this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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Summary

A father whose unvaccinated six-year-old daughter became the first U.S. measles death in 10 years remains steadfast in his anti-vaccine beliefs.

The Mennonite man from Seminole, Texas told The Atlantic, "The vaccination has stuff we don't trust," maintaining that measles is normal despite its near-eradication through vaccination.

His stance echoes claims by HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who initially downplayed the current North American outbreak before changing his position under scrutiny.

Despite his daughter's death, the father stated, "Everybody has to die."

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[–] Tronn4@lemmy.world 42 points 7 hours ago

Hope he told his daughter she had to die to make liberals cry

[–] thingAmaBob@lemmy.world 17 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] TheTurner@lemm.ee 14 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

He's Mennonite. They don't believe in any English medicine/science. If someone dies, it's God's will.

[–] OpenStars@discuss.online -4 points 51 minutes ago (2 children)

Unpopular opinion: I actually respect this. It's a personal decision not put upon anyone else, has nothing to do with political mis/disinformation, and is entirely consistent with the rest of their beliefs.

I don't have to agree with them to respect how they choose to live their lives. Especially if they will keep their kids in seclusion if displaying symptoms and wear masks themselves when coming into town.

Maybe they'll die, but that's not my call to make, nor can I force them to live my way (nor do I want to).

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 8 points 38 minutes ago

I'm not into being supportive of people that want to live in the 1500s for dumb reasons.

[–] terrifyingtuba@lemmy.world 1 points 3 minutes ago

Except herd immunity is actually important.

[–] brezel@piefed.social 25 points 8 hours ago

Obviously his god didn't want him to procreate.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 31 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

He should have died too

Actually no, instead of.

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 12 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

I bet he was given the measles vaccine.

He's a Mennonite, so probably not

[–] CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world 39 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The conundrum here is that admitting his stance was wind would take a level of intelligence that would have had him vaccinate his child in the first place.

I know that's oversimplifying it, but the point still stands.

[–] Bread@sh.itjust.works 16 points 9 hours ago

At this point, I can't say I would blame him for still refusing to accept it on an emotional level despite all evidence otherwise. As stupid as it is, how might you cope with knowing you are the sole reason that your daughter is dead? That if it weren't for your arrogance, you would still have a child?

I don't agree with it, but I understand. I don't think I could live with myself if I accepted reality if I were in his situation. Shutting down might be his method of coping. It is a sad situation that was easily preventable.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 7 hours ago

Yeah, this fucker should be arrested, kids taken away and he should be housed in a care facility where he slowly can be weaned off the conspiracy theories until he's normal again

Yes, I'm advocating for forced treatments of these fuckers. Hell, I'd deport and quarantine them in a remote island where they can slowly die of diseases and what not, I don't care.

If in 2025 you still need to believe in dumb shit like unicorns, skydaddies, and conspiracy theories like a 5 year old then you don't have the right to live liek any other healthy adult, you should be considered mentally deficient and treated as such. Sorry, you are not competent to raise children, these poor kids deserve better.

Lock em um

I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry. These people habe been ruining this world since forever and it has to stop. I'm out of are, I'm out of mercy, I'm out of patience

[–] imvii@lemmy.ca 54 points 11 hours ago

You know what else has stuff I don't trust? The fucking measles.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 43 points 11 hours ago (6 children)

You can only hope one day the asshole realizes he killed his kid and can't live with his failure.

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 10 hours ago

do you understand how much this would destroy someone to acknowledge? that's why they're doing this. they need support to dismantle modern medicine, and that support will be built from tiny little coffins.

[–] Huschke@lemmy.world 13 points 9 hours ago

My favorite quote for situations like this is. "You're never the enemy in your own story."

[–] Devanismyname@lemmy.ca 7 points 8 hours ago

That requires self awareness.

[–] NataliePortland@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 hours ago

I don’t think he will. I think he’s lying to himself to avoid the feeling of shame and he needs that protection. He can’t let himself ever admit what he did.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 2 points 8 hours ago

His 5 steps of grief:

  1. Denial.
  2. Goto 1.
[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 4 points 10 hours ago

Eh, deep down i think these fuckers know. McDonald's only haf stuff inside i trust. I know everything that is in aspirin. It's all bullshit.

[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world 105 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

“I don’t trust science so I will choose death instead”

Fucking brilliant people. No doubt they are Trump supporters.

[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 27 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

... he's a Mennonite, lot of them won't even use the internal combustion engine. It's one of those low-tech sects of Christianity like Amish.

[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world 8 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

That sounds worse. Good god.

[–] alcibiades@lemm.ee 1 points 12 minutes ago

Ehh, mennonites just want to keep to themselves and their communities. Obviously they’ve got some problematic beliefs, but they would never force them upon anyone or go out and try to be missionaries. Typically they don’t vote or participate in local government.

Found this interesting article about OH and PA mennonites and their opinions on the presidential election

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 4 points 9 hours ago

Actually avoiding the internal combustion engine seems pretty environmentally friendly to me

[–] segabased@lemmy.zip 10 points 9 hours ago

Brainwashed cult, and unfortunately we don't have time to deprogram these people

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 23 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

This is just so horrifying. Don't trust? Holy shit, his child is dead!

And what is this "stuff" that he's talking about? Midi-chlorians?

[–] mint_tamas@lemmy.world 16 points 10 hours ago

Of course he’s not changing his stance. Doing so would be admitting that his child died as a direct consequence of his own actions. Ha will forever be anti-vax from now on, even if his life depends on it.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 6 points 9 hours ago

If they're injecting people with Midi-chlorians, I volunteer as tribute!

[–] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 63 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (3 children)

Yeah... You totally can't trust a vaccine with 97% efficacy and a negligible mortality rate that's existed for over 80 years versus an extremely infectious virus with a 40% mortality rate and no effective treatment or cure... If only there were extensive scientific studies on these things that were easily and freely accessible to the public! Why do we have to live in such a dark and uninformed time!?

[–] Mbourgon@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

One small correction. 20-25% require hospitalization, In the third world 1% to 3% mortality rate, in the first world typically 1-in-1000, but note that at least two have died of that initial group that was infected (125?).

Go get vaxxed, dammit.

[–] andyburke@fedia.io 21 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Because conservatives have been gutting education every chance they get throughout history. 🤷‍♂️

[–] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 13 points 12 hours ago (5 children)

What better way to control the masses than have them all fat, exhausted, stupid, and sick?

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[–] evergreen@lemmy.world 83 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

So basically he'd rather they just die than live with "stuff we don't trust". If "everybody has to die", then why care about what's in a vaccine in the first place? Extreme cognitive dissonance to support an ideology.

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[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 39 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Ah yes, the "everybody dies so who gives a shit" defense...

He says he doesn't trust it, but he's lying. If he actually cared about what's in the vaccines, he would get educated on the ingredients, the process of manufacture, the data and studies that have been done, etc.

But he won't do that, because he is a religious fundamentalist. He doesn't care about being logical, or reasonable, or understanding anything. He heard a certain viewpoint that he vibes with and stubbornly and fanatically holds to it.

Same as radical Islamists, or the Crusaders, or conspiracy theory nuts. They didn't reason themselves into their worldview. It wasn't carefully and methodically researched, it isn't something they are willing to change or adapt or be wrong on.

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[–] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 217 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (6 children)

It takes a special kind of crazy to say vaccines have untrustworthy ingredients over the dead body of your unvaccinated child.

Mennonite man

Ah... right okay.

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 90 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

Ah yes, the Electric Amish.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 9 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Haha, never heard that one, and I grew up in an area that had a lot of both. 🤣

I was always amused by some of the stuff that Amish would do - like buying a freezer for an "English" neighbor, as an example. Or sometimes borrowing/renting someone else's tractor and then running them at night? Are you hiding these behaviors from your god, or just from other people?

Lots of crazy beliefs out there. Look into eruvs for Orthodox Jews or how they pay "gentiles" to do things for them on holy days, or the timers that are set up...I think Religulous showed this last one. Seems like if you are going to go to these lengths to supposedly stay within compliance on some arbitrarily-determined rules from centuries ago, you might consider just, uh, discarding and revising some of these things? Because an omniscient being is going to see right through these clever legalisms...

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

There's an expression: "build a hedge around the Torah," referring to the web of extra strictures beyond the basic Commandments, that exist solely because they know people will finagle ways around them. The idea being that by breaking those rules they'll still be protected from breaking the big ones. Of course it just means that more obedient people live restricted lives, and holier-than-thou people smugly keep stupid rules while still being cruel and evil to the core. And cheaters gonna cheat.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

Even the first 5 commandments seem to be coming from a place of narcissism for an omnipotent being - you worship me and only me, don't worship anything else, including idols and graven images, and don't use my name the wrong way. Oh, and make sure you keep my special day....this has what to do with any kind of morality?

The rest are reasonable things that could be derived w/o any appeal to mythology - don't kill, steal, lie, cheat on your spouse and covet another's possessions.

I will never understand when someone from one of the Abrahamic religions tells me that without religion, people have no foundation in morality [1]. The very core set they most reference are about 50% irrelevant to morality, the other 50% are something every society puts in place and they don't need Jehovah to derive these rules; they are rather obviously necessary to a functioning society - although that last one our entire system is set up to almost force people to covet things and other people all the time, so that's rather ironic.

As for all the other stuff - the various rules and rituals - that people tend to build up around the three main Abrahamic religions....a lot of it truly does make me scratch my head.

[1] I just saw one of those magamaniacs arguing for that with Sam Seder. That video was excruciating by the way, but I did power through most of it.

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[–] Zexks@lemmy.world 21 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Sounds like a negligent homicide charge.

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[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 52 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Stuff, you say. I'd wager this fool knows nothing at all about this supposed stuff.

[–] somehacker@lemmy.world 38 points 15 hours ago

He’s a Mennonite. He’s intentionally ignorant of the modern world and murdered his daughter.

[–] Inucune@lemmy.world 20 points 13 hours ago

She died because of their willful ignorance.

Welcome to the anti-intellectual American experience.

[–] trslim@pawb.social 47 points 16 hours ago

Fucking deathcult of america.

[–] JesterAUDHD@lemmy.world 8 points 11 hours ago

You can lead a horse to water that lost their baby to dehydration, but you can’t make them drink

[–] mkhopper@lemmy.world 26 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Made even more sad given that, as a child, he likely received the MMR vaccine.

These fools never seem to think about that part.

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