Young and Stupid...

Welp, So Much for Young People

By Josh Marshall

In recent years many progressive political thinkers have focused on the views of so-called millennials. They are more pro-gay rights, more racially inclusive and generally have more progressive political views on a host of issues. It's part of what gives people - rightly - such confidence on LGBT rights issues. It's generational. There's no going back. That's great. Unfortunately, a lot of these youngs seem to be complete a complete disaster on vaccination.

Check this out. This is a chart from a recent poll by Yougov. To be clear, it is not whether people think vaccinations are important. It's whether people think vaccinations should be mandatory. As you can see, for older Americans, support for mandatory immunizations is overwhelming. And it just got lower and lower and lower the younger you go - with what looks like a steep turning points somewhere in the mid-30s.

This is not good news.

And the same goes for vaccination as gay rights, racial inclusion and the rest. The trend seems obvious. In twenty years will there be strong public support for even soft-compulsory vaccination?

I think the reality is that society seems to has lost the historical memory of various horrific endemic childhood diseases.