This is not the test for whether a statement has meaning. If I say “this vaccine you’re getting does not cause autism”, that would be meaningful even if it’s not sometimes false when applied to other vaccines. It has meaning whenever “this vaccine causes autism” describes a different world than “this vaccine does not cause autism”.
It may not convey any information to you if you already know “there are no vaccines about which that statement is false”, but not everyone shares that certainty, and the people who don’t might benefit from reassurance.
This definitely depends on you being right about the “this vaccine doesn’t cause autism” thing, of course. You have to be able to honestly and justifiably state “this vaccine does not cause autism”, as encouraging people to take vaccines under false or unjustified premises is bad. You have to maintain openness to checking the data with them and changing your own mind if you do not find what you expect to find, because if you’ve closed your mind to the data not only does that make your job of persuasion harder, it makes your job of actually being reliably right harder. I’d even go so far as to say that not only should you be willing to put your money where your mouth is, you should even be able to do it *without flinching*. This means being able to put yourself in their shoes and actually experience “okayness” yourself.
Yes, if you can’t do all of these things then you should do something about it before assuring them that it’s okay. However, if you have good reason to believe that the statement is always true, that just means “figure out how to do all these things” is the thing you do about it before assuring them that it’s okay.
This is not the test for whether a statement has meaning. If I say “this vaccine you’re getting does not cause autism”, that would be meaningful even if it’s not sometimes false when applied to other vaccines. It has meaning whenever “this vaccine causes autism” describes a different world than “this vaccine does not cause autism”.
It may not convey any information to you if you already know “there are no vaccines about which that statement is false”, but not everyone shares that certainty, and the people who don’t might benefit from reassurance.
This definitely depends on you being right about the “this vaccine doesn’t cause autism” thing, of course. You have to be able to honestly and justifiably state “this vaccine does not cause autism”, as encouraging people to take vaccines under false or unjustified premises is bad. You have to maintain openness to checking the data with them and changing your own mind if you do not find what you expect to find, because if you’ve closed your mind to the data not only does that make your job of persuasion harder, it makes your job of actually being reliably right harder. I’d even go so far as to say that not only should you be willing to put your money where your mouth is, you should even be able to do it *without flinching*. This means being able to put yourself in their shoes and actually experience “okayness” yourself.
Yes, if you can’t do all of these things then you should do something about it before assuring them that it’s okay. However, if you have good reason to believe that the statement is always true, that just means “figure out how to do all these things” is the thing you do about it before assuring them that it’s okay.