That sounds like a good description of them already!
I have done a little ebook looking at “vaccine-caused autism” from an “urban legends” angle. One of my conclusions was that anti-vax influence upon the general public is mainly through local, person-to-person connections.

And the folks over at AoA and other similar pubs/orgs have very likely heard from a good number of people who have blown wise—and perhaps even expressed anger toward those who misled them in the first place—but have not shared that correspondence with their readers/members.

Perhaps it’s one of the reasons why AoA has such a strict comment moderation policy.

Can y’all imagine?

Sure, AoA probably gets all kinds of comments from skeptics, critics and quackbusters whose questions and criticisms they wish to avoid, but if they got regular comments from people who were, at first, enthralled with all the anti-vax woo, and later blew wise—perhaps angrily so, after having been ripped off by purveyors of associated fake “cures” for fake conditions such as “leaky gut”—they’d eventually dissolve into a small cult-like fringe club that preaches to its own choir, but has little to no influence over those outside its core group.

I hope for the best that our kids can have: your son, my daughters, and Jake Crosby included. We’re all part of the same dysfunctional family…

As if they’re going to take notice of that… they don’t like being corrected. They’re stupid.

Olmsted also claims to have tried to contact Paul Offit for the story in which he exagerated Offit’s income 500%. Yet, Offit posted a comment in april saying he had no idea where 29-55M figures had come from.

Both and experience and financial bill I could have lived without.

That viral bug is now preventable with a vaccine. Personally, I’ll take the vaccine. My son is still very disabled, but we knew there would be issues since his very difficult birth over twenty years ago.

(I’m jealous, Jake Crosby is in college!? I wish my kid could have that kind privilege.)

Yes, I too have to admit my brainwashing too. Jeez I feel I’m at an AA Meeting! Hi I’m Bill and I used to be a causaholic. It’s been 247 days since I last considered autism as an epidemic…

It’s amazing to me the way their world is turned inside out. If you once ‘believed’ that your child’s autism (and a majority of other children) was triggered, caused or was a major factor because of vaccines, somehow, anything that diverts you from this ‘ultimate reality’ is obviously a brainwash or a payoff. I dunno, when a good portion of your reality is based on the ‘fact’ of conspiracy; the ‘fact’ of science that is not duplicated; and the ‘fact’ that testimonials are more important than scientific data; I get uncomfortable and will not drink the kool aid offered.

Can we get a show of hands that have been brainwashed into thinking rationally about autism? OK, hold on lemme finish counting…OK, now can you show me all those people who have been part of the cult of neuodiversity (someone put Living Color back together again) aqnd have been ‘deprogrammed’ back to….to…to…it hur.t.s to sa.y it…rrrational…thought? Anyone? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?

At the same time, my acquaintance with autistic adults via Usenet had also persuaded me of the merits of neurodiversity as an approach to autism. At first I thought I could reconcile these contradictory positions but two books changed my mind. Unravelling The Mysteries of Autism and PDD by Karyn Seroussi promised much but delivered little. It was persuasive in parts but overall it failed to convince. MMR: the Facts by Mike Fitzpatrick was a real eye opener. While I did not always agree with it I could not help but compare and contrast its obvious grounding in science with the speculation and conjecture that informed Seroussi’s work.

I hope that I have learned from my acquaintance with the biomedical movement. My bid to reconcile biomed and neurodiversity never amounted to anything more than a populist attempt to fudge the differences. Now I am fascinated by the challenges that neurodiversity and conventional autism science present to each other. I want to be part of a debate which explores the differences and does not try to paper over them. It would be good to wind the clock back and engage the biomed community in such a debate. But so much has happened that I see little prospect of meaningful dialogue in that quarter so long as Age of Autism is setting their agenda.

Or the correct policy for the correct rotavirus patent.