The fact is- here in the US- the antivax movement flourished in these 'mom' facebook groups, I am not saying that the denizens of these groups were necessarily predisposed to such nonsense, but they WERE targeted actively and incessantly by the anti-vax movement, and the antivax message found a foothold there. Did all of them succumb to the propaganda? No... many remained sane and helpful, or at least harmless.

But MANY did. It is simply a fact. I saw it happen. I am not saying the denizens of said groups are bad- growing up, my circle of friends were all from hippy families, living in tune with nature, into natural healing and all that- but they made damn sure their kids were vaccinated.

But I also saw there was an element on the left that gravitated to the insanity of the antivaxxers, and the antivaxxers targeted them... and if a group of moms had a high percentage of folks that believed in the healing power of crystals, the odds that they would resist the targeting was low.

Am I condescending to moms, or women in general? No. The sexist trope that women are more emotional or irrational is BS, if anything I have found the opposite to be true, and when the men act irrationally or emotionally it tends to be far more damaging and toxic.

I am simply saying that the anti-vax movement REALLY flourished in a subset of those online groups- this is simply stating fact.

I _AM_, and always have been, extremely condescending and hostile to pseudoscience. I believe everyone should be- especially now we are seeing that its killing people in huge numbers.

These groups were specifically targeted for conversion to the anti-vax cause- and not in some casual way- it was a sophisticated operation that made professional use of psychological manipulation... I don't know if that happened in your country, but here it was just blatantly obvious that they were being singled out and infiltrated.

It isn't that the gender of the group members made them vulnerable, it is the social relationship, the trust, the peer pressure that this type of group naturally creates that made them vulnerable- the members of such groups turn to eachother for advice on raising their children- that is an extremely intimate social network, and if you understand the psychology underlying it, it is a social group very vulnerable to hijacking.

It would be hard come up with an easier target than these groups- The ideal target would be one of these mom groups, with members drawn from the upper middle class, with a pre-existing predisposition to natural medicine... you slip in a few prolific posters, insinuate them in the fabric of the social network, and gradually turn up the firehose of anti-vax propaganda... its that easy and almost certain to succeed- you will start to sway the most vulnerable to your side, then peer pressure takes over and makes your job easier. There will be a fraction - maybe even a majority- that reject the anti-vax messaging- they will eventually leave as you turn up the firehose and you have won, now the group becomes primarily an anti-vax group, where the messaging is uncontested and the members amplify their own fervor to the cause-

Mission accomplished- you can go on to the next group and repeat the process.

It simply is a fact that your best bet for converting a social networking group to the anti-vax cause is to target what I called "Hippy-dippy, wheat-grass eating, crystal wearing new age privileged soccer moms that spent all day on facebook ‘mommy groups’". Its just obvious- hell, the russians understand that well, and I am sure they make use of that knowledge. They ARE behind much of the anti-vax messaging here in the US.

Now-for your understandable interpretation that I was belittling women- I get that, but my contempt was directed at those that allow themselves to be manipulated by such propaganda- the ones that didn't fall for it left those groups- leaving behind the demographic I described. This was the process the ant-vax movement used to great effect up til the pandemic- the pandemic and its politicization by the right created an new swath of vulnerable groups and the antivaxxers modified tactics to take advantage of their good fortune.
BEFORE that politicization of the pandemic the anti-vax 'grass roots proponents' that incessantly posted on social media skewed heavily female- NOW it is more of a 50-50 split.

The mom groups were easy marks for the propaganda, not because of their gender, but because of the unique nature of the dynamics of such groups.

Groups that are primarily male can be manipulated at least as easily, the concept is the same but the tools that are used, the emotions appealed to may be different depending on the propaganda you are trying to push...

Over this pandemic I have watched and studied a couple of 'men' as they were radicalized to the violent far right. I have watched the process of infiltration and manipulation in various groups... I strongly believe that most cases are probably part of a coordinated effort, but I guess there is the possibility that it is happening organically.

My apologies if my comments were offensive to you- please try to consider that my actual intent, and my attitudes, might not be what you read into my admittedly harsh words...