RFK Jr: We need to stop trusting the experts... Trusting the experts is not a feature of science or democracy

[Swede]

This batshit asshole should not be anywhere near the levers of power.

https://www.reddit.com/r/the_everything_bubble/comments/1n3zilf/rfk_jr_we_need_to_stop_trusting_the_experts/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[spanone]

1. Proof of his mental illness.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

52. Yeah .he is not right in the head

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. This idiot is a quack conspiracy asshole who does not believe in science or reality

[Hornedfrog2000]

32. Sure he does,

But he knows a lot of money is to be made pushing this shit.

[Lovie777]

3. Quack quack...................

[Maru Kitteh]

40. He's not even suitably qualified to be a quack!

Most quacks at least finish school SOMEWHERE before they start quacking.

[WVlaserguy]

4. WTF

What the hell is wrong with this clown? He’s going to destroy us

[edhopper]

5. The elimination of the expert class

who keep this nation running, is a key goal of the Trump Administration.

[lastlib]

6. So, Booby Jr., do we need to go back to putting leeches on people's asses to cure disease?

Because *experts* say that doesn't work---and we're not to trust them, right?

GAWD, how do these people get positions of authority??

[BonnieJW]

22. Actually

Leeches are still used in cases of hematoma

[Hornedfrog2000]

33. Used in amputations as well.

Helps create blood flow to freshly sewn on digits.

[johnnyfins]

7. And yet we are told to trust TSF who

Constantly states that he is an expert on every topic that he wades into.

[Blue Owl]

8. Go eat a plate of raw oysters, Bobby

[ShazzieB]

35. And wash it down with some raw milk!

[eShirl]

9. Roadkill Rob says what?

go back to your peat bog

[The Madcap]

10. Ok then. Let's do the following:

1. Get rid of architects and designers. Anyone can design and build a 40 story skyscraper.
2. No need for aircraft engineers and safety specialists. The mechanics can fix anything on their own.
3. No need for food regulators and scientists. We have pesticides and fertilizers for that.
4. Chemists can be fired. Mixing chemicals can be by trial and error...
5. Judges can vanish. We only need the law of T****.

There are many more examples that fail under his insane "logic." What an idiot...

[sinkingfeeling]

11. What the hell does he think science is? A fairy tale?

[MaineBlueBear]

12. It's one thing to spout lies and disinformation

And another entirely to believe it.

What an awful interviewer. But screw them both and anyone believing such nonsense.

[Wounded Bear]

13. 1984...

War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength

[allegorical oracle]

29. And the history you witnessed never happened.

[MadLinguist]

14. Could very easily be turned on him

RFK Jr, renown expert in debunking scientific theory. Ahh dude cannot be trusted, now can he?

[Seinan Sensei]

15. There is no one more skeptical or distrustful

than a vaccine scientist

[Marthe48]

16. Viewpoints

If you are a dishonest and a crook, surrounded by dishonesty and crookedness, you know that people can't trust you, and you can't trust them. Add entitled drug addiction and mental illness to the mix, and you have the maniacal rfk.

If you have a history of spousal and domestic abuse, you will transfer those behaviors to your public or professional life, using them as tools or weapons to intimidate co-workers, subordinates and rivals. Again, you have rfk, who fits right in with traitor felon rapist's gang of thugs.

Of course a person with this track record doesn't want people trusting experts for any reason. That kind of thinking would dim his self perception of his godhood.

[dalton99a]

17. So we need to trust this utterly ignorant, dangerously mentally ill, profoundly stupid, worthless waste of oxygen

[bmichaelh]

18. New Dark Ages

RFK Jr like his boss projects.

In the clip, RFK Jr is talking about religion and totalitarianism.

He is being authoritarian in making health decisions about Americans.
Anyone who wants a COVID vaccine, should have access to it.
He is limiting who can get COVID vaccines in the fall.
If you are not 65 or over, in some states, you may need to get a prescription from your doctor.
There are stories that he may try to outlaw COVID vaccines all together.

There are reports that in the past he has went to a parent in an airport and warned them of the dangers of vaccines.
Recently, RFK Jr was diagnosing children by looking at them in the airport.
He talked about "mitochondrial challenges".
He thinks he has a truth that only his MAHA movement has.

America, may enter a new dark ages with him at the head of healthcare.
If there is a new pandemic, or COVID surges again, he will attack scientific experts.
They will also try to keep any mortality rates down by controlling information.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-dark-ages/

[allegorical oracle]

30. All examples of how he has risen far above his level of competency.

[orangecrush]

19. For Gods sake

Get him out.

[Escape]

20. If it looks like eugenics..

and sounds like eugenics and smells like eugenics.....it's probably eugenics.

[ShazzieB]

39. I don't think he's a eugenicist.

He's just a whack job.

He thinks we can all be healthy just by eating "right" (according to his definition of "right" - which is unusual to say the least). He thinks vaccines l flouridated water are dangerous, while raw milk is perfectly safe and beef tallow is healthier than seed oils (good luck being vegetarian or vegan in RFK Jr's America) .

Not all of his ideas on food are terrible, but the overall picture is definitely not mainstream. Worse, he thinks vaccines would not be needed if everyone ate the winks we should.

[Solly Mack]

21. The man is high from smelling his own bullshit.

[MLWR]

23. For me, it's enough that I don't trust RFK Jr. with my health one tiny little bit.

[DFW]

24. He's right, you know

I heard that one expert in mental illness pronounced him completely sane.

So, like the man said, NEVER trust the experts........

[Norbert]

25. He must have it in for the members of the Kennedy Clan...

that made something of themselves.

Saying to not trust the experts is a signn of jealousy, at the very least.

[Diraven]

26. He "did his own research"

On crank anti-vax conspiracy websites to decide on new health policies, instead of listening to medically trained experts doing actual scientific research in his own agency. This guy is bonkers.

[Puppyjive]

27. Are we back to the witch doctor days?

Shall our neighbors perform open heart surgery? Can my husband pull my tooth? WTF?

[gulliver]

28. He has a point

He seems to be a complete idiot, but he has a point. Science isn't meant to be obedient to authority. It's bad when it does that. Especially when the authority is a mob of mediocrities (group thinkers).

So-called science has been causing a great deal of harm. We could use the capture of the medical and psychological guilds by big pharma and big insurance as a good example.

We realize that this is not really science causing all of this damage to humanity. It's a phenomenon that goes by the name of science and hurts its name.

[Klarkashton]

31. "do your own research"

JFC

[ReRe]

34. The lunatics are running the asylum.

[littlemissmartypants]

36. Fact: Substance Abuse will rot your brain.

[andym]

37. RFK JR is emblematic of MAGA: living in alternative reality with alternative facts

Many Republicans inhabit this world, and are true believers. Trump's campaign narratives referred to a dystopian America invaded by gangs of illegals wrecking havoc through serious crime waves are taken as literally true by many Americans as are the statements by anti-vaxxers that the COVID vaccine is worse than COVID. "1984" created by willing participants through channels of disinformation.

[mike_c]

38. that is a deeply disturbed person

[PurgedVoter]

41. Classic Con Artist Methodology

First show a reason for doubting a single fact, expand on that to create absolute distrust of a source. As the victim of the con is guided into distrust of a reliable source, they have been steered into believing the con man is a reliable source of wisdom.

This is easy to do to people scared of shots. Vaccines have caused harm. (They really have and do. But the disease is a lot worse and the odds of the vaccine improving you and your communities outcome are essentially what vaccines are tested for and if they don't have a good ratio, they don't get approved.)
Since Vaccines have caused harm, buy my snake oil. That nausea, dizziness and blurred vision is proof it is working.

[Johonny]

42. CDC doesn't "trust" the experts

It gathers and/or employs experts that then review the material, often already generated by peer-review, and performs the scientific process, utilizing it to form educated policy paths and decisions. The idea that the CDC or any other health agency was just blindly trusting people is fucking stupid and shows he has no idea what his job is.

Fuck this guy

[Passages]

43. His family will hopefully go on the record again, that he is a danger to society.

Do not allow him any room to speak unchecked.

[Ms. Toad]

44. He's not entirely wrong on this.

Blind trust in the experts (as some on DU have expressed) would have left my daughter and me dead several times over. And trusting the experts is not how science advances.

Just two examples. For decades people with ulcers were treated with bland diets and ant-acids . . . Two scientists linked h. pylori to ulcers in 1983. It took scientists more than a decade to accept treating ulcers with antibiotics - and even longer before it was accepted that h. pylori was the cause of ulcers. A similar (r)evolution is going on in the disease my daughter has. 1993, oral vancomycin was successfully used to treat PSC (a disease for for which there is no medical treatment). The experts were skeptical for a variety of reasons (it was discovered by a practicing physician - not a researcher, and a pediatrician at that - both of which are treated skeptically in the medical community). By the time my daughter was diagnosed in 2009 there was a published report of collection of a half-dozen children treated with oral vancomycin - 100% response rate, and all but the most advanced achieved complete remission. Around a decade later, a bacteria was found in the liver/bile ducts of people with PSC - a bacteria which was responsive to vancomycin. Most of another decade has passed. Still no medical treatment. The prognosis has increased from 10 years to death or transplant to around 18 years - largely because more people with a companion disease are being tested for it so they are diagnosed earlier, but still no medical treatment. And the experts still have not accepted it as a treatment - not even on an experimental/compassionate use basis. (Some doctors will prescribe it, and it is getting easier to find ones who will - but often it is not covered by insurance.)

So I'm not one to accept trusting the experts as a feature of science. The opinions of experts are important, even persuasive. But in the medical field, science often advances when someone questions the experts and tries something new. Scientists with supportable theories - especially those with evidence (even if it is not the quantity or rigor to become the new accepted theory) are important voices to be listened to.

Now - I don't think that is what RFK Jr. means, since it doesn't match with his actions. He is systematically silencing decades of evidence and research - and the people who understand and can help build policy based on it in favor or people who support Trump's political agenda.

But just as I am critical of him for throwing out the baby with the bathwater - I am also critical of voices on our side who insist we have to trust the experts to the exclusion of considering newly emerging theories.

[airplaneman]

45. Yes this is very interesting

It was known in the 50’s to treat pigs with stomach ulcers with antibiotics. Amazing it was the same bacteria in humans but so long to make the connection. Critical thinking skills and an open mind helps. I agree we don’t blindly just follow the experts. Be well educated and well read on important issues.
-Airplane

[Ms. Toad]

46. It took more than a decade after they identified the bacteria in human cases

before the use of antibiotics was accepted. And even then some of the experts insisted it was not h. pylori which caused it for another half decade.

My daughter has a disease that is going through the same nonsense now, but since it is a rare disease it is taking much longer. It's been nearly 30 years since it was first treated with antibiotics, and more than a decade since a bacteria which responds to the antibiotic was identified in the guts of people with the disease, and the experts still largely refuse to allow patients to even try the antibiotic treatment - and when they do it is generally not covered by insurance.

And these aren't the only situations in which the experts are getting it wrong.

[womanofthehills]

48. Plus - there is disagreement among experts all the time concerning our health

CDC says we need a tetanus shot (DTaP/DTP) every 10 years as adults.

Oregon Health & Science University experts say we have antibodies to tetanus for 30 yrs or more if we had our childhood shots. Many European countries don’t give tetanus vaxx to adults who had their childhood shots.

OHSU -“Adults don’t need tetanus, diphtheria boosters if fully vaccinated as children, study finds
U.S. currently recommends booster shots for adults every 10 years”

“Adults do not need tetanus or diphtheria booster shots if they’ve already completed their childhood vaccination series against these rare, but debilitating diseases, according to research published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.”

The conclusion aligns with the World Health Organization’s recent recommendations to only routinely give adults tetanus and diphtheria vaccines if they didn’t receive a full series of shots as children. In the U.S., the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices still recommends all adults receive booster shots every 10 years.

https://news.ohsu.edu/2016/03/22/study-shows-tetanus-shots-needed-every-30-years-not-every-10

France’s experts say to get your tetanus shot every 20 yrs & other European countries mostly say you are protected by your childhood shots.

EXPERTS disagreeing!!

Remember when eggs would give us a heart attack and processed seed oils were good for us. We were told processed margarine was better for our health than butter. Instead of bacon & eggs we were told to eat glyphosate contaminated oatmeal.

I have college educated friends who still believe eggs are bad for you ???
Three women friends - who if they have a rare egg - it’s only the whites. That’s what experts in the past told them and they will believe that till they die. .

[Ms. Toad]

49. Yup.

Which is kind of the point.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

47. Go take a swim in Shit Creek and STFU Brainworm.

[Duppers]

50. Amen to what you said ❗

[muriel_volestrangler]

51. Brainworm Bob: "Listen to me, only I know what's going on. Trust me, I'm not an expert, I'm not starting a cult

or working for an authoritarian. Trust me when I say 'use horse dewormer to fight Covid', or my boss when he says 'inject bleach'. These are common sense, democratic methods of fighting disease and running you life."