March 26, 2021 – 10:02 p.m.
This week has been amazing! Check out all the charts and graphs below, which illustrate the words that follow.
While tonight alone the Lead Safe Mama Facebook page has lost over 400 “Likes” and “Followers” (due to the apparently controversial one-line post I wrote letting people know that my husband got his first CoViD-19 vaccine shot today) tonight LeadSafeMama.com also passed 9,000,000 [NINE MILLION!] all-time page views. WOW! Thank you!
All of the highlights recently:
- LeadSafeMama.com passed 9,000,000 all time page views tonight!
- LeadSafeMama.com passed 700,000 page views for 2021 (so far this year) earlier this week!
- LeadSafeMama.com passed 200,000 pages views for the month of March 2021 yesterday [and will likely close out the month of March with more than 250,000 page views… keeping us on track for a good year!]
- … and quite exciting to consider… while I started blogging here at TamaraRubin.com & LeadSafeMama.com in 2014, more than 7,300,000 of those 9,000,000 page views have been in just the past 25 months alone!
Tonight’s Facebook controversy:
Lead Safe Mama readers and followers on social media like to know what’s up with me – both personally and professionally. Sometimes there are bits of personal information that I share because I think the information might be helpful (supportive?) to others.
Tonight was one of those times. I innocently (truly innocently – I never imagined their would be a massive “backlash”!) shared on the Facebook page tonight that my husband got his first dose of the CoViD-19 vaccine today. I thought that in sharing this simple bit of personal information with my readers, it might encourage some who are anxiously “stuck” — still on the fence about whether or not to get this vaccination — to maybe be moved to at least do some additional research. I also thought that the post — at the very least perhaps — might inspire a healthy *productive, fact-based dialogue* about the subject (a subject which many of my readers have long asked me to address, but I have avoided addressing – due to the extreme opinions held by some on both sides!).
I WAS WRONG! – OMG SO WRONG!
Instead of respectful dialogue, in response to this very simple post the trolls have come out in force — and while there are some reasonable, thoughtful and polite comments in the bunch – the overarching language in most of the comments is hilariously (?) in turns ignorant/shockingly misinformed; superstitious; paranoid/conspiritorial; nonsensical; anti-science – as well as disrespectful; insulting; belligerent; self-righteous; petulant; wildly accusatory; and well, frankly, just plain outrageous!
One interesting bit of information: I know for a fact that my readership ranges from 95 to 98 % women. A disproportionate chunk of the negative trolling comments appears to be from profiles identified as male. To me this demonstrates that the vitriol expressed in many of the comments on my post is likely amplified by bot-troll fed chaos (vs. 100% real people) as men RARELY comment on any Lead Safe Mama posts (and when they do, it’s usually the same 5 or 6 men who I actually know fairly well through our past exchanges!)
Facebook has not been sharing Lead Safe Mama posts with ANYONE recently!
I also didn’t expect this level of reaction because I did not expect that many people would actually see the post. Facebook has truly ceased to be a useful platform — normally, unless I want to dish out thousands of dollars in “advertising fees” paid to Facebook to have the posts I share there actually shown to Lead Safe Mama Facebook Followers almost no one sees those posts anymore. Since I quite infrequently pay to promote a post, most of the Lead Safe Mama Facebook posts have recently been seen by only 100 or 200 readers (even though the Lead Safe Mama page has nearly 40,000 Facebook Followers and Likes). As a result it is extra surprising that – in just *five hours* – this simple one-line post (below) would reach nearly 20,000 people and inspire over 1,300 comments!
I also did not expect an exodus of followers from the page – but am not surprised. Since I first shared this simple post earlier tonight (click the image below [with the hearts] to see the post below and read all of the comments) the Lead Safe Mama Facebook page has actually lost more than 400 “Likes” and “Follows”. However, losing a percent or two of the Lead Safe Mama Facebook audience due to a controversial post is not in any way unusual or alarming (it happened during the election a few times too!)
Insight into humanity and the current conversation
The comment thread (and all of the nested sub-threads) is actually quite an amusing and interesting read (especially from an anthropological lens); it provides a real snapshot of the current range of opinions on (and emotions around) the topic of the CoViD-19 vaccine today. If you are curious and also if you are up for a bit of entertainment – and more than a few good belly laughs – (and also if you are possibly interested in joining the conversation), I encourage you to sit down with a glass of wine and head over there to begin to read the more than 1,300 comments that have been posted there in just the first FIVE HOURS since the post went up (it will be interesting to see how much more it blows up by tomorrow morning!) Perhaps *tea or coffee* would be more appropriate — if you plan on reading ALL of the comments!!! Update: As of 1:00 a.m. PST (3/27) there are now more than 1,500 comments!
And on this note – thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being part of this conversation (childhood Lead poisoning prevention!) and thank you for sharing the posts from this blog.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Scroll down to see all of the interesting graphs and charts!
Tonight’s (apparently) insanely controversial post:
Facebook Likes and Follows Tonight
LOST Facebook Likes and Follows Tonight
I am not super surprised by your views on vaccines. Many people even in the environmental and health movements aren’t aware of what’s actually in vaccines or the independent science regarding the health consequences…it’s the same story as with all the issues…lead…fluoride…PFAS…on and on… The PEG alone in the covid vaccine is toxic to the majority of people. It’s too easy to have one’s focus (yours is lead) and not have the time or motivation to go as deep into other topics, such as vaccines. Before Robert F. Kennedy was an advocate for cleaning up vaccines and pharmaceuticals, he was an advocate for cleaning up air, and water, and other things. It took one mother driving to his house, leaving a stack of scientific papers a few feet high on his doorstep to get his attention. Once he started reading, and spending the time going as in depth as he had with other things previous, he recognized the issues with vaccines. He reluctantly then had to do something about vaccines too. He couldn’t “un-know” the new information he had learned. Curiosity is a beautiful thing. I believe the reason for the unfollows is that people look to you as a leader in the area of citizen investigation and citizen journalism. They look to you as a leader who inquires into the very fine details regarding toxic substance exposure, especially when disguised as something benign, such as toys, baby bottles, or in this case, vaccines. When they see you not acknowledging even the most obvious issues with the covid vaccines, they lose trust in you. And in today’s environment, where those who advocate vaccines feel entitled to now force others to give up their body, their choice, it is also too depressing for some when they see someone they look up to (you), also fail to recognize the bad trajectory of loss of choice.
Hi there,
I don’t advocate “for vaccines” – I discuss my view on vaccines here on this post: https://tamararubin.com/2015/02/v-word/
I had only shared about my husbands choice to get the CoViD-19 vaccine – not about my choice for myself nor for my children.
I think the issue is that people read between the lines when they should just see things for what they are.
Tamara
I think that’s what people were doing. They saw you post that your husband got it fist covid vaccine, and you had hearts in the background of the post. There was no other context given other than you put hearts behind it, which indicates that you support getting the vaccine. You may have posted about vaccines, and I haven’t read that post yet that you just shared, but based on the post alone that you made, I think it is normal and reasonable for people to think that you are advocating for vaccines.
It’s so funny – I chose that background because it was the simplest one of the ones available from my phone (via Facebook) … it was either that or a record player or rain drops… nothing neutral.. and yes – people made the hearts mean a LOT… which I find very interesting.
T
As a follow up, you may be interested in reading the substance of the lawsuits won against federal health agencies in the past year and half regarding vaccines. I bet your jaw will drop a couple times! https://www.icandecide.org/lawsuits/. If you are surprised by what you find in those lawsuits won, you might be further interested to read the state of the state: https://www.icandecide.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ICAN-Reply-1.pdf.
I’m 100% familiar with the full range of considerations on the issue.
The main consideration (the overarching thing we need to advocate for) is MEDICAL FREEDOM. Medical Freedom means FREEDOM to CHOOSE.
Many of the cyberbullies on my recent posts (and not all are cyberbullies – just some) purport to be advocates for MEDICAL FREEDOM and FREEDOM OF CHOICE (“Health Freedom”), yet want to criticize ME for my husband’s CHOICE for HIMSELF and HIS body. Therein lies the contradiction.
Apparently many of these people think “MEDICAL FREEDOM” and the “RIGHT TO CHOOSE” actually translates to their right to bully others for making an informed choice that differs with what they might have chosen for their family.
Tamara
Agreed. Choice is the issue. One way to avoid the backlash you received might be to make a small statement saying that you support medical choice when making any statement on vaccines.
“When they see you not acknowledging even the most obvious issues with the covid vaccines, they lose trust in you. And in today’s environment, where those who advocate vaccines feel entitled to now force others to give up their body, their choice, it is also too depressing for some when they see someone they look up to (you), make a statement about vaccines with heart while also failing to recognize the bad trajectory of loss of choice that so many states are experiencing, especially with the active discussions of vaccine passports, and rollout of vaccine passports.