You're right. It causes people to dig in their heels and become more defensive and entrenched.
I don't think they're very intelligent, however. They're conspiracy theorists. But if we have to baby them into understanding logic that's fine. It will save lives and prevent serious illnesses.
The problem is that when anyone tries to educate there is an anti-vaxxer mob that drowns them out with a concerted harassment campaign. They find out about a medical group or doctor or parent or whatever, who posts something about the benefits of vaccines and they circulate info on their website and blitz the group or business or person.
And yes, anti-vaxxers are bullied with name calling and death threats on the internet. But not as part of a concerted campaign that includes destroying their businesses.
They make it very hard for logical voices to be heard and for education to result. And that's purposeful:
Kass faced some anger in the hallway after the hearing, he said, with one person calling him “a disgusting liar”. But it wasn’t until several hours later that “the **** hit the fan”. That’s when Kass realized that his Facebook page was being flooded with one-star reviews calling him everything from a “disgrace” and a “pedophile” to a “Nazi pharma shill” and “******* shilling for infanticide”. Kass disabled the Yelp-like reviews feature on the page, but that didn’t stop the onslaught, which moved into the page’s comments and across the ecosystem of anti-vaxx
Facebook pages and groups. By Monday, five days after his brief testimony, he had compiled a photo gallery with hundreds of screenshots of abusive comments.
Anti-vaxx 'mobs': doctors face harassment campaigns on Facebook
Interviews with mothers who've lost children and with those who spy on anti-vaccination groups, reveal a tactic employed by anti-vaxers: When a child dies, members of the group sometimes encourage each other to go on that parent's Facebook page. The anti-vaxers then post messages telling the parents they're lying and their child never existed,or that the parent murdered them, or that vaccines killed the child, or some combination of all of those.
Nothing is considered too cruel. Just days after their children died, mothers say anti-vaxers on social media called them *advertiser censored*, the c-word and baby killers.
Her son died. And then anti-vaxers attacked her - CNN