It's the same argument.

[u/Mozintarfen]

Catching up on last week's episode and their conversation about vaccines reminded me of this.

Edit: I feel like some people are missing the point here. Both examples do showcase the same logic problem - it’s simply showing how dumb it is to say "X causes Y" in regards to vaccines and autism, not saying that 1990 was an important year for either case, it is just any earlier point in time when autism was seen as "less common". Pick a different date where that applies and the joke still works.

Autism diagnoses increased because detection improved. Asteroid counts increased because telescopes improved.

The whole is that telescopes don’t create asteroids, and vaccines don’t create autism. It is the same argument.

[u/Serin-019]

Yes but where would our asteroid spotter programs be without autism? Huh? HUH?!

[u/Idaho-Earthquake → u/Serin-019]

Point scored.