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    lethekkAnna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:13pm

    I just found out my sister is a secret antivaxxer. She has four kids. My mother told me, completely befuddled as to how she raised such an idiot.

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      prestocrazymwahahahahalethekk
      1/06/15 12:17pm

      How does that happen?!! Were there signs, growing up?

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      NotReallyCrazylethekk
      1/06/15 12:17pm

      My nephew's mom is an antivaxxer. She used to be a nurse who worked with sick kids. Boggles the mind.

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    Andrea TwerkinAnna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:36pm

    Is it nit-picky of me to complain that the girls in the photo clearly aren't Amish? Bright patterned clothing, sneakers, hair clips, et cetera. If you're dismissing articles as not credible for small mistakes, I'd say that's a pretty bad blow to credibility by you're own standards.

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      Anna MerlanAndrea Twerkin
      1/06/15 12:45pm

      You're right, actually, they're Mennonite. The Amish and Mennonite communities are pretty closely aligned in this part of Ohio — my understanding is that both communities in the area are Old Order and have pretty similar lifestyles. But yes, your point is well-taken and I've fixed the caption. Should appear corrected in a moment.

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      IndianaJoanAndrea Twerkin
      1/06/15 12:48pm

      To be fair, it was probably the only stock photo that shows "Amish like children" in front of a health sign.

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    JosephFinnAnna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:07pm

    Ugh. These are the same dipshits who cling to myths about how sharks don't get cancer, right? (They do, but people harvesting them for this pseudoscience nonsense are devastating their numbers like the assholes who harvest rhinos for boner pill dust.)

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      Queen of BithyniaJosephFinn
      1/06/15 12:11pm

      Well, it's only Amish sharks that never get cancer.

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      KK4BamaJosephFinn
      1/06/15 12:20pm

      And Young Living Essential Oils. Don't forget about the oils!

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    LikeHumanssDooAnna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:21pm

    The resident crazy anti-vaxxer on my facebook feed hasn't gotten a hold of this one yet! She's clearly off her game. Right now, she's focused on how you can avoid tooth decay and braces by avoiding nuts and grains.

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      EmmerdoesNOTrepresentmeLikeHumanssDoo
      1/06/15 12:53pm

      LOLOL!!! Omfg, if i had onllly known! I could've avoided all those years of retainers and my teeth would've magically just straightened themselves out from their crazy mess if i'd just avoided nuts and grains??....Now i find out... sheesh. I wouldnt've had to have those teeth pulled to make room in my mouth so that the crooked teeth could be rotated into place or anything... Man, i really wish my orthodontist would've known about this... i mean then he could've saved himself the cost of my braces...maaannnn...

      On a serious note, i will always be grateful to that man. I grew up on welfare and went through almost every retainer imaginable to fix my extremely crooked teeth and overbite from 3rd/4th grade on. (a guy friend once described a girl with teeth similar to mine as "garden-weasel teeth"- without knowing mine were once that bad- if that helps to understand how bad they were.) When the state's insurance folks told my orthodontist that i didn't need braces after he'd tried everything he could "Because braces were for cosmetic purposes" and they wouldn't pay, he essentially said "F-that", because he knew that society is shallow to folks with teeth that bad, and he covered the cost himself. Every time i get compliments on my smile i am so humbled, and i let people know how wonderful he was.

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      LikeHumanssDooEmmerdoesNOTrepresentme
      1/06/15 2:35pm

      Thanks for sharing this. Your orthodontist sounds like a wonderful man. I'm so sorry he was under the misguided notion that genetics had anything to do with your bone structure. But at least if you have cavities, you can actually heal them by taking vitamin D pills? True story. :)

      Also, did you happen to see this article? Your story made me think of it. http://aeon.co/magazine/healt...

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    LadyGrinningSoulAnna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:33pm

    I feel weird because I would wear the dresses the kids are wearing in the above pic. My fashion sense is just that warped.

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      LadySparrowLadyGrinningSoul
      1/06/15 1:50pm

      There was an older girl in my elementary school who dressed like that every day, and I thought she was the absolute coolest. She wasn't Mennonite or anything, just had what I thought was the greatest style ever. Later I found out she had gotten in trouble for something and her punishment was having to wear dresses for a year, so in a "screw you" to her parents she ran with it and went full Little House. I loved her even more.

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      LadyGrinningSoulLadySparrow
      1/06/15 1:52pm

      She sounds awesome!

      I would pair the dresses with Doc Marten's, '90s style. Because I get to relive '90s fashion with more money than I had as a teenager.

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    south2ndAnna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:14pm

    Aren't most Amish children homeschooled, and rarely educated past the age of 13? Wouldn't the fact that they aren't being evaluated for learning disabilities explain the lack of diagnosis?

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      FieryAntidotesouth2nd
      1/06/15 12:22pm

      Yes, exactly. If a kid never comes in contact with a psychologist or trained educator, he or she is unlikely to ever be officially diagnosed. I'm not sure that they even see a pediatrician on a regular basis. Even if the pediatrician told the parents the kid had autism, the parents are not obligated to seek therapy or other benefits for their child, especially if their religion forbids it. We have no idea how many Amish kids have autism.

      However, since most experts agree that Autism is genetic but possibly triggered by environment (especially in utero), it is possible that the Amish have lower rates, especially since their gene pool is limited. But that has fuck all to do with vaccines.

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      Sehjmasouth2nd
      1/06/15 12:24pm

      That was my thought too. When I was teaching, I had one student with autism, and several with Aspergers. They were all pretty high functioning (in a gen ed classroom) and I'm fairly sure that none of them would have been diagnosed in a non-traditional school setting.

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    BetterLateThanPregnant!Anna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:06pm

    I don't want to live like the Amish, I just want braids like these and for all my future children to be this cute.

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      PB from the jarBetterLateThanPregnant!
      1/06/15 12:14pm

      My mom made me wear braids until I was 14 (side head style, as shown here, until I was about 12 before allowing the single down-the-back of the head style was provided as an option) and my sister, who is 22 and still under my mom's thumb, still wears one.

      Guess what our nicknames were growing up? (Hint: Rhymes with "shmamish.")

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      It'sNotEasyBeingGreyBetterLateThanPregnant!
      1/06/15 12:18pm

      Those children don't appear to be Amish, fwiw. As a rule Amish don't wear braids or prints.

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    QuanYinAnna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:10pm

    Granted, the majority of what I know about the Amish I learned from reading Linda Castillo novels, but I thought that autism and other intellectual-functioning disorders are actually disproportionally common among the Amish because of the limited gene pool. Does anyone have any more information from a slightly more credible source?

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      TyrannosaurusBataarQuanYin
      1/06/15 12:21pm

      here are a couple sources i found:

      http://www.cbsnews.com/news/genetic-d...

      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P...

      https://www.etown.edu/centers/young-...

      i don't think they address autism directly (haven't fully parsed them) but inbreeding has absolutely produced genetic disorder issues. also polydactyly if i remember correctly.

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      FieryAntidoteQuanYin
      1/06/15 12:26pm

      I don't know about intellectual disabilities, but I have read that they have a very strong genetic disposition for manic depression that carries on from generation to generation.

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    Andrew DaisukeAnna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:01pm

    People with that horrid of facial hair should never be trusted. Not for medial advice, or for portable, in-home fireplaces.

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      GemmabetaAndrew Daisuke
      1/06/15 12:07pm

      But those barns, tho.

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      Bears for PresidentAndrew Daisuke
      1/06/15 12:21pm

      How dare you sir. This man....wrote the constitution? Won WW2? I can never keep the movies straight.

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    XofAnna Merlan
    1/06/15 12:33pm

    I live in "Amish Country" and trust me you don't really want to follow their lead on anything. Except maybe dodging taxes.

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      MelissamacheteXof
      1/06/15 12:49pm

      Also, jam.

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      XofMelissamachete
      1/06/15 12:59pm

      True, and that apple butter.

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