fandomhigh | Debate, Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Steve, posture ramrod straight, was at the front of the class again today, pretending the weekend never happened.

Because he'd been an adorable, tiny ball of rage. And Tony had pictures and all the practice at refusing to feel shame in public situations. It should totally go on his resume. If he wrote one. "Good morning again, class. Hopefully this past weekend was much less exciting for all of you."

"And if you were drinking underage at Tony's party, we won't remember it this one time," Steve added.

Tony was trying so hard not to laugh as he looked at the class and nodded in agreement. "If you drank the beer, I think it was punishment enough," he muttered before clearing his throat like nothing happened. "Alright, so today we'll be debating an issue that has become more commonly discussed in recent years: vaccinations."

Ugh, Bud Lite with Lime.

Steve sighed. "There shouldn't even be two sides on this," he complained.

Guess who lost the toss, kids?

Tony grinned because he got to watch Steve try to pitch for the anti-vaxxers. Today was the best day ever. "Be that as it may, it is the subject of the day. Sorry, Steve." He wasn't sorry at all. "Check out the research on both sides of the debate once you've been given a side."

Watch one teacher's head explode...

"And we'll civilly discuss everyone's God given right to choose to die of preventable diseases because America," Steve deadpanned.

Yeah, just excuse your other teacher for having to duck behind Steve to crack up. This was clearly going to be a fun class today.

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It'll be fun, right?

Negasonic's initial opening statement was an eyeroll.

"Get shots. Don't die of idiocy."

Yep. That pretty much summed up the debate.

"You're not wrong, but we did say to keep it civil," Tony replied dryly.

Hey. For Negasonic that was a good try at civility.

But this was for class so... she restrained from rolling her eyes and tried again.

"Fine. Vaccination shots do not cause genetic mutations or alter your brain. They prevent disease and have cured small pox, malaria and a bunch of other diseases. They've been tested and they won't turn your child into some kind of mutant."

Unless the shot has flecks of Wolverine's blood and even then there's an ugly montage of torture you'd have to endure before getting superpowers.

They didn't talk about Department H, okay? Didn't talk about it!

"Not that there's anything wrong with mutants," Tony added cheerfully. "Although I think it'd be a mutate, since the other one is a natural occurance."

Thanks, nerd.

I'm sure the legal team at Marvel have already tried that tactic when they tried to get the Deadpool movie rights out of Fox's grubby hands, Tony.

"There's nothing wrong with mutants. Or Mutates."

She added that for the nerd professor.

"However not vaccinating can lead to illness for other kids. If you don't send your kid to school because he or she has a cold, you shouldn't send them to school with the possibility of spreading disease because they didn't get the shot for measles."

The legal team could suck it! Tony managed to be from the cartoon who got the rights to at least mention the X-Men and had the Fantastic Four on screen.

"Very good. Herd immunity, right?"

Key word being cartoon. Nobody cares about cartoons. Even the people who drink Bud Light Lime.

As for Tony's comment, Negasonic shrugged in agreement. As you do.

Re: Debate

imafuturist - 2016-09-14 16:27 (UTC) - Expand

teenagewarhead.livejournal.com - 2016-09-14 16:39 (UTC) - Expand

imafuturist - 2016-09-14 16:51 (UTC) - Expand

teenagewarhead.livejournal.com - 2016-09-14 16:54 (UTC) - Expand

imafuturist - 2016-09-14 17:00 (UTC) - Expand

Anders ... didn't really understand why this was a fight. If there was a way not to get the blight, half of Thedas would go mad trying to get their hands on it.

Still, he'd drawn con, and he'd give defending the position a try.

"Your family's health is your affair," he said, not sounding like he quite believed it. "If you feel the risks of vaccinations are worse than the chance your child will get a disease, that should be your personal choice."

Anders got himself an approving grin for at least trying to debate the other side. "Where should the line be drawn between personal choice and public safety?"

"I think if the sickness can kill people," Anders began haltingly. "Ordinarily, I mean. Anything can kill people if they're weak to begin with. But if unvaccinated children would be quarantined so they didn't spread germs when they got sick, it might not be too bad."

"So, we allow people to refuse the vaccines if they agree to stipulations?" Tony asked.

"It seems like the best compromise," Anders agreed.

Isabela only half understood the topic, but it was enough to know it was a stupid debate. "Fine. Don't. We'll all be better off when you all die of some horrible wasting disease or the other."

Isabela, that was a terrible argument.

Tony covered his face with his hands to keep from laughing. "Maybe not the best tactic?"

"But I fully support people's right to be complete morons." That seemed to be the main reason the side she was on existed.

"Don't we all."

If only it affected just the idiots. If only.

Edited 2016-09-14 18:37 (UTC)

Ada looked mildly confused. "You need a reason b'sides not dying? Maybe b'cause if'n you don't vaccinate your kids, Social Services takes 'em, so you might as well do it if'n you wanna keep 'em?"

"But they're your children and you have the right to raise them as you please," Steve said.

"Really? Pretty sure if'n you're a bad parent, they put your kids in foster care," Ada said dubiously. "Something something child endangerment something bad home environment, an' then there's Social Services an' yelling an' then you don't got kids no more."

"So give 'em th' shots, an' then th' government can't take 'em. Well, for that reason, anyway."

Steve snorted. "I knew plenty of bad parents. Are there enough government workers to really follow through?"

"You willin' t' play that roulette?" Ada asked. "B'cause then you don't just got one bullet in th' chamber, you got one for every shot you didn't give th' kid, PLUS one for th' government. At this rate, you got Vegas odds, an' you ain't th' house."

"But if I believe that the vaccine is going to kill my child, I might just bank on your odds being shorter," Steve said.

boneyard_girl - 2016-09-15 02:50 (UTC) - Expand

heroic_jawline - 2016-09-15 12:17 (UTC) - Expand

"Don't die or suffer because of easily preventable diseases that we've cured! If you do that, you're just being silly, and implicitly making the lives of people around you worse," Frank argued.

And then he took a drink.

This was a subject that Maria thought shouldn't even be debated since vaccinations saved people. However, she would do her best to argue the assigned side.

"Putting one virus into your body in a misguided attempt to kill one illness only adds to the risk of further medical issues. No one should be forced to risk themselves like that."