Many medical experts and journalists believe that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is wrong about vaccines. They say that Kennedy, a candidate for the 2024 Democratic nomination for president, wrongly says that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective and incorrectly validates assertions that childhood vaccinations can cause autism.
Many people, all of whom are pro-Biden Democrats, say that RFK Jr.’s opinions are so dangerous as to automatically preempt anything else he has to say about any other issue. They say that society would benefit if he were to shut up. They say that he should not be given a public platform, that he should be silenced, that we should not hear him because we might believe him and that could cause terrible harm.
Even his family is telling him to STFU.
As a long-time non-epidemiologist with no medical education, I don’t know who is right. However, I do know this: anyone who thinks they have the right to decide what information I get to hear or who I get to hear it from can go to hell.
Let us stipulate, for the sake of argument, that these journalists and doctors, none of whom I have met or know anything about, have no bias and no axe to grind, that they care about the well-being of all humans, especially me. Let us further stipulate that they are 100% right and that RFK Jr. is 100% wrong. Let’s even pretend that these folks have never “debunked” “conspiracies” that turned out to be true or promoted conspiracies as though they weren’t lies.
Even so: I demand the right to hear from him if I so choose. RFK Jr. has the right to be terribly, dangerously wrong, l have the right to listen to his stupid incorrect rants in which he gets absolutely nothing right, and I have the right to be deceived into believing things that are stupid, false and even dangerous if I so choose.
My brain, my choice.
Not according to the elites, however. They think they’re smarter than you and me. That we should listen to them. That those who disagree with them should be shut down.
The Biden Administration came under fire in 2022 when its Department of Homeland Security, a government entity with a fascist name, rolled out its Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board whose stated goal was to “coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security.”
The DGB was killed, but censorship efforts with a Father Knows Best spin have proliferated in recent years, mostly from Democratic-leaning institutions. Newspapers and other media outlets rolled out fact-checking websites and chronicled lists of the president’s purported lies, the latter beginning and ending when the president was named Trump. The FBI and other three-letter agencies told social media companies which posts to throttle or kill and handed them lists of accounts that should be shut down. At least one company, with deep ties to covert intelligence agencies, purports to tell you which news outlets you can trust. The war between Russia and Ukraine prompted the Apple and Google app stores to deplatform Russian state media outlets.
The push to characterize news and opinions that deviate from a “mainstream,” i.e. corporatist, narrative hit full steam during the pandemic. Government and media partnered against what they called misinformation and disinformation (others’, never their own). Their obsessive efforts to marginalize and hobble RFK Jr.’s candidacy and access to the information space is a continuation of the COVID information war.
Mis- and disinformation are real and they have real-world impacts that ought not to be minimized. The bizarre QAnon conspiracy game/cult has contributed to or caused, among other events, the hammer attack against Paul Pelosi, a coup attempt against the German government, death threats and mass shootings, not to mention January 6th. Lies can be dangerous, whether they originate from the podium at the United Nations or an wacky underground cell.
Censorship is an understandable impulse. As a cure, however, it’s worse than the disease. Citizens forced to navigate a world where they know that many things are not as they seem on their face learn to hone the critical thinking skills that tell them not to click on the link in a phishing email and to question whether an especially ridiculous political attack may be a deep fake. No matter how benevolent and adept a government can be—and ours is neither—the collective BS detector of 330 million Americans is likelier to identify and debunk the cleverest act of disinformation than an agency of bureaucrats. If the government and its media allies get their way, we’ll trust them to suss out what’s true and what’s false and, of course, set the stage for them abusing our gullibility. And they’ll do it on a far grander scale than QAnon.
Besides, taboo and forbidden material is inherently more attractive than stuff that’s freely available. From pornography to Cuban cigars to the dark web, nothing is more enticing than something that’s hard to access. If the powers that be don’t want us to hear from RFK Jr., many voters are thinking, then I really want to find out what he’s about. The DNC and the New York Times have no business telling me I’m too dumb to assess his statements about COVID, Israel or anything else.
My brain, right or wrong!
(Ted Rall (Twitter: @tedrall), the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, co-hosts the left-vs-right DMZ America podcast with fellow cartoonist Scott Stantis. You can support Ted’s hard-hitting political cartoons and columns and see his work first by sponsoring his work on Patreon.)
19 Comments.
What do you say to someone who says “Donald Trump changed the balance. His victory, and the victory of similar folks around the world proves that the drastic censorship is necessary because trump is so dangerous that he must be stop by any means necessary”
They made that argument when they formed the TSA after 9/11. They did it with trump. They did it with COVID. When will it end?
I guess the best argument is trump himself. Attempts to suppress him have, so far, had the opposite effect
Maybe the answer is to explain to the elites that trust is a two way street. You desperately want people to trust you and think you’re an adult? Well then you gotta trust people and treat them like adults. It’s that simple. Let’s start by abolishing the TSA.
1) Re “Let us stipulate, for the sake of argument, that these journalists and doctors, none of whom I have met or know anything about, have no bias and no axe to grind, that they care about the well-being of all humans, especially me.”
It’s more accurate and productive to stipulate reality … that journalists and doctors, and everyone else, is immersed in the uniquely perverse America-constructed system of capitalism that grooms, supports, is run by and ultimately adores the maximally avaricious, that is “the 1%,” (as significantly named by “Occupy Wall Street” even if the figure is more like “the 0.001%.” See “Giants: The Global Power Elite”by Peter Phillips).
This system CANNOT possibly “care about the well-being of all humans.” It was never intended to do so and any belief that it actually does only identifies its massive, 24/7/365, pervasive propaganda machine that justifies and protects itself. The sooner that is clear, the sooner something effective can be done about it …. but NOTHING can be done until that is clear.
2) Re “They say that Kennedy … wrongly says that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective and incorrectly validates assertions that childhood vaccinations can cause autism.”
a) there is NO other way but “ineffective” to describe a vaccine that, from the beginning, was offered with NO expectation of preventing the recipient of being infected by, nor of transmitting, the disease in question.
b) RFK Jr’s criticism of childhood vaccinations has to do with the inexplicable, routine presence of a mercury-containing preservative in said vaccines. This issue is no more controversial than the completely analogous removal of lead from gasoline and paint that was begun some 70(?) years ago. Heavy metals such as mercury and lead are WELL-known neurotoxins that are particularly detrimental to the developing nervous systems of the young and produce many more detrimental, permanent outcomes that “merely” autism. see https://tinyurl.com/3veyfjsy
3) Re “Many people, all of whom are pro-Biden Democrats, say that RFK Jr.’s opinions are so dangerous as to automatically preempt anything else he has to say about any other issue. ”
Right …. but RTP***© is THE totalitarian/authoritarian!!! (*** RTP= Rootin’ Tootin’ Putin)
The mercury? It isn’t like the mercury in fish. It’s a different molecular configuring (compare ozone and breathable oxygen or water and hydrogen peroxide). Also, it’s been removed from most of the vaccines (thus making them slightly less effective) just to try to extinguish this canard.
So you think mercury causing damage to human neurological systems, especially those of children, is a canard?
You are talking about methylmercury (the mercury found in fish). The mercury in vaccines (thimerisol, aka ethylmercury) was not in the same molecular configuration. An analogous situation would be how ozone (O3) is deadly. But oxygen (O2) in the atmosphere is necessary for life. Both are “oxygen” but the molecular configuration of one is deadly. It’s the same thing with the mercury that was used in vaccines. It wasn’t a dangerous molecular configuration. Bananas are radioactive due to the potassium. The LD50 level is, I dunno, about 4.6 billion bananas a day.
Ethylmercury is used to prevent bacteria growth in a vaccine and clears from the body in about a week. Methylmercury is retained a lot longer (about two months). You are more likely to encounter a severe consequence due to a bacterial infection than a complication due to the amount of ethylmercury contained in a shot. Is it, theoretically, possible to get lung cancer from one puff off a cigarette? I suppose so. Something like 2,000 people who contract lung cancer every year have never smoked.
OK, so I’ll take your reply (August 30, 4:17 pm) to my question ( August 30, 10:51 am ) as: “Mercury compounds cause damage to the human, especially neonatal ones, nervous system only if, when and how the pharmaceutical industry confirms.”
Falco, where are all these “damaged” neonates then? It can’t be in the autism numbers because the mercury was removed but the autism rates are the same. Do I trust the pharma people? Not particularly. Do I trust “Kayla’s_Mamma77” and her blog, filled with the wisdom that giving birth magically imbued her with? No. Where are the lawyers who would make billions? The scientists who’d win acclaim? This all started because one scientist fabricated data and he got caught, but for millions of parents who want someone to blame, this is the scapegoat. This is exactly why the RFK Jr.s are dangerous. During COVID, how many people died because, oh, vaccines bad, bring back polio, I’m going to cough in people’s faces because it’s my informed right to do so according to Kayla’s Mamma77!
To Alex: in response to your comment of August 31, 5:23 AM
I take mercury as a human neurotoxin, as I said above beyond just autism, especially for the young.
Therefore, with NO further quibbling, NO vaccines containing mercury in any form should ever
have existed past the establishment of said toxicity … especially when safe(r) alternatives exist.
You don’t have to believe the toxicity of mercury but I feel no compulsion to find the victims for you.
Maybe info on “damaged neonates” can be found in RFK Jr’s book of 2022:
Profiles of the Vaccine-Injured: A Lifetime Price to Pay
I believe it was Wakefield who you blamed for “starting all this.”
Assuming “all this” is “vaccine hesitancy,” then it’s more accurate to suggest that “all this” was
caused by an early, “attenuated” (as opposed to “deactivated”) polio vaccine, some 70(?)
years ago, that gave recipients the disease.
“Kayla’s_Mamma77” Surely you jest!?!
RE: Falco’s “You don’t have to believe the toxicity of mercury but I feel no compulsion to find the victims for you.”
First. I don’t dispute the toxicity of certain molecular forms of mercury. Nor do I dispute that other molecular forms of mercury are far less toxic. The issue is whether the toxicity rises to the level necessary to cause permanent harm. As Carl Sagan put it: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. You have failed to produce any evidence, extraordinary or otherwise. Citing a book written by someone with zero medical training (RFK Jr.) on a medical subject? That’s a junior high school-level error.
Invoking a 70-year-old incident? That merely reinforces my argument: You had to go back 70 years to find an incident in which people were harmed due to the vaccine being prepared incorrectly. Big surprise: when you don’t follow the instructions, you don’t get the desired outcome.
When asked to present more recent evident (show me the victims) you ran away from it. I don’t care whether you “feel” a “compulsion” or not. You’re the one making the extraordinary claim. It’s entirely your obligation to present the extraordinary evidence. All you’ve done is wave vaguely at RFK Jr., a slightly more polished version of Kayla’s_Mamma_77.
To Alex,
I did, in fact, present THE evidence, the book written by the guy you feel compelled to trash, without specific
reference to anything in it but, rather,b only a healthy dose of the anti-anti frenzy.
The 70 year old incident proves that permanent harm can be, and has been, caused by vaccines.
That it is old does not imply that it is the ONLY example of the phenomenon.
The Right To Be Wrong :
1. Something Ted Rall abuses when suppressing, or, more deviously, unduly delaying -long enough for them becoming stale- comments that aren’t to his liking ;
2. Something Ted Rall exercises when writing about Climate Change issues, a topic he blatantly shows a total ignorance of, as demonstrated in We Came, We Dithered, We Died and elsewhere.
PSA: Since Climate Drift is of uppermost interest to everyone on this planet -a lot more than any of these farcical POTUS elections- I therefore urge everyone to watch this video:
Jancovici : Will technology save us from Climate Change ? MIT Media Lab – 23/02/2021.
If you’re educated enough to stomach it to the end, you might wind up with a headache (or worse), but you’ll certainly feel brighter.
Note that for the ones who are fluent in French, all the other available J.M. Jancovici’s videos are also well worth watching.
“As a long-time non-epidemiologist with no medical education, I don’t know who is right. However, I do know this: anyone who thinks they have the right to decide what information I get to hear or who I get to hear it from can go to hell.”
Actually, that’s a red herring. “I don’t know who is right” is usually the case for everything. Moon landing, Bigfoot, evolution, pick the issue: no matter what refutations are presented, the conspirators refuse to accept explanations. Bigfoot? Why not a single body? Not a single clear photograph? Not a single DNA sample? (Oh, Big Bigfoot is suppressing the information.) Why? Cui bono?
On almost everything in life, you never “know” who’s right; you go by the preponderance of the evidence. I haven’t been to the moon. I accept that others have.
“Even so: I demand the right to hear from him if I so choose. RFK Jr. has the right to be terribly, dangerously wrong, l have the right to listen to his stupid incorrect rants in which he gets absolutely nothing right, and I have the right to be deceived into believing things that are stupid, false and even dangerous if I so choose.”
That, definitionally, is what is already happening. RFK Jr. has a website. He’s a Kennedy. He has the internet. No one is silencing him any more than I am being “silenced” because my comments go to moderation half the time — what DOES Ted Rall fear? — or because I don’t have an opinion column at the New York Times.
As for your right to be deceived. Sure. If that right stopped at my nose. But it doesn’t. RFK Jr.’s argument — backed by terrible evidence — isn’t selling. Is he being silenced? Maybe. So are the people at the theater talking on their phones during the movie.
An individual’s right to not re-tweet disinformation is at least as strong as the right to tweet that disinformation in the first place.
That’s individuals. Governments don’t have as much right to censor. But, yes, congress and legislatures can pass laws against fraud, and individuals who have been defrauded are entitled to restitution. If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is committing fraud, he could end up in prison and destitute. That would be a legitimate use of government’s power.
Corporations are usually in between. A large corporation with a monopoly, or a set of a few corporations with an oligopoly are more like government and have to keep their platforms open. However, as with government, this openness does not apply to actual fraud. Smaller corporations that don’t have a controlling interest in a market are free to not re-tweet whatever they want to.
When it comes to health I would rather listen to epidemiologists and infectious disease MDs. RFK Jr. says all sorts of questionable shit yet people without critical thinking lap it up. This isn’t about censorship; he still has a platform and lots of followers. Tom Nichols nailed it in his 2017 book The Death of Expertise.
And the goal of Operation Warp Speed was to develop a vaccine that kept people out of the hospital, not to totally prevent transmission. It was a huge failure of the Public Health system to not communicate this to the general public.
Falco (and also Ted, if he actually reads the comments),
Falco, I dismiss RFK Jr.’s book. But I do so based on fact and reasoning. Here are the facts:
Thimerosal is no longer included in any childhood vaccines. That is a fact. Here’s a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomersal
Thimerosal has been out of vaccines since the early 2000s. That is a fact. Here’s a link: https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/if-you-know-mercury-youll-know-why-you-shouldnt-fear-thimerosal
Autism rates? In the U.S., which no longer uses thimerosal in childhood vaccinations and hasn’t in 20 years, (the last one to go was the multi-dose flu vaccine, which has now been switched to single-dose flu vaccine) autism rates are still going up. That is a fact. Here’s a link: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html
If thimerosal causes autism, and thimerosal has been removed from the vaccines, how is vaccination causing autism? You MUST answer that or forfeit the debate because this is the central point under discussion. You have asserted something which CANNOT be the case.
Ted, I really wish you would reconsider your “my brain, my choice” thesis. It seems just a little too much like “Handguns should be available at vending machines. Drunk driving should be permitted, too. And while we’re at it, why CAN’T I stick the Q-Tip all the way in? My ear canal, my choice.”
I read them!
Thank God! Imagine the horror of my brilliance, evaporating unread into the ether, like Joe Biden’s chances of beating Donald Trump. I hope Biden’s ready for Trump’s revenge payback indictment, trial, conviction (the real irony, they’ll actually pin something legit on Biden; it won’t be a rigged trial), sentencing, and imprisonment.