And just today, Bret Stephens with some analogy to Eugene McCarthy that's incredibly ignorant of history -
"I don’t see him running, Nader-like, as a third-party candidate. But I think one reason some Democrats are rallying to him is that they are wary of the idea of a second Biden term, even if they think he’s done a decent job in his first. ... They see him as old and faltering, they don’t think Kamala Harris is up to the job if she needs to succeed him, and they worry that any Republican save Trump could defeat him. If Bobby Jr. wins in New Hampshire because Biden isn’t even on the ballot, it could shake things up, and he could wind up being the Eugene McCarthy of this political season: not the nominee, but the catalyst for change."
I actually didn't know there was an RFK Jr until recently, and he is 69 years old. He seems to me like a bit of a wack job. Regarding his chances, strikes me as marginally better than Bill Weld's chances 4 years ago.
RFK Jr does have the mythical Camelot name brand of course, and stranger things have happened, but I can't imagine him getting any traction.
I'll admit that I'd never heard of RFK Jr until, what, a few months ago? But I don't think I've seen a single quote from him yet that wasn't false or wrong, on any topic.
Sad thing about him is he used to do a lot of good environmental work with Waterkeeper, which he was the founder.
Hmm, I don't know that organization or his work there. I wonder if he always had a bent toward the conspiratorial, or if that was something that came later.
I feel that conspiratorial thinking has become more widespread, and observationally I think that coincides with the pandemic. Which makes sense -- it was a traumatic, disruptive time. I think the appeal of conspiracies is providing a narrative, and so sense of control, in the face of chaotic situations and events. It's seriously unnerving to realize that even here in the 21st century society can be so thoroughly disrupted by invisible not-even-alive strands of RNA.
He was an anti-vaxxer long before the pandemic hit. Not sure when/where he went off the rails, but he certainly did in a big way.
he developed a condition that affected his larynx about 15 years ago, and blames it on a reaction to a flu shot. I think that's where the anti-vax stuff started.
many people like to point to proximate causes because it's just too upsetting to think bad stuff can happen without anybody knowing why.
I think once people accept a conspiratorial mindset, they inevitably fall into embracing a whole swath of conspiracies. Start with anti-vaxx and it's not long before a cabal led by George Soros is running the world.
I think once people accept a conspiratorial mindset, they inevitably fall into embracing a whole swath of conspiracies. Start with anti-vaxx and it's not long before a cabal led by George Soros is running the world.
anti-vax is easy for people to fall into because of one attribution error in particular. When nearly every person receives a vaccine (it's plus 90% for most in the U.S.), it's going to precede almost every negative health outcome. Ninety+ percent of people diagnosed with autism spectrum have been vaccinated. Of course that ignores that 90%+ of people not diagnosed with autism have also been vaccinated.
people went nuts when they learned that thousands of people died with a few days of receiving the COVID vaccine. But they don't stop to think how many people out of hundreds of millions die suddenly from a heart attack or aneurysm, or other sudden cause each year.
it's generally adaptive for humans to look for patterns and correlations. It's how we learned to stay away from poisonous plants, or cook our food to kill bacteria for instance.
but it also leads us to see patterns and correlations where there are none.
I'll admit that I'd never heard of RFK Jr until, what, a few months ago? But I don't think I've seen a single quote from him yet that wasn't false or wrong, on any topic.
I used to listen to him on the short-lived Air America radio network. Back then he mostly spoke about environmental and economic issues. He was a standard progressive Air America host.
I was really surprised to learn he became an anti-vaxxer.
he developed a condition that affected his larynx about 15 years ago, and blames it on a reaction to a flu shot. I think that's where the anti-vax stuff started.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the presidency, made eye-opening claims that using poppers causes AIDS and chemicals are responsible for turning children transgender.
The son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy was caught on video wielding outlandish claims and promoting false conspiracy theories.
On April 29, Kennedy announced his intention to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. He is considered a significant underdog in that race, which will end when a nominee is selected at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, in August of 2024.
In a recent video unearthed by PatriotTakes, a Twitter page “dedicated to monitoring and exposing right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy,” Kennedy is seen promoting several unfounded or factually inaccurate claims.
he developed a condition that affected his larynx about 15 years ago, and blames it on a reaction to a flu shot. I think that's where the anti-vax stuff started.
Interesting. Did not know that.
“This might be a vaccine injury. I don’t know, but it’s certainly a possibility.”
RFK Jr. suggested his voice condition, spasmodic dyphonia, was caused by a flu vaccine. pic.twitter.com/gZdTUUgEXH
he developed a condition that affected his larynx about 15 years ago, and blames it on a reaction to a flu shot. I think that's where the anti-vax stuff started.
Interesting. Did not know that.
“This might be a vaccine injury. I don’t know, but it’s certainly a possibility.”
I'm not actually sure whether the injury preceded becoming anti-vax, or if he retroactively attributed it to a vaccination after he became generally anti-vax.
but it's just another instance of him tossing stuff out there with no evidence. He's really a dangerous guy with regard to public health. He's got the famous name of course, but he also has the goodwill he earned decades of environmental activism. A lot of people are going to think he's a learned truth teller on vaccines.
In the summer of 2005, Rolling Stone and Salon simultaneously published “Deadly Immunity,” a 4,700-word story on mercury in vaccines written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy, the eldest son and namesake of the former attorney general and New York senator, described how he’d come to investigate the issue: “I was drawn into the controversy only reluctantly. As an attorney and environmentalist who has spent years working on issues of mercury toxicity, I frequently met mothers of autistic children who were absolutely convinced that their kids had been injured by vaccines. Privately, I was skeptical.” [Note: Shortly after “The Panic Virus” was published, Salon decided to pull the piece from its site.]
Then, Kennedy wrote, he began to look at the information these parents had collected. He pored over the transcript from the 2000 CDC-organized meeting outside Atlanta and spoke with members of SafeMinds and Generation Rescue, two groups notable for their virulent opposition to vaccines. He also studied the work of the “only two scientists” who had managed to gain access to government data on the safety of vaccines: Dr. Mark Geier, a frequent paid witness in lawsuits alleging harm done by vaccines, and his son, David. (The Geiers would go on to develop a “protocol” for treating autism that involved injecting children with the drug that is used to chemically castrate sex offenders at a cost of upwards of $70,000 per year.)
OMG, no.