"Dog Autism" and the Weaponization of Stupidity
The New York Post is telling its readers that some dog owners believe vaccines cause autism in their pets. I thought it was satire for a moment, but, no, this is actual "news reporting."
On the surface this reads as a carnival of absurdity. Scratch deeper and it's worse: the same old anti-vaccine hoax, dragging autism into the role of monster once again.
Autism doesn't come from vaccines. Not in children, not in dogs. What this story shows isn't ignorance — it's strategy. Autism is still the cultural scarecrow the anti-vax movement cannot live without. When reality offers no evidence, they invent it. Even animals are drafted into the theater.
Don't get me wrong. I love all dogs and welcome any and all of them into our neurotribe.
If this report is real (and I'm still wondering whether NY Post has added a satire section), then this isn't harmless nonsense. Every time autism is invoked as a fate worse than disease, autistic people are collateral damage. Our lives are made into metaphors of catastrophe. Our identities are reduced to a punchline or a parental nightmare. That's the real contagion — not autism, not vaccines, but the deliberate stupidity that feeds off both.
Shame on the people who perpetuate these conspiracy theories. Shame on the people who believe them. And shame on the news outlets that amplify them, chasing clicks while legitimizing a frame that harms autistic people and undermines public health.
The question isn't whether dogs can "get" autism. The question is why society still needs autism to play monster in its morality tales. Until that answer changes, the stupidity won't be accidental. It will be deliberate — and it will keep finding new ways to bark.