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Texas Attorney General sues Tylenol makers over autism claims
- Jackson__ 1y agoCan't wait for the Tylenol article on grokipedia to be cited in this court case.
- taylodl 1y agoNow the Tylenol makers have grounds for suing RFK Jr for defamation.
- Mo3 1y agoThat was the plan to begin with. Great way to dispense a few billion of taxpayer money in settlements as a favor while everyone's distracted by the story and laughing about how dumb RFK and Trump are. They're not that dumb. Anything that seems particularly illogical has underlying motives. Look and you'll find more instances of this. Much more.
- IAmBroom 1y agoI'm not buying your "3-D chess" explanation that it was a ruse to give taxpayer $$ to Tylenol stockholders, all along. How about: RFK is smart, but insane, and Trump is genuinely stupid, as people who meet him have been saying for decades.
- HelloMcFly 1y ago> RFK is smart Based on what evidence?
- nhod 1y ago"Stupid" doesn't seem to be the right word to apply to a man who has managed to (annoyingly) command the attention of the entire world and who has gotten himself elected as the most powerful man in the world twice. I do not like the man. I find his behavior to be corrupt, immoral, and unethical. And I also do not hesitate for one moment to admit that he is a singular figure in history who has a deep understanding of human beings and how to exploit them. That may not be classic-elite-intellectual-book-smartness, but it is some kind of smartness, and far from stupid.
- hermitcrab 1y agoI think you overestimate some of the people involved.
- potato3732842 1y agoIsn't this just the "4d chess" argument?
- b00ty4breakfast 1y agoI do think the "DAE TRUMP IS A DUMMY?!?!?!?" narrative has done a lot of harm over the last decade because nobody took his campaign seriously, but RFK is absolutely a moron. Or, at least, he is very sincere in his convictions about many very dumb things
- Y-bar 1y agoI remember a story a couple of weeks ago, or perhaps earlier this year about the lead-up to the NSDAP takeover of the German government in the mid 1900:s. It was something about just overwhelming people with pointless crisis and issues to keep you busy and preoccupied both physically and mentally so not to notice the truly bad things going when the democratic state was eroding. This seems like one such thing, it's a ploy for the public, it distracts from other things, it takes space away from other thing in the news, it ties up courts and others.
- mossTechnician 1y agoI would love a link to this story, if you have it.
- red-iron-pine 1y agoTikTok and social media exist to do that, writ large. This is just a way to jam up the courts, but make no mistake -- Big Tech is allowing it to happen.
- jack_tripper 1y ago[flagged]
- balaz 1y ago[flagged]
- embedding-shape 1y ago
- hermitcrab 1y agoAh, Texas. The State of Texas once told me that I had to sign a declaration that I would not boycott Israel, in order that they could buy 3 figures worth of event planning software. I told them it was none of their business. I did not get the sale.
- ndsipa_pomu 1y agoCould taking part in a boycott be considered freedom of speech under the 1st Amendment?
- hermitcrab 1y agoOur company is not based in the USA.
- ndsipa_pomu 1y agoI'm not a lawyer or an American, but I understood that the 1st Amendment wording specifically limits the rights of the government (including states) to limit free speech and doesn't mention the location or nationality of the target.
- robk 1y ago[flagged]
- nkrisc 1y agoThey didn’t say that.
- pavel_lishin 1y agoIt's rude to put words in someone's mouth.
- jdonaldson 1y agoHonestly, yeah, makes sense to me. If we value freedom at all we value the right to tell the government to stuff it with their legally binding nothingburger deals.
- martythemaniak 1y agoIn November of 2024, I thought Americans voted to turn their country into Russia, and I still think that's largely right (the oligarchy, the arbitrarily repressive legal system, the endless media sycophancy, the masked paramilitary thugs, etc), but it's also not the complete story. Authoritarian governments like Russia also tend to invest in state capacity and science, so MAHA and DOGE's work is kind of an outlier and a unique American innovation in the space of creating authoritarian hellscapes. Let's see how it works out for them.
- mmooss 1y agoThink of it like a private equity acquisition - of government. Cut as much cost as possible, give the assets to yourself by liquidating and by running up debt, leave the husk for someone else. Also, they are reactionary; the top priority of reactionaries is to destroy their opposition, not to achieve other things. And by destroying government, they leave a power vaccuum for powerful private parties to fill.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> Authoritarian governments like Russia also tend to invest in state capacity and science Russia? The country whose military is shitting the bed fighting an army that can’t project more than a third into its interior, whose “hypersonic” missiles are being shot down by 90s Patriot kit and whose space programme has—sensibly—seemingly given up on landing on the Moon? Chinese authoritarianism can be sung some praises. At least until the wolf warriors get overconfident and tank the advantages meticulously eked out by their colleagues. But Russia? It’s chosen a policy of near-term vainglory at the expense of the Russian state existing within its current borders come 2050.
- hypeatei 1y agoThe issue is that Trump is a vessel that all sorts of people are trying to use to push their agenda. As long as you declare loyalty to him, you're allowed in and can push whatever BS you want no matter how wacky or authoritarian it is. His own VP and health secretary have even called him Hitler but wised up so that they were allowed on the train!
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- ourmandave 1y agoI get that Ken Paxton is a Trump toady, but how will this not be dismissed out of hand? The autism claims have no basis in fact and "because RFK and Trump said so" isn't evidence.
- dragonwriter 1y agoIt won't be dismissed out of hand because there is a colorable legal argument assuming the necessary facts and some (very weak) evidence that can be proferred for each of the necessary facts, which is pretty much all that is necessary to get to trial if you are committed and not worried about winning. If the strategy is to get a settlement without agreement to fault extracting a bit of money to avoid the cost of litigation and use that also as a political hammer to reinforce the popular perception that the claim of a link is true, I can certainly see it being (despite being wildly unethical, an abuse of public office, etc.) an understandable course of action (I don't think it ultimately works even there, unless there is also separate corrupt pressure to settle by people abusing government, perhaps federal, offices in different ways—but that is also a possibility—because even a no admission of guilt settlement becomes hard for J&J publicly if even meaningful moves public perception.) I don't think there is much chance that they win a verdict at trial and survive appeals on it, but... that doesn't have to be the goal.
- AnimalMuppet 1y agoWell... by filing the suit, if it isn't dismissed immediately, then Texas gets to do discovery on J&J. J&J may be unwilling to let that happen. So options are dismissed immediately, J&J settles, Texas drops it after discovery (if they fail to find a smoking gun), or it goes to trial and Texas has to actually prove it.
- dylan604 1y agoIf there's a settlement, that's as good as a win for those that believe this. They will look guilty as hell to everyone that wants to believe. I don't see any way a settlement is a valid choice for the defense. This is one of those you want to end decisively. Any time it is brought up after, you just point back to the court case. If you settle, any time it is brought up after there will always be linger speculation on why did they settle. It will forever be an albatross around their neck.
- nielsbot 1y agoIf this goes to court won't that just prove that there's no credible link between the 2? So what's Paxton's game here? Does he really think Tylenol causes autism or is this about forcing J&J to say that it does despite facts?
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> what's Paxton's game here? He’s running for the U.S. Senate [1] and pandering to idiots. [1] https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5575242-rove-cautions-republicans-paxton-cornyn/ https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5575242-rove-cautions-...
- b00ty4breakfast 1y agopolitics slowly eating it's own ass for the past 40+ years; it's about politicking rather than governing.
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- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> politics slowly eating it's own ass for the past 40+ years; it's about politicking rather than governing I'm honestly not even sure he is running for Senate. He might just be going turbo MAGA in hopes that Trump tries to buy him out of dropping out with an administration appointment, the way they did with Adams in NYC [1] (until he bombed out in the polls). The Republican party has developed a perverse incentive structure where running in the primary as an unelectable nutjob in order to get bribed to drop out is a precedented strategy [2]. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/nyregion/eric-adams-saudi-arabia-ambassador.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/nyregion/eric-adams-saudi... [2] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/arizona-gop-boss-quits-after-leaked-tape-shows-him-floating-a-job-for-kari-lake-to-skip-senate-race https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/arizona-gop-boss-quits...
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- ajross 1y agoCan someone explain the angle here? I mean, I get why personally RFK Jr. might have opinions about stuff. I can imagine him putting his finger on the scale here or there. But why all the attention? It's... tylenol. Why is POTUS and Texas AG and whatnot getting up on a stage in front of the media and going to war against an extremely boring OTC medication that no one has every cared about. There are no conspiracy votes to get here. RFK made it all up. Is this a corruption thing? Are they shaking down the manufacturer? Is it being blown up for speculative reasons? I note that Johnson & Johnson spun it off just two years ago. Is there a plan behind this? Seriously, what's actually going on? This smells like some kind of weird conspiracy but I can't see anything but irrationality.
- hypeatei 1y ago> Can someone explain the angle here? RFK (or maybe Trump) gave themselves an arbitrary deadline of September this year to "find the cause of autism" which obviously meant they had to find a scapegoat. Some speculate that they went after Kenvue/J&J because they weren't kowtowing hard enough to the administration and there was junk science around Tylenol/Autism links which made it an easy target.
- zdragnar 1y agoRFK didn't make it all up. J&J execs have been concerned about a possible link for years, based on leaked memos: https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/us-news/bombshell-memo-claims-johnson-amp-johnson-admitted-to-tylenol-autism-link-years-ago/3991363/ https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/us-news/bombshel... The link isn't solid, so there's not exactly much of a case, and probably better to take it for high fever than taking nothing at all... we think. The big deal is that it's yet another case of government and big corporations hiding evidence that things aren't what they want us to think they are. RFK's big deal is simple: 1- autism diagnosis rates have skyrocketed 2- food today isn't what it used to be, what with all the dyes and not-food things put into food 3- daily diet advice is wildly inconsistent and based on old data 4- things which we've been taking for granted, like "tylenol is perfectly safe" or "the covid vaccine is perfectly safe" when neither are strictly true causes people to have LESS trust in the government, not more. Rather than treating everyone like idiots, give them information to make informed choices. There'll still be idiots either way, but better (in his mind) to let the rest make up their own minds on what they put into their bodies
- jrochkind1 1y agoHuh, I keep waiting for the makers of Tylenol to sue someone for defamation.
- zdragnar 1y agoTheir own execs showed concern over the connection years ago, according to leaked memos (to the DCNF, for whatever that's worth): https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/us-news/bombshell-memo-claims-johnson-amp-johnson-admitted-to-tylenol-autism-link-years-ago/3991363/ https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/us-news/bombshel... They're unlikely to win any defamation lawsuits given how unsettled the actual research is.
- legitster 1y agoExpressing concern about their product and an interest in investigating the safety is not the smoking gun people claim it is. Obviously people at the company are going to be aware of the studies and have to respond to them internally. That's literally their job.
- zdragnar 1y agoIt looks and smells like the big tobacco coverup, which I suspect it isn't. Even so, we'll know more if the Texas lawsuit gets to discovery and more than what was allegedly leaked is revealed.
- legitster 1y agoJohnson & Johnson has literally collaborated with the FDA in the past to put disclosures of risks during pregnancy on hundreds of their products. Many of which are more profitable than Tylenol. This is substantively different than the "tobacco coverup" in a magnitude of ways - but we're talking about an alleged coverup for something that the company doesn't have a history of covering up, for a tiny segment of their customers. Regardless of the actual risk of Tylenol, Occam's Razor should not lead us to assume a coordinated coverup.
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- rekabis 1y agoAnd so the madness spreads…
- ProllyInfamous 1y agoI have conflicting thoughts on this, as a former Texas medical school drop-out that participates on this website because it's_comfy.gif: 1) Ken Paxton is a powerful idiot/golum. Throw rocks, carefully. 2) Acetaminophen is waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy overtaken/prescribed 3) Acetaminophen should not be added to most opiod preparations (e.g. common hydroxies of 5mg/325mg oxy/acetaminophen) [it quickly fucks up the liver at high/constant dosage] 4) Reverting to purer opiod pills would reduce the imports/effects/DEATHS related to fentanyl-laced streets drugs (whether the users are actively or deceptively seeking fent directly), it kills when mistaken/miss-taken. 5) Can we please just replace all of Texas' higher political representation... maybe do a "national reset" of political powerhouses by imposing term/age limits upon house reps at state/national levels, as well as similar to how Texas does SCOTex with mandatory retirement at 75 years old. There should certainly NOT be leaders that are 80+ years old! Retire, already; you earnt it, remember (can you remember?)..! 6) [trigger warning: trauma] I would recon things like GM (and other early childhood trauma) are more determinant in eventual autism claims, which would support its much higher prevalence among US boys/men. 7) In general acetaminophen-based products are overprescribed. I'm not sure if this was a rumor, but back two decades when I attended my first (and only) year of medical school: we were taught that acetaminophen was only put into opiod preparations to deter addicts (which was laughable, even then, since half the class had some sort of chemical addiction — we knew it well would not deter).
- tsoukase 1y agoI know by saying the following I am burning my chance to visit my cousins in the US, but are these people stupid or comedians?
- berbec 1y ago> are these people stupid or comedians? Polititions, so correct on both counts!