actually operate. They know what gets caught by moderation bots. They maneuver around it.
@oneunderscore__ Whether clear-eyed or by disinformation, people are so dug in now, I don’t know what would change an anti-vaxer’s mind short of getting covid. Maybe the voice of someone in their inner circle, but certainly not an outside voice.
@oneunderscore__ In conversations with an antivaxxer at my workplace, it is clear that she regards her resistance as a fun “intellectual” game where she can (finally!) be smarter than someone.
@oneunderscore__ Ku Klux Klan did (does?) the same thing—talk in code