3 ms·

Does it matter where he got his viewpoint? He could have heard it on a bus going to Cucamonga for all we know. At this point, trying to trace back which side is

by pogue 1y ago

Does it matter where he got his viewpoint? He could have heard it on a bus going to Cucamonga for all we know. At this point, trying to trace back which side is at fault for RFK's incredibly absurd ideas is mute and irrelevant unless you're just looking to give some rational for why he came to those conclusions. We need to educate people from an early age in media literacy, skepticism and science. Make The Demon-Haunted World a mandatory read for every high school student.

delichon 1y ago
I see what you mean, if you're only interested in developing political weapons, rather than curious about the shape of the world, it isn't relevant.
- mindslight 1y ago
  Trying to ascribe it to "the left" or "the right" is trying to form a political weapon. The shape of the world is that we now have a clown car administration of utter retards, each pushing their own strain of feel-good harmful nonsense. The root cause of what has allowed these moronic ideas to take hold and grow ultimately comes down to affluenza and anti-intellectualism. The political leanings of the pockets where each of these strains were allowed to fester doesn't particularly matter, because the overriding commonality is that they make believers feel good and special for "knowing something others don't".
HelloNurse 1y ago
It matters because it is in the public interest that whatever cultural process affected him doesn't happen again, not even to the most despicable idiots, because this is the kind of "incredibly absurd ideas" that kills people. For the sake of defense in depth, how he got his place despite his opinions is a very important related question. Personally, I'm afraid it could be a deliberate propaganda pose, with the dual objective of distracting the masses with an enemy and depriving people of expensive actual healthcare.
- scarecrowbob 1y ago
  Yes, and... it's not like this is the first time that a bunch ofnew age folks with a predilection for alternative lifestyles and "health" practices have quickly moved from a hedonistic "liberal" position to a shockingly right-wing position. A lot of the mysticism and weird ideas of cultural cleanliness that we can see exhibited in the ruling classes of Germany during the 1890s-1940s are very present in the ideas in the current MAHA movement. That similarity might push against the idea that these ideas are purely propagandistic in nature. Personally, I might feel a little more reassured if I thought that RFKs positions were pure grift, but I have been watching a lot of my woo-woo friends flat-earth their way to fascism and find it somewhat chilling.
xracy 1y ago
I'm reminded of the 'surfin bird' family guy episode where Peter is fishing for a prompt to sing surfin bird, and Brian in-good-faith bites, but Stewie yells at Brian for doing the bad thing. It's like we've given up on the people with bad behavior to the point that we tacitly endorse them to have whatever terrible viewpoint they have, even while we admonish others like they're more responsible than the person with the bad behavior. We have to stop giving bad-faith-actors the benefit of the doubt. RFK is a grifter. It definitely doesn't matter where he got the viewpoint from, he has 1 million terrible viewpoints that are not grounded in science. He's figured out how to pedal this as non-extremist and couch it in friendlier language, but that just makes him more of a snake.

by pogue 1y ago

delichon 1y ago

I see what you mean, if you're only interested in developing political weapons, rather than curious about the shape of the world, it isn't relevant.

mindslight 1y ago
Trying to ascribe it to "the left" or "the right" is trying to form a political weapon. The shape of the world is that we now have a clown car administration of utter retards, each pushing their own strain of feel-good harmful nonsense. The root cause of what has allowed these moronic ideas to take hold and grow ultimately comes down to affluenza and anti-intellectualism. The political leanings of the pockets where each of these strains were allowed to fester doesn't particularly matter, because the overriding commonality is that they make believers feel good and special for "knowing something others don't".

HelloNurse 1y ago

It matters because it is in the public interest that whatever cultural process affected him doesn't happen again, not even to the most despicable idiots, because this is the kind of "incredibly absurd ideas" that kills people. For the sake of defense in depth, how he got his place despite his opinions is a very important related question. Personally, I'm afraid it could be a deliberate propaganda pose, with the dual objective of distracting the masses with an enemy and depriving people of expensive actual healthcare.

scarecrowbob 1y ago
Yes, and... it's not like this is the first time that a bunch ofnew age folks with a predilection for alternative lifestyles and "health" practices have quickly moved from a hedonistic "liberal" position to a shockingly right-wing position. A lot of the mysticism and weird ideas of cultural cleanliness that we can see exhibited in the ruling classes of Germany during the 1890s-1940s are very present in the ideas in the current MAHA movement. That similarity might push against the idea that these ideas are purely propagandistic in nature. Personally, I might feel a little more reassured if I thought that RFKs positions were pure grift, but I have been watching a lot of my woo-woo friends flat-earth their way to fascism and find it somewhat chilling.

xracy 1y ago

I'm reminded of the 'surfin bird' family guy episode where Peter is fishing for a prompt to sing surfin bird, and Brian in-good-faith bites, but Stewie yells at Brian for doing the bad thing. It's like we've given up on the people with bad behavior to the point that we tacitly endorse them to have whatever terrible viewpoint they have, even while we admonish others like they're more responsible than the person with the bad behavior. We have to stop giving bad-faith-actors the benefit of the doubt. RFK is a grifter. It definitely doesn't matter where he got the viewpoint from, he has 1 million terrible viewpoints that are not grounded in science. He's figured out how to pedal this as non-extremist and couch it in friendlier language, but that just makes him more of a snake.