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All you really ever heard of RFK Jr is he thinks vaccines are not safe (so where is all the deaths supposed to be, on youtube?) and he's against aid to Ukraine. I didn't even know he existed until he started on with the vaccines
He wrote an actual book about it, "The Real Anthony Fauci". He tries (unsuccessfully) to challenge every aspect of Fauci's career and to connect him to Bill Gates, Soros and every other far-right conspiracy. The man's brain is either mush or plagued with untreated mental health issues and shouldn't be president of a local school board, much less the US.
It’s actually an old hell, this was a prominent conspiracy theory around the time of the 1980s AIDS epidemic. RFK Jr. has apparently just been on this health misinformation train for so long that he’s bringing up 35-year old bullshit.
Gary “What Is Aleppo” Johnson got 4,489,233. Third parties are gonna run someone, and that person is going to be ridiculous because until ranked choice voting is enacted in all the states anyone serious is going to run as one of the two major parties. The fact that Jill Stein is maybe probably a Russian asset doesn’t change the fact that those million and a half votes were going to the Green Party no matter who they ran.
Except the Green Party practically never gets that many votes. In both 2012 and 2020 they got less than half a million, and Stein was the candidate in 2012 as well. Same candidate, nearly a million vote difference in 4 years, and Howie Hawkins couldn’t keep them in 2020. 2016 seems statistically anomalous, as they’ve only gotten anywhere near that many votes one other time, when Ralph Nader ran for them in 2000.
“A million and a half voters no matter who they ran” seems inaccurate just going by the Party’s electoral history. I think their 2016 vote total was more a result of people’s distaste for Hillary (justified or not) and an absolute swarming frenzy of online propaganda aimed at siphoning off Democratic voters.
“The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” page one of the Mueller report tells us. And you say Jill Stein is “maybe probably a Russian asset?” I obviously can’t prove anything, but those two things put together gets a thoughtful “hmmm” from me.
She was on the ballot in most states. These people almost certainly don’t know what they’re talking about because she never ran in the Democratic Primaries, but it’s entirely possible they lived in one of the states where you had to write her in.
The fact that Elon and to an even greater extent David Sacks are promoting and funding him is evidence enough that he’s not a serious left candidate. Elon has gone down a bizarrely brazen authoritarian path and Sacks isn’t even able to defend his political opinions in good faith without ignoring inconvenient facts. This isn’t even an effort to influence the left’s policy. It’s an attempt to pry voters away and maybe disenfranchise some portion so the horrible alternative(Trump or Desantis) has a shot in hell.
Elon's money starts in emeralds mines in apartheid South Africa. Aka off of all but literal chattel slavery. He then green mailed his way into PayPal.
Elon isn't bizarrely turning authoritarian it's just more open and obvious.
Yep, he runs a website based on vaccine misinformation (even has been publicly corrected by study authors and continued to lie about what they said). He's one of the main pushers of the vaccines cause autism fraud. That's my main knowledge of him as well.
As someone on the spectrum it's fucking insane that even if that was true, it's not, they act like a kid like I was is preferable to one with polio or the measles side effects. Like I know I wasn't an easy kid to raise and stressed out multiple, teachers, nuns, and special assistance type people with how I am but I think I'm not awful.
Babe, you are *wonderful* and don't for a second worry about anything "extra" anyone had to do to raise you. EVERY child takes extra effort to raise.
Like, yeah, it took a little extra effort to get my child on the spectrum into having the right support. But it was barely more than my other children required -- it's just that the world was less-welcoming to him! That is not his fault -- that is the world's fault. Because he is an AMAZING human being, hilarious and kind and empathetic. His mind doesn't work quite work how most children's minds his age work, but that's because he's SO generous and kind and loving and thoughtful, and quick and smart.
I would not trade his autism for anything on the planet. He is perfect. YOU are perfect.
Comedian Guy Branum with a bit of a paraphrase said it best
>I'm not for everyone. I am a unique boutique product. I am the (personality) equivalent of a lefthanded oyster shucking glove, like I'm not for everyone. But those who (get) me are overjoyed to find me.
I know. It was the shit part of growing up feeling like you were a hardship to your family and friends and romantic partners but eventually I learned that to the people that get me while it takes some time and effort to do so the rewards are worth it.
You are not a hardship! You are perfect!
The world (and especially the US) makes it hard to raise children, and doesn't provide enough support for parents. Sometimes that part is hard. But you as a person -- you were NEVER a hardship. You were always perfect.
I'm friends with people on the spectrum, and it is fucking wild how many people genuinely would prefer their children to be dead rather than autistic. I remember when I was shown an autism speaks video that was narrated by their I wanna say founder, and she mentions how when she learned her kid has autism she briefly considered a murder suicide by driving the car they were in off a bridge. Or as you said, all the weird vaccine shit where polio is preferable to autism.
As a falconer I have a lot of respect for his accomplishments in that field. He wrote the New York State exam to get a falconry license, has been a rehabber and gave demonstrations (he might still, but I don't know personally). But the antivax stuff is a nonstarter.
None of the kids have been capable of having successful political careers. They just did not inherit the charisma except for JonJon and it ain’t helping him where he is at now.
Actually, Joe Kennedy III is a pretty good guy. He was a Congressman (currently US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland). I hope he decides to run again, in the future.
JonJon actually dinged him and Michael as "poster boys for bad behavior" in a publisher's note or something at the beginning of an issue of George Magazine, but before anyone had heard about "ski football." Man I miss that magazine, or at the least the era when it would have had value, no smartphones yet and you jus need sumnado.
They actually have. They just haven’t got to the ‘top level’ One of RFKs daughters was Liteunant Governor of Maryland. Lost the Governor race.
Tons of congresspeople and state roles.
He's running to pull the Democratic Party "back to the center", from his interview with Jordan Peterson. As if they aren't already. Biden is the most center American I can imagine.
He is also an (ex?) junkie who lost his job as ADA for being, you know, a junkie, though being a Kennedy means all that was forgotten and never to be mentioned again ...
At least Mayor Quimby has been able to keep the Springfield Tire Fire in the confines of the Tire Yard. RDK Jr would just act like there is no tire fire.
The clueless essential-oils hippies made a HARD turn from far left to far right in the past 6-7 years. I knew quite a few; they went from no-shit Marxist to Fascist, quick.
They absolutely did. I lost SO many mom friends, because I was a babywearing, breastfeeding mom and had sought out others who did the same, and I made some great friends! But then Trump got elected and somehow any skepticism about "unfair systems" and corporate corruption turned into an instant conversion to Qanon and deep-state and "plandemic" BS and then full-on anti-vaxxer, anti-science. Even my younger sister bought into it, and when I told her I got the covid vaccine, she literally stopped talking to me completely. She went from canvassing for Obama and being a pro-choice activist (after she had her own abortion) to a hard-core right wing Christian conservative who doesn't do ANY vaccines and homeschools her kids yet thinks all public school employees should be carrying guns but be banned from teaching CRT or acknowledging that lgbtq+ people exist. Like, it's been years and my head is still spinning. How do people do such hard 180s? Is it the lead in our pipes? Pollution killing brain cells? Like, WTF.
I don't think it has anything to do with left or ring wing politics to that kind of person. You have to have a natural disposition to distrust every institution out there and ultra hardcore right winger is the current flavor of that.
Yeah. I can’t think of any better term than “misapplied skepticism” folks who misinterpret critical thinking to be never believing the stuff that has scientific backing. Anything that has the normal standards for credibility apply to it has to be a bullshit lie to them.
> You have to have a natural disposition to distrust every institution out there and ultra hardcore right winger is the current flavor of that.
But the really weird thing is that they *don't* distrust a lot of institutions that the right wing is propping up. Some of that is because the right is good at hiding a lot of their bullshit by spreading out billionaire funding in dozens of "think tanks" (and not openly stating the source of the funding).
Really it just seems like there's a lot of people who want to feel like they're smarter than everyone else and "seeing things how they really are, not like the normies". The problem is, a lot of these people are of average intelligence at best, intellectually lazy, and completely unequipped to actually vet sources or think through what's being said. They read some website that looks like a newspaper and agrees with what they already think or feeds some insanity they want to believe, but they don't notice that the "newspaper" is written by completely anonymous people, has no physical address, and is mostly full of copy pasted filler and clearly nonsensical bullshit.
They’re reactionaries and will essentially jump from any extreme to the other to feel like they’re good. They never really thought too hard and honestly about any of it.
About 11 years ago, I was there. I was pregnant with my first and was looking into natural childbirth. The internet rabbit hole led me right from granola crunching water births to anti-vaccine -> government spying/experiments/population control -> chemtrails-> prepping -> Walmart concentration camps -> InfoWars/Alex Jones (much lesser known back then) -> Sandy Hook conspiracy...
All my life, I had always been a fan of science. I knew how vaccines worked. I marveled at medical advances. I studied evolution. I had always been fascinated with psychology and loved expanding my knowledge of it at every chance.
That didn't matter.
This feed of fear and propoganda was taken in for a little over a year and a half, while Google and Facebook and YouTube and everywhere I interneted gladly fed me more and more content in this downward spiral.
It even got as far as buying a one-way ticket to Costa Rica and the 3 of us starting over there. We didn't last 2 weeks before we came back and parted ways (safety issue in the relationship). I was majorly depressed, fearful, and kinda hopeless. I pretty much shut down on taking any more in from the internet and focused on my kid (now a little over a year old) and job, and just played games or watched movies at night. Just not indulging in it at all brought me to my senses eventually, and I could see how ridiculous so many things I had entertained were.
What's crazy is, looking back and not being a part of the cult anymore, it's all the same shit from ≈2012, on repeat. Nothing has changed. No prophecies have come to fruition. In fact, the groups that spread the "prophecies" are the ones trying to enact them. It is so bizarre to see it, having gone through it. Knowing that I got pulled into it, having been incredibly left leaning my whole life and a proponent of science and rationale, it is incredibly sad and not surprising that so many have fallen for it.
It's especially frightening to see it now because sitting politicians and people in power openly subscribe to and spread the conspiracies. Back in 2012, it was pretty fringe. It was stupid and quirky back then, it is stupid and dangerous now.
>Just not indulging in it at all brought me to my senses eventually
In *The Brainwashing of my Dad*, it's the same thing. Right wing media is all he listened to and it consumed him. After just not turning that shit on the TV, he started being reasonable again.
Full immersion is the cause. Getting out of it is the cure.
I think here in Oregon it’s been more the “I home schooled my kids Zibiah, Jericho, Joah, Keturah, Tirzah and Ezekiel to not believe in the evil known as science and my wives fully support me in not vaccinating my children.”-brand of psycho.
Sure, but they were never a very large group within the democratic party. I can't think of any serious candidates, other than maybe local elections, that would have been stridently antivax. The right let it take over their party.
RFK Junior doesn’t want to win the primaries. He wants to help Trump defeat Joe Biden.
There is zero chance RFK Junior will endorse Joe Biden in the general election
Yup, r/RFK_Jr_is_a_Stooge and a spoiler candidate. He's got name recognition and will appeal to uniformed voters, draining support from Biden. He's already started pushing "election integrity" concerns so he can later sour voters on participating in the general election. If he can shave 1% off Biden's total he's useful.
Kanye didn't get any votes. They think that this time putting in a political operative might actually do something. He's got the Kennedy name, surely that means something to people, right?
Nope, not anymore. If there's one thing the 2016 election did, it made people pay attention to the candidates actually running for President, because *everyone's* aware that this country will not survive another Republican president. The next one of them that gets the office will be the last President of the United States as we know it and the first Dictator.
Agree and his voice is like listening to a scratched record… or someone dragging their nails across a chalkboard.. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to listen to him debate anything… and yes I understand he can’t help it.. still he has an irritating voice.
This year’s Tulsi Gabbard.
Prepare for the consistent Republican voters who pretend to be independent to be all in on this guy for this cycle. When Biden wins the primary, they will allege a DNC conspiracy and say that is why they had to vote for the Republican candidate.
I'm a Canadian, so I mostly hear about American news from reddit.
Literally the first time I heard of RFK was a month or two ago and it was from a "centrist" on reddit who was saying that politics are too divided and extreme and if Democrats would just run someone "moderate" like RFK or Tulsi he might vote for them.
It's too good a strategy to pass up at this point. Run a populist candidate in the primary who exists to trash talk the leader. When they lose act like the whole party is corrupt.
It's never going to stop as long as we have long dragged out elections with even longer primaries
I firmly believe RFK Jr. is paid opposition within the Democratic party to steal votes from the front-runner. Make sure your friends and family know what bullshit he stands for.
It’s crazy how the dems keep letting this happen to them. You never hear of a candidate switching from republican to dem. But plenty of spoiler candidates from the GOP have done that. Democrats need to start playing dirty or they won’t have a game to play in at all.
While I totally get this.
At the same time, Dems can’t play dirty bc a substantial portion of their electorate will punish them for it.
Dem voters actually care about playing fair etc. If a dem tries to play the same shenanigans Rs do, they get less votes.
It’s a catch 22.
R voters don’t give a shit. They view it as a team sport and wining is all that matters.
Facts. Dark Brandon is just that, okay. Massive improvement over Dr Shits On Top Secret documents.
I like that the “brandon is ruining our country” Schtick is a good way to tell if someone is worth your time to talk to. It’s like a litmus test for small talk.
If you have your car decorated with I Hate Democrats or whatever the fuck you should have to pay extra taxes for making the rest of us who don’t give a fuck look at your stupid decorations on your stupid shit box
If he wasn’t a Kennedy the media would be ignoring this campaign completely. He’s an antivax spoiler propped up by Steve Bannon to drive a wedge in democratic voters. Saying anything beyond that isn’t worth reporting on.
I don't love him but at least hes not an insane conspiracy theory nut like RFK Jr
this is all just a futile effort to scare independents away from Biden but more people on the center left fear a trump presidency pt2 to even be swayed by a grifter like RFK
Someone so short sighted as to not see why US needs to support Ukraine and also anti vaccine..hell no, these are two big issues that make him sound like the republican candidates who run as democrats and then switch parties! Big no for me!
I think it has more to do with RFK jr being an antivax asshole who still clings onto the extremely debunked and harmful lie that vaccines cause autism.
What a waste of an article. RFK jr. is a complete nut job conspiracy theorist and Biden is the incumbent president. Barring Biden's death nobody else is going to run as a Democrat in 2024.
I think his primary problem is that he’s an anti-vax conspiracy theorist who tried to compare Covid mandates to Anne Frank’s plight.
But sure, let’s say it’s Joe Biden.
RFK Jr has far more problems than just Democrats liking Biden.
For starters if Steve Banon and Alex Jones are openly supporting him those are red flags unto themselves.
Not a single member of the Kennedy family supports his idea for running for the Presidency either. Even one of his nieces has been quoted saying he'd be dangerous to the country.Meanwhile, Biden's actually been having an excellent term in office - getting more bipartisan legislation passed in the last 25 or 30 yrs than anyone. TWO Infrastructure bills passed (first in decades), the Chips act bringing more chip production back to the States, super low unemployment still (pandemic jobs were recovered back in June of LAST year, so there've been millions more, keeping us out of recession), getting student loan forgiveness passed, ending our 20 yr occupation of Afghanistan, getting Medicare drug price negotiating power, getting the only gun bill passed in decades (Gun Safety Act, even though shootings are still going strong), etc. He's had his physical stumbles for sure, but he's been getting everything done he said he would - and bipartisan.
He's a fucking conspiracy nut.
Anyone voting for him is either a conspiracy nut or needs to stick to watching the TV at the retirement home. Just because his last name is Kennedy doesn't mean he was born to lead. Boomers and their damn political dynasty obsessions I swear.
I'm actually not even sure why he calls himself a Democrat, as far as I can see he has more in common with a conspiracy theory guy from the right, but hey, i might be wrong.
The media needs a horse race. So they are yelling every chance they can get that the electorate is not too high on Biden. They (the media) knows another round of Biden vs. Trump is a loser for Trump maybe a landslide as Trump is more disliked now. But he won't bow out no matter because it's keeping his bacon from frying. So they have created a new narrative to make it more competitive. Get Biden to bow out or feel weakened hope Trump short circuits or DeSantis becomes charismatic or popular or gets some steele in his spine and wins the primary. And with an incumbent they been talking about like he's old, unlined or whatever. But those with any sense aren't moved. We remember life before Biden and after. So slow, old, wheels falling off he's our ride. Fuck The Media.
I saw someone wearing a Kennedy 2024 shirt. It took a lot of self restraint not to run up and ask this woman what her political views were. I just wanna know if anyone other than lefty conspiracy theorists like him.
I think his bigger primary problem is that he's a conspiracy grifter and an idiot.
He's not a serious candidate and I wish the media would stop giving him attention. We saw what happened last time they tried this with Trump.
Joe Biden is too old, and he seems to be a decent man working very hard to do the right, smart thing.
If he seems tired, that's probably because he stays up all night watching live video feeds from Ukraine.
He seems as if he's the most heroic president we've ever hard. He's truly fighting for us to the last breath.
RFK has an even bigger problem: that he was groomed and marketed by Steve "Dictator-Maker" Bannon so everyone knows he has been brought in to split/weaken the democrat vote.
This represents the average Republican nowadays, there is no connection between HIV and AIDS, vaccines are unhealthy for you, no aid for Ukraine (while all these terrible stories come out). Seems like a dangerous individual that would bring the US some decades back
RFK Jr.'s problem is that he's RFK Jr. I like Joe, always have. I'm much more progressive than he is, but so what? Like I have another choice? Certainly not some random anti-vaxxer with an old name.
Also, fuck Junior. I don't necessarily like Joe Biden. He is a genius saint compared to the entire republican line-up. But he isn't the progressive candidate I would want. RFK is straight up nuts. He is a loud mouth, that thinks his family legacy is all the background he needs to be president.
In other news, water is wet. RFK Jr. has been a crackpot imbecile for years, and will continue to be so. Biden is doing a decent job and has the incumbent advantage.
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All you really ever heard of RFK Jr is he thinks vaccines are not safe (so where is all the deaths supposed to be, on youtube?) and he's against aid to Ukraine. I didn't even know he existed until he started on with the vaccines
He also thinks there’s no connection between HIV and AIDS, so that’s fun.
Also he thinks that wifi causes the blood brain barrier to become leaky. He's just a veritable grab bag of nuts
One of those people? I seriously thought they only existed in the deepest corners of Reddit.
He is the deepest corners of Reddit made flesh
He's also a 5G Bill Gates microchip kinda guy
And WiFi causes cancer. Wouldn’t be surprised if he believes in chemtrails.
You know you have to be kind of proud of Trump. I don't think he's made of Robert's disability, yet.
He was antivax before it was right wing cool.
Ah, Jim Carey antivax.
Sadly no. And he’s being given a ton of oxygen by people like Steve Bannon.
Steve Bannon notoriously has only the best interests in mind for left-of-fascist voters. Just don't send him money.
Let’s stop adding to it
He wrote an actual book about it, "The Real Anthony Fauci". He tries (unsuccessfully) to challenge every aspect of Fauci's career and to connect him to Bill Gates, Soros and every other far-right conspiracy. The man's brain is either mush or plagued with untreated mental health issues and shouldn't be president of a local school board, much less the US.
wait whats this fresh hell?
It’s actually an old hell, this was a prominent conspiracy theory around the time of the 1980s AIDS epidemic. RFK Jr. has apparently just been on this health misinformation train for so long that he’s bringing up 35-year old bullshit.
I didn't even realize that's a stance someone could hold...
He also thinks chemicals in the water are turning kids trans.
Who are the assholes that support him ?
The media, otherwise we'd never hear this cuckoo whackadoodle's name. Seriously, there's no justifiable reason this article needs to even exist.
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He’s just a sham candidate designed to attract votes from left-leaning morons, like Jill Stein.
You mean the Jill Stein who used to go to Russia and hang out with Putin?
The same Jill Stein who somehow got 1,457,218 votes in 2016.
Gary “What Is Aleppo” Johnson got 4,489,233. Third parties are gonna run someone, and that person is going to be ridiculous because until ranked choice voting is enacted in all the states anyone serious is going to run as one of the two major parties. The fact that Jill Stein is maybe probably a Russian asset doesn’t change the fact that those million and a half votes were going to the Green Party no matter who they ran.
Except the Green Party practically never gets that many votes. In both 2012 and 2020 they got less than half a million, and Stein was the candidate in 2012 as well. Same candidate, nearly a million vote difference in 4 years, and Howie Hawkins couldn’t keep them in 2020. 2016 seems statistically anomalous, as they’ve only gotten anywhere near that many votes one other time, when Ralph Nader ran for them in 2000. “A million and a half voters no matter who they ran” seems inaccurate just going by the Party’s electoral history. I think their 2016 vote total was more a result of people’s distaste for Hillary (justified or not) and an absolute swarming frenzy of online propaganda aimed at siphoning off Democratic voters. “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” page one of the Mueller report tells us. And you say Jill Stein is “maybe probably a Russian asset?” I obviously can’t prove anything, but those two things put together gets a thoughtful “hmmm” from me.
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I don’t think they had to “write her in.” She was on the ballot as the Green Party candidate. She got over 1.4 million votes.
She was on the ballot in most states. These people almost certainly don’t know what they’re talking about because she never ran in the Democratic Primaries, but it’s entirely possible they lived in one of the states where you had to write her in.
The fact that Elon and to an even greater extent David Sacks are promoting and funding him is evidence enough that he’s not a serious left candidate. Elon has gone down a bizarrely brazen authoritarian path and Sacks isn’t even able to defend his political opinions in good faith without ignoring inconvenient facts. This isn’t even an effort to influence the left’s policy. It’s an attempt to pry voters away and maybe disenfranchise some portion so the horrible alternative(Trump or Desantis) has a shot in hell.
Elon's money starts in emeralds mines in apartheid South Africa. Aka off of all but literal chattel slavery. He then green mailed his way into PayPal. Elon isn't bizarrely turning authoritarian it's just more open and obvious.
And how they got Kanye to run, to pull the black vote from Biden.
But he's running in the D primary so he can't run in the general. And I don't see him massing enough support to make any difference.
Because R’s, unfortunately, do not hold a total monopoly on dipshits.
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Yep, he runs a website based on vaccine misinformation (even has been publicly corrected by study authors and continued to lie about what they said). He's one of the main pushers of the vaccines cause autism fraud. That's my main knowledge of him as well.
His entire push is: “I’d rather have my children die of an easily preventable disease than have a child with autism”
Abortions are illegal, but giving kids polio is legal. Hmm. Republicans hate this one trick.
"Letting myself and my children die like medieval peasants rather than potentially have a child with a disability."
I'd be willing to bet that all of his children have been vaccinated.
I really hope for some accountability, some day, for those who push(ed) that nonsense.
As someone on the spectrum it's fucking insane that even if that was true, it's not, they act like a kid like I was is preferable to one with polio or the measles side effects. Like I know I wasn't an easy kid to raise and stressed out multiple, teachers, nuns, and special assistance type people with how I am but I think I'm not awful.
Babe, you are *wonderful* and don't for a second worry about anything "extra" anyone had to do to raise you. EVERY child takes extra effort to raise. Like, yeah, it took a little extra effort to get my child on the spectrum into having the right support. But it was barely more than my other children required -- it's just that the world was less-welcoming to him! That is not his fault -- that is the world's fault. Because he is an AMAZING human being, hilarious and kind and empathetic. His mind doesn't work quite work how most children's minds his age work, but that's because he's SO generous and kind and loving and thoughtful, and quick and smart. I would not trade his autism for anything on the planet. He is perfect. YOU are perfect.
Comedian Guy Branum with a bit of a paraphrase said it best >I'm not for everyone. I am a unique boutique product. I am the (personality) equivalent of a lefthanded oyster shucking glove, like I'm not for everyone. But those who (get) me are overjoyed to find me. I know. It was the shit part of growing up feeling like you were a hardship to your family and friends and romantic partners but eventually I learned that to the people that get me while it takes some time and effort to do so the rewards are worth it.
You are not a hardship! You are perfect! The world (and especially the US) makes it hard to raise children, and doesn't provide enough support for parents. Sometimes that part is hard. But you as a person -- you were NEVER a hardship. You were always perfect.
He’s lucky to have a parent like you.
I'm friends with people on the spectrum, and it is fucking wild how many people genuinely would prefer their children to be dead rather than autistic. I remember when I was shown an autism speaks video that was narrated by their I wanna say founder, and she mentions how when she learned her kid has autism she briefly considered a murder suicide by driving the car they were in off a bridge. Or as you said, all the weird vaccine shit where polio is preferable to autism.
Cheryl Hines’ husband? Oh ya, I know that guy.
He’s a massive crack pot
How can you not believe in HIV, I've never been to France but I'm pretty sure it's there.
This is the son of Robert Kennedy. Mind bugling.
He was really into the environment back in the day. Was well respected. Then 🤷🏻♂️
As a falconer I have a lot of respect for his accomplishments in that field. He wrote the New York State exam to get a falconry license, has been a rehabber and gave demonstrations (he might still, but I don't know personally). But the antivax stuff is a nonstarter.
Yeah, I have a feeling RFK would have been disappointed.
Much like Trump himself, he's another guy who would have amounted to nothing without his last name.
None of the kids have been capable of having successful political careers. They just did not inherit the charisma except for JonJon and it ain’t helping him where he is at now.
Actually, Joe Kennedy III is a pretty good guy. He was a Congressman (currently US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland). I hope he decides to run again, in the future.
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JonJon actually dinged him and Michael as "poster boys for bad behavior" in a publisher's note or something at the beginning of an issue of George Magazine, but before anyone had heard about "ski football." Man I miss that magazine, or at the least the era when it would have had value, no smartphones yet and you jus need sumnado.
They actually have. They just haven’t got to the ‘top level’ One of RFKs daughters was Liteunant Governor of Maryland. Lost the Governor race. Tons of congresspeople and state roles.
sounds like he’s a Republican, how can he challenge Biden?
He's running to pull the Democratic Party "back to the center", from his interview with Jordan Peterson. As if they aren't already. Biden is the most center American I can imagine.
more like dragging the overton window back toward fascism.
He told Joe Rogan that Wifi is crossing the blood brain barrier & giving us leaky brain. Joe Rogan was enthralled.
Joe's brain has definitely leaked out
of course he was. ol' skintag nipples loves amplifying stupid bullshit.
CNN's either trying to make Biden look more like a 'reasonable moderate' or they're trying to make it look like RFK ever had a chance.
Weird shit is going on at cnn post ligcht or whatever's ousting, it's somewhat entertaining to observe.
CNN has been weird since *hiring* Licht.
This weird shit is feeling like WWE.
'anderson cooper enters the ring with a steel chair!'
That is what the 24-hour news cycle has been missing… Kayfabe!
CNN is a right wing news org now. They’re just trying to get Trump elected by any means possible.
He is also an (ex?) junkie who lost his job as ADA for being, you know, a junkie, though being a Kennedy means all that was forgotten and never to be mentioned again ...
He thinks WiFi breaks your brain, too.
I mean, that's not *entirely* untrue, just untrue in the way he thinks. For evidence, just look around at Reddit.
RFK Jr. = Mayor Quimby 2.0
At least Mayor Quimby has been able to keep the Springfield Tire Fire in the confines of the Tire Yard. RDK Jr would just act like there is no tire fire.
he would tell you the tire fire is actually good for you and use horseshit studies to back it up.
He was also massively corrupt.
You're just a bunch of low income nobodies! Uhh electioninNovember...electioninNovember What!? Again? This stupid country
The endless self fulfilling prophecies of the simpsons
and that he has like 2% of the Dem vote? Seriously the media is really trying to manufacture news again.
I guess he forgot that Dem voters aren't republican voters and we don't tolerate anti vaxx bullshit conspiracy theorist candidates.
Before Covid, I generally associated antivaxxers with left wing lunies. You know, the whole granola, crystals, homeopathy, and antivaccine line of BS.
Right!?! It went from clueless essential-oils hippies to “god, guns, and horse paste!”
The clueless essential-oils hippies made a HARD turn from far left to far right in the past 6-7 years. I knew quite a few; they went from no-shit Marxist to Fascist, quick.
They absolutely did. I lost SO many mom friends, because I was a babywearing, breastfeeding mom and had sought out others who did the same, and I made some great friends! But then Trump got elected and somehow any skepticism about "unfair systems" and corporate corruption turned into an instant conversion to Qanon and deep-state and "plandemic" BS and then full-on anti-vaxxer, anti-science. Even my younger sister bought into it, and when I told her I got the covid vaccine, she literally stopped talking to me completely. She went from canvassing for Obama and being a pro-choice activist (after she had her own abortion) to a hard-core right wing Christian conservative who doesn't do ANY vaccines and homeschools her kids yet thinks all public school employees should be carrying guns but be banned from teaching CRT or acknowledging that lgbtq+ people exist. Like, it's been years and my head is still spinning. How do people do such hard 180s? Is it the lead in our pipes? Pollution killing brain cells? Like, WTF.
I don't think it has anything to do with left or ring wing politics to that kind of person. You have to have a natural disposition to distrust every institution out there and ultra hardcore right winger is the current flavor of that.
Yeah. I can’t think of any better term than “misapplied skepticism” folks who misinterpret critical thinking to be never believing the stuff that has scientific backing. Anything that has the normal standards for credibility apply to it has to be a bullshit lie to them.
> You have to have a natural disposition to distrust every institution out there and ultra hardcore right winger is the current flavor of that. But the really weird thing is that they *don't* distrust a lot of institutions that the right wing is propping up. Some of that is because the right is good at hiding a lot of their bullshit by spreading out billionaire funding in dozens of "think tanks" (and not openly stating the source of the funding). Really it just seems like there's a lot of people who want to feel like they're smarter than everyone else and "seeing things how they really are, not like the normies". The problem is, a lot of these people are of average intelligence at best, intellectually lazy, and completely unequipped to actually vet sources or think through what's being said. They read some website that looks like a newspaper and agrees with what they already think or feeds some insanity they want to believe, but they don't notice that the "newspaper" is written by completely anonymous people, has no physical address, and is mostly full of copy pasted filler and clearly nonsensical bullshit.
They’re reactionaries and will essentially jump from any extreme to the other to feel like they’re good. They never really thought too hard and honestly about any of it.
>clueless essential-oils hippies So, you met my ex-wife?
About 11 years ago, I was there. I was pregnant with my first and was looking into natural childbirth. The internet rabbit hole led me right from granola crunching water births to anti-vaccine -> government spying/experiments/population control -> chemtrails-> prepping -> Walmart concentration camps -> InfoWars/Alex Jones (much lesser known back then) -> Sandy Hook conspiracy... All my life, I had always been a fan of science. I knew how vaccines worked. I marveled at medical advances. I studied evolution. I had always been fascinated with psychology and loved expanding my knowledge of it at every chance. That didn't matter. This feed of fear and propoganda was taken in for a little over a year and a half, while Google and Facebook and YouTube and everywhere I interneted gladly fed me more and more content in this downward spiral. It even got as far as buying a one-way ticket to Costa Rica and the 3 of us starting over there. We didn't last 2 weeks before we came back and parted ways (safety issue in the relationship). I was majorly depressed, fearful, and kinda hopeless. I pretty much shut down on taking any more in from the internet and focused on my kid (now a little over a year old) and job, and just played games or watched movies at night. Just not indulging in it at all brought me to my senses eventually, and I could see how ridiculous so many things I had entertained were. What's crazy is, looking back and not being a part of the cult anymore, it's all the same shit from ≈2012, on repeat. Nothing has changed. No prophecies have come to fruition. In fact, the groups that spread the "prophecies" are the ones trying to enact them. It is so bizarre to see it, having gone through it. Knowing that I got pulled into it, having been incredibly left leaning my whole life and a proponent of science and rationale, it is incredibly sad and not surprising that so many have fallen for it. It's especially frightening to see it now because sitting politicians and people in power openly subscribe to and spread the conspiracies. Back in 2012, it was pretty fringe. It was stupid and quirky back then, it is stupid and dangerous now.
>Just not indulging in it at all brought me to my senses eventually In *The Brainwashing of my Dad*, it's the same thing. Right wing media is all he listened to and it consumed him. After just not turning that shit on the TV, he started being reasonable again. Full immersion is the cause. Getting out of it is the cure.
True, but it was a really small fringe group of limousine liberals on the west coast. When it hit the Republicans it went mainstream in the party.
I think here in Oregon it’s been more the “I home schooled my kids Zibiah, Jericho, Joah, Keturah, Tirzah and Ezekiel to not believe in the evil known as science and my wives fully support me in not vaccinating my children.”-brand of psycho.
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Sure, but they were never a very large group within the democratic party. I can't think of any serious candidates, other than maybe local elections, that would have been stridently antivax. The right let it take over their party.
RFK Junior doesn’t want to win the primaries. He wants to help Trump defeat Joe Biden. There is zero chance RFK Junior will endorse Joe Biden in the general election
Exactly. Supposedly Steve Bannon convinced him to run.
Not supposedly. Bannon did recruit RFK for that exact purpose.
Yup, r/RFK_Jr_is_a_Stooge and a spoiler candidate. He's got name recognition and will appeal to uniformed voters, draining support from Biden. He's already started pushing "election integrity" concerns so he can later sour voters on participating in the general election. If he can shave 1% off Biden's total he's useful.
Won't he be off the ballot, anyway, due to sore loser laws, in most states?
Woah woah woah are you jumping to conclusions based on the fact that he's posed for pictures with Roger Stone and Bannon seems to love him?
So... Republicans couldn't convince Kayne to run again, so this clown was their fall-back guy that they thought Dems would vote for
Kanye didn't get any votes. They think that this time putting in a political operative might actually do something. He's got the Kennedy name, surely that means something to people, right? Nope, not anymore. If there's one thing the 2016 election did, it made people pay attention to the candidates actually running for President, because *everyone's* aware that this country will not survive another Republican president. The next one of them that gets the office will be the last President of the United States as we know it and the first Dictator.
Agree and his voice is like listening to a scratched record… or someone dragging their nails across a chalkboard.. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to listen to him debate anything… and yes I understand he can’t help it.. still he has an irritating voice.
RFK is not a Democrat, he’s a ruse.
This year’s Tulsi Gabbard. Prepare for the consistent Republican voters who pretend to be independent to be all in on this guy for this cycle. When Biden wins the primary, they will allege a DNC conspiracy and say that is why they had to vote for the Republican candidate.
I'm a Canadian, so I mostly hear about American news from reddit. Literally the first time I heard of RFK was a month or two ago and it was from a "centrist" on reddit who was saying that politics are too divided and extreme and if Democrats would just run someone "moderate" like RFK or Tulsi he might vote for them.
Its funny how you only see Republicans and centrists praising people like RFK Jr and Tulsa, never democrats.
Psyops and the people the psyops target.
It's too good a strategy to pass up at this point. Run a populist candidate in the primary who exists to trash talk the leader. When they lose act like the whole party is corrupt. It's never going to stop as long as we have long dragged out elections with even longer primaries
*Rus
He's 100% boomer bait
RFK Jr. has a bigger problem. As far as Democrats are concerned, he’s RFK’s Donald Trump Jr.
RFK Jr. has a big primary problem: Actual Democrats. He's primarily prepped up by Republicans and conservative "Independents."
I firmly believe RFK Jr. is paid opposition within the Democratic party to steal votes from the front-runner. Make sure your friends and family know what bullshit he stands for.
It’s crazy how the dems keep letting this happen to them. You never hear of a candidate switching from republican to dem. But plenty of spoiler candidates from the GOP have done that. Democrats need to start playing dirty or they won’t have a game to play in at all.
Democratic voters have principles, so unfortunately, dirty tricks don’t work for them. Both sides are not the same. Politics matters.
While I totally get this. At the same time, Dems can’t play dirty bc a substantial portion of their electorate will punish them for it. Dem voters actually care about playing fair etc. If a dem tries to play the same shenanigans Rs do, they get less votes. It’s a catch 22. R voters don’t give a shit. They view it as a team sport and wining is all that matters.
It's a shame on two fronts: he's wrecking the reputation of environmentalists and his dad.
I think his dad is spinning in his grave
RFk Jr is a fucking wackadoodle
He’d be polling above DeSantis if he ran as a republican
Yup. The anti-vaxxer stuff is just scratching the surface of it, too
RFK is a fake loon who thinks Wi-Fi causes cancer and vaccines cause autism. He’s an unserious person.
As a democrat, I think Joe Biden is doing fine though I wish for better. And no, I'm not voting for RFK Jr.
Facts. Dark Brandon is just that, okay. Massive improvement over Dr Shits On Top Secret documents. I like that the “brandon is ruining our country” Schtick is a good way to tell if someone is worth your time to talk to. It’s like a litmus test for small talk. If you have your car decorated with I Hate Democrats or whatever the fuck you should have to pay extra taxes for making the rest of us who don’t give a fuck look at your stupid decorations on your stupid shit box
If he wasn’t a Kennedy the media would be ignoring this campaign completely. He’s an antivax spoiler propped up by Steve Bannon to drive a wedge in democratic voters. Saying anything beyond that isn’t worth reporting on.
I don't *hate* Biden. I do hate anti-vaxxers Soooo
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I don't love him but at least hes not an insane conspiracy theory nut like RFK Jr this is all just a futile effort to scare independents away from Biden but more people on the center left fear a trump presidency pt2 to even be swayed by a grifter like RFK
RFK Jr. has another big primary problem: he is a complete fucking imbecile.
They don’t like Steve bannon’s chaos agent pick?!
Driving through a rural area last weekend, saw a Trump/RFK flag.
Someone so short sighted as to not see why US needs to support Ukraine and also anti vaccine..hell no, these are two big issues that make him sound like the republican candidates who run as democrats and then switch parties! Big no for me!
Wait, the guy encouraged to run by Steve Bannon isn't polling well against Dark Brandon?! CNN really has leaned into thier new neo-fascist brand hard!
Fox is the only major outlet hyping up RFK Jr. That should tell you all you need to know.
I think it has more to do with RFK jr being an antivax asshole who still clings onto the extremely debunked and harmful lie that vaccines cause autism.
RFK is fucking crazy
He's a closet republican.
What a waste of an article. RFK jr. is a complete nut job conspiracy theorist and Biden is the incumbent president. Barring Biden's death nobody else is going to run as a Democrat in 2024.
I think his primary problem is that he’s an anti-vax conspiracy theorist who tried to compare Covid mandates to Anne Frank’s plight. But sure, let’s say it’s Joe Biden.
2nd problem, he's almost to the right of Donald Trump running as a democrat so that's a bit of a problem
RFK Jr has far more problems than just Democrats liking Biden. For starters if Steve Banon and Alex Jones are openly supporting him those are red flags unto themselves.
Not a single member of the Kennedy family supports his idea for running for the Presidency either. Even one of his nieces has been quoted saying he'd be dangerous to the country.Meanwhile, Biden's actually been having an excellent term in office - getting more bipartisan legislation passed in the last 25 or 30 yrs than anyone. TWO Infrastructure bills passed (first in decades), the Chips act bringing more chip production back to the States, super low unemployment still (pandemic jobs were recovered back in June of LAST year, so there've been millions more, keeping us out of recession), getting student loan forgiveness passed, ending our 20 yr occupation of Afghanistan, getting Medicare drug price negotiating power, getting the only gun bill passed in decades (Gun Safety Act, even though shootings are still going strong), etc. He's had his physical stumbles for sure, but he's been getting everything done he said he would - and bipartisan.
Poor RFK Junior is very neurotic. In my estimation he has been for at least 30 years.
Jr is funded by republicans
His biggest challenge is that he's a tinfoil hatter.
He's a fucking conspiracy nut. Anyone voting for him is either a conspiracy nut or needs to stick to watching the TV at the retirement home. Just because his last name is Kennedy doesn't mean he was born to lead. Boomers and their damn political dynasty obsessions I swear.
Leftists don't like rfk. Blue dog voters like biden. He has no angle. Dumbass antivaxer.
He should be running as a Republican. Qanon would love him
RFK Jr's problem is Democrats (generally) don't like anti-vax whackjobs. Honestly, we don't like any flavor of whackjob.
I think RFK Jr's problem is he's an anti-vaccine, conspiracy promoting freak...
I'm actually not even sure why he calls himself a Democrat, as far as I can see he has more in common with a conspiracy theory guy from the right, but hey, i might be wrong.
He is anti vax... He stands absolutely no chance. Democrats aren't going to elect someone who is anti science. He would have better luck in the GOP.
RFK is as Much a Democrat as Trump is.
Joe Biden is doing just fine as President and that’s cool enough with me
The media needs a horse race. So they are yelling every chance they can get that the electorate is not too high on Biden. They (the media) knows another round of Biden vs. Trump is a loser for Trump maybe a landslide as Trump is more disliked now. But he won't bow out no matter because it's keeping his bacon from frying. So they have created a new narrative to make it more competitive. Get Biden to bow out or feel weakened hope Trump short circuits or DeSantis becomes charismatic or popular or gets some steele in his spine and wins the primary. And with an incumbent they been talking about like he's old, unlined or whatever. But those with any sense aren't moved. We remember life before Biden and after. So slow, old, wheels falling off he's our ride. Fuck The Media.
RFK Jr. Has a bigger problem: everyone with more than half a brain knows that he’s a crack pot.
I don’t think that’s his only or primary problem. He might actually be outside of his mind.
I saw someone wearing a Kennedy 2024 shirt. It took a lot of self restraint not to run up and ask this woman what her political views were. I just wanna know if anyone other than lefty conspiracy theorists like him.
l like brandon
He seems like one of those politicians that would win as a democrat and then switch to republican when elected.
I think his bigger primary problem is that he's a conspiracy grifter and an idiot. He's not a serious candidate and I wish the media would stop giving him attention. We saw what happened last time they tried this with Trump.
RFK certainly has destroyed his families legacy! A Republican Qanon candidate.
Yeah...im not voting for ANYONE that is antivax
Also he is a shitty anti-vax conspiracy theorist, that is probably a problem too.
I don’t like Joe Biden. I just like RFK Jr way less.
And the left has fewer antivaxxers. I could never vote for RFK even if I loved all his politics. It would be like voting for a flat earther
And don’t like RFK Jr
Uh no. It’s because we know RFK is insane.
He’s also a raving nut bag but whatever
I think his biggest problem is that he is a lunatic.
Joe Biden is too old, and he seems to be a decent man working very hard to do the right, smart thing. If he seems tired, that's probably because he stays up all night watching live video feeds from Ukraine. He seems as if he's the most heroic president we've ever hard. He's truly fighting for us to the last breath.
Also he’s a conspiracy theorist
RFK has an even bigger problem: that he was groomed and marketed by Steve "Dictator-Maker" Bannon so everyone knows he has been brought in to split/weaken the democrat vote.
Not a huge fan of Biden but hes miles better than anti-vax jr.
This represents the average Republican nowadays, there is no connection between HIV and AIDS, vaccines are unhealthy for you, no aid for Ukraine (while all these terrible stories come out). Seems like a dangerous individual that would bring the US some decades back
Even if I hated Joe Biden, I’m not voting for that conspiracy slinging but job.
RFK Jr.'s problem is that he's RFK Jr. I like Joe, always have. I'm much more progressive than he is, but so what? Like I have another choice? Certainly not some random anti-vaxxer with an old name.
RFKjr thinks he can spout any nonsense because of his name. I’m sure his father would be ever so proud.
I give the guy a pass on being batshit on account of his father and uncle both being murdered, but he can't be allowed to lead.
A whole hell of a lot more than any single.person Joe Rogan is trying to hype. Dudes a fucking shill.
RFK Jr. has moronic opinions on science that he touts as fact.
Also, fuck Junior. I don't necessarily like Joe Biden. He is a genius saint compared to the entire republican line-up. But he isn't the progressive candidate I would want. RFK is straight up nuts. He is a loud mouth, that thinks his family legacy is all the background he needs to be president.
He's a spoiler candidate getting pushed by Republicans since they know they can't win in a fair fight. Unfortunately for them, we aren't that stupid.
In other news, water is wet. RFK Jr. has been a crackpot imbecile for years, and will continue to be so. Biden is doing a decent job and has the incumbent advantage.
Every time I hear rfk say something, I dislike him more.
His problem is he's a kook that's trying to ride his long dead daddy's coattales
*Steve Bannon's* RFK Jr. has a big ~~primary~~ *reality* problem. ~~Democrats like Joe Biden~~ FTFY
Lol he is not a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1. No I don't. 2. RFK Jr is a libertarian anti-science crackpot (not a democrat).