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The idea that people want to take him seriously as a food safety crusader is wild.
Exotic parasites is a known risk when eating roadkill. It's not a difficult connection to make.
https://apnews.com/article/rfk-new-york-ballot-access-lawsui...
Speaking to reporters in a hallway after court ended Wednesday, Kennedy was asked whether he picked up other roadkill.
“I’ve been picking up roadkill my whole life. I have a freezer full of it,” he said, eliciting laughter.
Kennedy campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear later said by text that he wasn’t joking. She said that’s how Kennedy — a falconer who trains ravens — feeds his birds. She added that he no longer has the 21 cubic foot (0.59 cubic meter) refrigerator, which had been in New York’s Westchester County suburbs.
RFK Jr is not a child. He's in full control of the narrative he wants to portray about himself. If he wants to go say kooky things to reporters, he can't be upset if people think he is a kook. And he clearly seems to personally enjoy the reputation of being a kook, based on willingly he throws out jokes about it.
I have no problem with him being a kook! It's just ironic how many criticisms and conspiracy theories he throws out there about others and yet how seriously people want to take him.
Where did he say he actually eats the roadkill? One source?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/robert-f-kenne...
> He loaded the dead bear into the rear hatch of his car and later showed it off to his friends. In a picture from that day, Kennedy is putting his fingers inside the bear’s bloody mouth, a comical grimace across his face. (When I asked Kennedy about the incident, he said, “Maybe that’s where I got my brain worm.”)
Now this is clearly a joke. But the important thing is, he clearly enjoys trolling reporters. If you are not happy with the way RFK Jr. is treated in the media, take it up with RFK Jr.
To be fair, he didn't say that. He cited "the media" as a source. He was talking about you, who's said a few things now that the media didn't say with the justification of "not a crazy connection to make."
I understand where you're coming from, but I'd be more accurate to say e.g. "If you are not happy with RFK Jr.'s image," as opposed to trying to make that person out as an anti-media crusader.
I would actually really like to hear what the messed up opinions are, when I've watched interviews with him they've seemed pretty reasonable. He cites sources for basically all the claims he makes.
For me, one of his most controversial statements in recent memory had to be during a press conference he gave in 2023 when he stated that COVID might have been "ethnically targeted" to "attack Caucasians and Black people" and that "the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese."
He tried to defend the statement by citing scientific studies, which is a habit of his that his supporters admire about him. However, actual experts in the field pointed out that his interpretation of the studies was flawed and there was no credible evidence to support the idea that COVID was engineered or had evolved to target or spare certain groups.
Sources:
1. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-false-claim...
2. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jul/19/robert-f-k...
3. https://nypost.com/2024/11/15/media/jake-tapper-rips-rfk-jr-...
>COVID-19 ORIGIN: COVID-19 most likely emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
>Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research
So the US government has concluded that the virus almost certainly came from a lab conducting gain of function research.
What is gain of function? Making a virus more lethal.
RFKs words:
>There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately
It DOES impact some races more than others.
This is a completely plausible theory. I don’t understand why it’s a crazy idea at all.
Why wouldn’t a country trying to make a virus more lethal also try to curve its lethality away from its own people?
I would love to hear about my leaps in logic honestly.
Nobody is saying that it was definitely ethnically targeted, but it IS plausible. Just because the ethnicity involved makes you uncomfortable doesn’t mean that it’s not possible.
Your comment suggests it’s an outrageous notion, but if that’s true then just give a decent argument why it’s actually outrageous.
Chinese leadership have specifically mentioned ethnically targeted bio weapons:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_bioweapon
>In 2017, a textbook published by the People's Liberation Army National Defence University called the Science of Military Strategy debuted the potential for biological warfare to include "specific ethnic genetic attacks."[10][11] The same year, former People's Liberation Army general Zhang Shibo authored a book that concluded that "modern biotechnology development is gradually showing strong signs characteristic of an offensive capability," including "specific ethnic genetic attacks" (特定种族基因攻击).[10] In 2020, a professor at the same PLA university spoke of the "huge war effectiveness" of a "targeted attack that destroys a race, or a specific group of people."
Many who finally talk to him directly who thought like you do find out maybe not so crazy.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/01/14/los_angel...
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236...
Based on the provided transcript, the accusations and criticisms against RFK Jr. focus primarily on: 1. Allegations of Sexual Assault: • Multiple allegations have been reported, including by Vanity Fair. His response to these allegations has been a mixture of acknowledgment and apologizing directly to at least one accuser. 2. Acknowledgment of Past Wrongdoings: • RFK Jr. himself has admitted to having a problematic past, described as “skeletons in the closet,” though these have not been exhaustively detailed in the transcript. 3. Entitlement and Privilege: • Growing up as part of the Kennedy dynasty, RFK Jr. is characterized as having displayed behaviors shaped by immense privilege and a sense of entitlement, including unruly and eccentric conduct during his youth. 4. Controversial Political Views: • While not explicitly detailed in this transcript, RFK Jr.’s political stances (e.g., vaccine skepticism and other fringe views) have been controversial and polarizing, drawing criticism from various quarters.
There is no mention in the transcript of more serious accusations, such as criminal activity beyond the sexual assault allegations, nor evidence of deeper scandals. However, the discussion also suggests that there may be more allegations or controversies not covered explicitly in the transcript.
> LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is a doctor and transplant surgeon and invented drugs to fight pancreatic and other forms of cancer. He ACTUALLY talked to RFK Jr. and after listening to him talk and what he had to say instead of relying on mainstream media propaganda, he changed his opinion on him.
Also, seeing photo of him slurping up McDonald’s on the plane, guess healthy food isn’t the highest priority for him? Just the one he’s loudest about
No food is inherently unhealthy or bad, so I don’t think there’s any issue with him eating McDonalds on a plane. Maybe he was in a hurry, or just wanted to be social and stopped there with someone else who wanted it.
What is unhealthy is when the majority of your food is not nutritious, which is currently the case for most Americans. So why not try to make common American foods more nutritious by default, as they are in most other wealthy countries?
It was awesome living in a European country for a couple of years as an American. You learn that ingredient lists at the grocery store really are shorter in ways you don’t expect. It’s easy to buy a fruit yogurt that is just yogurt and fruit, for example. Not “yogurt, sugar, artificial and natural flavors” as you’ll find in many popular foods in the US. It was noticeable with a lot of different food choices.
Also, whenever we would come back to visit the US, after living there for a year or so, we would always have mild digestion issues and stomach cramps for a week or so. This was common among many expats that we talked to. We visited over a dozen countries while we lived there, and the US was the only one that had that issue.
But when you say "whenever we would come back to visit the US ... we would always have mild digestion issues and stomach cramps for a week or so" this does imply that there's something wrong with American processed food, and this isn't an issue of moderation.
Despite not liking the man, I actually agree with RFK on the healthy eating and think it's good that he has raised awareness of it. Red dye has finally been banned, this is good! Heck, I'm very liberal, this kind of regulation is what the US should have been doing a long time ago and happy to see it happening.
My point about RFK was not that he eats processed food sometimes and therefore he's a hypocrite, it's that he's willing to compromise his values for access to power. But hopefully it's just that one time to get on Trumps good side and he actually makes some good regulation about poisonous foods! The market is good at a lot of things, but not at keeping things healthy, so I'm glad republicans are seeing the value of regulation over unwavering belief in the free market.
It only make sense as a "gotcha" if you believe in absolutist purity tests. He looks fit and healthy.
Is there a video somewhere of him swearing on a bible that he will die before eating McDonalds?
Also there are memes from that picture of him grimacing and how frustrated he was.
No “gotcha”, I’m not a partisan. I don’t like Trump but there are a few things he’s done I like, but even with those I often don’t like HOW he did it. For example Greenland, I think that’s great for USs long term prospects (shipping routes), but to say military action is on the table is reckless. Not every criticism is a gotcha, and just because I disagree with 90% of what RFK believes doesn’t mean I don’t think his commitment to healthy eating is good. Maybe that you read a criticism as an absolute indictment of someone shows you have more purity tests than what you criticize.
Hope someday you get it
I have a diet I try to follow in general. I break it all the time and it's not a big deal at all. Sometimes I'll eat a cheeseburger with my coworkers. What does that say about my character? Should it say anything?
How much can one hate a burger? It's not like he is a Hindu or the burger contained his first born child.
Eating a cheeseburger is one thing, but he literally calls it poison.
Anyway, I hope he does succeed in pushing more regulation on what chemicals we have in food. I'm pro regulation for things like this - the market's always going to go to what's cheaper so regulation is needed to prevent companies poisoning consumers. I'm glad the republican party has come around to this point.
If you hit upon a scientifically accurate conclusion through an unrigorous process, basically by pure chance, this doesn't make you a good scientist.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/01/14/los_angel...
So many people who opposed him and then take the time to understand what is actually saying, not what they have been told he is saying, come to realize he is completely sane. Bernie Sanders is on that list fwiw.
You can be brilliant in one field and an idiot in everything else.
A lot of people think the Jews in Egypt built the pyramids, but they didn't.
This doesn't make them idiots.
(For anyone who doesn't know, the pyramids were there before Josef arrived.)
People aren't required to know everything, and when they don't that doesn't make them idiots.
The general issue is that people don't realize when they don't know something correctly, and it's impossible to vet every single thing you hear.
You can call him an idiot if he was corrected, and despite evidence he refuses to change his position. Has he done that?
Just because one doctor is stupid doesn't invalidate all doctors, does it? In that case, Dr. Ben Carson would be proof that Dr. Fauci is also an idiot.
You haven't researched him at all, have you?
If chemotherapy meds had the incredibly low adverse reaction rates of common vaccines with the same typically high effectiveness, I bet his general opinions on the subject would be different. No, of course we shouldn't require school children to get preventative chemotherapy because the risk-reward ratio would be awful. And of course we should vaccinate them against polio because there's trivial risk in the prevention compared to the life-altering effects of the illness.