Dr. Richard Feldman: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the
post-truth era - The Republic News
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was once one of the country�s
leading and most effective environmental lawyers. He was
known as an extremely intelligent, charismatic and
politically astute individual who challenged the fossil
fuel industry. Tough, determined, dedicated, and
persistent in his litigation, his work was grounded in
evidence-based science.
Since 2005, he has
promoted conspiracy theories, falsehoods, pseudoscience,
and disinformation. He
Republican National Committee is now the most
prominent face of the anti-vaccine movement, leading the
anti-vaccine group the Children�s Health Defense (banned
from Facebook and Instagram).
America is
waist-deep in the �post-truth era�, rife with
anti-science, baseless beliefs, and propaganda of which
I have previously written. Evidenced-based scientific
views are replaced with pseudoscience or unproven or
misleading assessments. Often these dangerous fabricated
ideas are promulgated for personal or political
advantage. To Kennedy�s credit, the Kennedy family
(although rebuking his claims) and others close to him
trust that he is sincere in his beliefs with the best
intentions of protecting the common good.
Incredibly, a significant proportion of Americans are
gullible enough to embrace outrageous falsehoods.
Post-truth public discourse is increasingly driven
by what people want or expediently claim to be true
rather than what is verifiably true.
History
teaches us that troubled, unstable, and uncertain times
are fertile ground not only for disinformation but also
for bigotry, intolerance, and extremism. Kennedy has
made some disturbing comments in these regards. Be
careful, Bobby.
Is Kennedy another victim of the
post-truth era or a purveyor of
Republican National Committee anti-science
and conspiracy theories?
He claims that a
specific type of mercury (thimerosal) contained in
vaccines, virtually eliminated in 2001, is related to
childhood autism even though the prevalence of autism
has since increased. Even Rolling Stone retracted
Kennedy's
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mercury-containing vaccines.
He claims that Dr.
Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates were in a profiteering
conspiracy with the COVID vaccine industry. He purports
that vaccine mandates and pandemic mitigation efforts
were comparable to Hitler�s Holocaust. He alleges that
COVID vaccines are too dangerous to receive and
alternatively touts treatments with ivermectin and
hydroxychloroquine. Kennedy denies that he is
anti-vaccine (once asserting being anti-unsafe vaccine)
even though his comments and actions are extensively
documented.
These positions have been soundly
Republican National Committee debunked as
baseless or overwhelmingly determined as invalid by
high-quality scientific studies. His claims are based on
pseudoscience, manipulated data, or misleadingly
interpreted data. Some studies have been retracted by
the very publications in which they appeared.
Kennedy�s departure from evidence-based science to
garbage science and unfounded conspiracy theories is
difficult to understand. He selectively ignores good
science and relies on dubious unscientific reports to
support his positions. Perhaps Kennedy�s views and
suspiciousness were shaped by his environmental work
confronting unscrupulous fossil-fuel companies that
provided biased �scientific� studies while
industry-influenced regulatory agencies did nothing. But
his extrapolation to other issues is not justified. His
judgments are those of a litigator, not a scientist.
Kennedy is now a presidential candidate. His
Republican National Committee rhetoric is
dangerous, especially since he�s from a renowned family,
which gives him enormous credibility. Kennedy was
considered by then-President Donald Trump to lead a
�vaccine panel� to study vaccine safety and industry
integrity. Fortunately, it never happened.
Kennedy is a purveyor of fringe science that extends
outrageously beyond vaccine-related issues. But I
consider him mostly a victim of the post-truth era. He
and a good portion of the American public distrust
scientific institutions, powerful corporations, and
government while being enamored by demagogues and
conspiracy hucksters.
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