Ask Lemmy

We're actively disinformed. That's why. It's really that simple.

Because

1. taxing the rich is a partisan stance

2. people are unaware that the government would spend less on singlepayer than it spends currently dealing with middlemen

3. a non-negligible number of people don't believe in micro-organisms, nutrition, or cancer as it is understood by doctors

TLDR: decentralized education with zero funding makes a whole country of dumb assholes.

Because we also die from totally preventable school shootings too.

Americans are not a monolith. Tons of Americans are concerned. Tons are not. Also many Americans have lives where these issues the news typically stirs up don't really actually impact their daily lives. Others are dramatically affected. It really depends on location and status, among so many factors.

Various news and online channels might have you thinking all Americans are basically the same and experiencing things the same, but they are definitely not.

Most of us are concerned.

The minority are concerned because the US government has done unethical and malicious medical stuff to minorities, which makes some level of hesitancy for those groups understandable. Not the cod oil instead of vaccines bullshit white middle class and up promote, that is pure snake oil propaganda.

With god as my armour I need no vaccines

I think a lot of Americans have the option that these contagious diseases aren't really dangerous anymore and that THEY won't be affected by any fallout. THEY will be able to survive it so THEY don't care.

In reality, lots of people live in small communities and even though they might go on the internet, they don't go very deep. So unless it's in their face, they don't know much about it. And "my gran pappy had the mumps and he was fine!" mentality.

"preventable disease" and "Americans" are very broad terms

Christ man, we're screaming about it and have been for decades. Nobody will listen.

We're concerned, we just can't afford health care

Science showed things like climate change, which was hurting the bottom line of giant corporations who donate huge amounts of money to Republicans, so Republicans convinced their base that science is against God, and that it's all part of the evil woke liberals thing. So now anything that comes from science, including vaccines, is tainted.

Not just americans. this started in the uk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield

To own the libs!

1. The people who aren't idiots are already vaccinated so they'll be fine.

2. The people who are idiots think they are safer without vaccination. They are the ones who will die (or their children) but they aren't aware of it.

3. The people who can't get vaccinated but aren't idiots are kind of just screwed but this is an incredibly small minority of the population.