Vaccines are a plot by big pharma!

[Fidel_Castronaut]

But the anti-vax movement is actually probably the most dangerous and retarded group of woo-peddlers that I doubt even showing them the figures as evidence would cure them of their stupidity.

I think for people like that, there is a satisfaction in "knowing" more than other people, and even experts in a field. Same for conspiracy theorists etc. It makes people who are too lazy/stupid to actually study a field for many years suddenly feel like they know more than an expert. You're not going to be able to rob them of this feeling of superiority.

They don't care about methodology, they don't care about evidence. What they care about is how it makes them feel better about their own inadequacies.

That is probably spot on. Feeling as tough you've stumbled onto an inconvenient and currently unknown 'truth' that will change the world, "if only people would listen to me!"

It's why I laugh my ass off when these people suddenly think they've got a PhD in toxicology or immunology because they read somewhere online that some guy thinks mercury is bad because their only interaction with it has been in a high school chemistry class or in a thermometer.

"INJECTING KEMICULS INTO MA BODY!"