RFK Jr. Promises to Reveal the 'Cause' of Autism Next Month | Hacker News Reader

RFK Jr. Promises to Reveal the 'Cause' of Autism Next Month

gizmodo.com

78 pointsulrischa65 comments

The primary cause of reported disease is diagnosis, so maybe they’ll do something about that.

“If we stop testing for Covid, the number of infections will go down!”

You jest, but the current administrations way of dealing with global warming and carbon levels in the atmosphere is to stop measuring those things.

I would laugh about the current state of US government if it wasn’t so sad.

"How then shall we perform it?--At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?-- Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

-Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum speech, 27 Jan, 1838

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease.

“Against stupidity we are defenseless.

“Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.”

— D. Bonhoeffer

Fear is even more dangerous and crippling than that. In part because fear makes us stupid.

Eh, ~50% of us are dumber than average, and that average can seem a bit surprising at times. I'm not a fan of these attitudes against dumb people, personally.

It's surreal watching the collapse from the inside. Part of me is at the point of "fine! you all get what you deserve", but then I think of my kids and the others, future generations getting completely fucked for no fault of their own.

It is so frustrating. Even if these idiots disappear tomorrow, it will take decades to recover. Why go into science/government to make a positive difference if you know the next hate-filled administration could end your career for some cheap political wins?

Honestly I think people don't talk about this long-term impact often enough, and you're 100% right. It's not just the impact today - it's the future state. What used to be a job with 'security' is now a lower-security and often lower-pay job.

The only people who will work for the government are the people who know they can abuse and personally profit from it.

There's plenty that want to do the right thing for the right reasons, but this admin is not the place for that.

If we ever recover from this fiasco, we're going to have to do some serious reckoning of how to avoid it in the future.

Yeah, I have a strange kind of fascination with it. I read a lot about the Roman republic, it's rise and demise, and it feels like living through the fall of another 'empire'.

Writings were on the wall for the Roman republic for a long tine before it happened. Same with the US today.

How do you think this compares to the fall of the Roman Republic? With all due respect, I would argue that your line of thinking tells me that you don’t really read about the Roman Republic, or at least don’t understand what was happening at the time.

The political disfunction, powerful military figures, extreme wealth divide, and the dynamic of the First Triumvirate all make what the US is going through today look downright civilized. The sheer amount of turmoil made the people in Rome desperate for authoritarianism. The rise of Roman Empire is what they wanted, and what they got. This is the same dynamic that unfolded in 1930s Germany.

I do not at all believe that most people in the US want an actual authoritarian. Trump may think he can implement authoritarianism, but I suspect he will find out just how misguided he is if he truly pushes it.

Well, if history rhymes, I'd guess we're about at Sulla.

I get really annoyed with the constant comparison with the "Fall of Rome".

This is not the same thing. This is a concerted attack from within, these people are deliberately dismantling a democratic society for personal profit.

Do you mean fall of Rome (empire) or fall of Rome (republic)?

Fall of Rome’s republic was deliberate and for personal gain / profit.

Edit:

And I’m not saying it’s a one-to-one comparison, like a bad sequel film.. I’m saying that it’s comparable at a layer of abstraction. The fall of two large “empires” with a ton of influence on the world.

fair point.

It’s really not. It’s blatantly wrong, actually. Money did not motivate the fall of the Republic. Literally reading even the most basic text on the period would make this obvious.

List of people who have just left the CDC:

Director, office of public health data, Jennifer Layden

Director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Daniel Jernigan

Chief Medical Officer Deb Houry

Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis

Director Monarez.

What bold does reality & truth have these days. A revolt against reason, a revolt against truth, a revolt against a nation. This whole era has seen the rise of such a vicious enemy against the world. #HostisHumaniGeneris

(Some of these may be semi coincidental to what's coming next, but it's all part of the same insurrection against science.)

If he already knows, but is delaying telling us, then what should he say to the future individuals who are only autistic because of that delay?

I'm struggling to think of any legitimate reason for not telling us right now.

Trump has a trope about saying he'll have a big announcement or deal with something "in 2 weeks" -- something that sounds lofty but the delay is long enough for it to pass out of the news cycle. I think RFK is doing the same here.

It is the worms in the brain, isn't it?

The cause is......democrats!

I am kidding but I doubt he knows the cause, it is a complex issue.

You and I know that it’s a complex issue which probably has a complicated mix of genetic and several environmental factors.

But RFK Jr doesn’t seem to care about facts or truth or objective reality as much as he cares about pushing a simple narrative.

In his narrative-driven reality, there is nothing which can’t be blamed, including Democrats.

Article link in case it's taken down: https://gizmodo.com/rfk-jr-promises-to-reveal-the-cause-of-a...

It’s impossible for me to think of what purpose taking this deliberate misinformation effort to this extent can have.

I can only consider that this is a purposeful attack on the American people and government credibility from the top. And if so, how could someone be so influenced to follow it through? Is it just a personal hatred of Americans justifying harm to them?

Scientifically-illiterate environmental lawyers should stay in their lane. And by "lawyers", I only mean RFK Jr.

Let me guess: The aluminum found in vaccines. Of Course. Why didn't we think of that? It only took an addled, evil, brain-wormed, drug-infested moron to point it out. Never mind there are 1000s of clinical studies showing no impacts. THOUSANDS. We should print out all that evidence, put it in 300 page volumes, enclose them in binders with ribbons, box them up, and drop it from an airplane onto his house!

Air pollution [1] but since things like pollution and climate change are too woke, I'm sure RFKJr will have a different reason.

[1] https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/air-pollution-linked-with-incr...

Let's go for a double: peace Nobel prize for Trump and medicine for RFK.

Clown show administration for a clown show country. Voters getting exactly the reality TV show they wanted.

Where are all the folks who voted for this? Why aren’t you cheering?

We truly live in the dumbest timeline.

It’s destructive, it’s by design, not dumb

I think that’s the fitness function of the Trump admin, but not the fitness function of RFK Jr who has been chasing this for decades. He clearly cares more about simple narratives than any factual truth.

Before or after the release of the Epstein files?

No, he won't. He'll just spout more of his usual bullshit.

I’m not so sure.

The timeline he set for himself was artificial. His assertion that it was for sure caused by environmental factors and his department could find it in a few months was artificial.

His team clearly used AI (without reasoning features and without ensemble challenges) to write public documents, leaving the hallucinated research footnotes in the document.

He clearly doesn’t care about accuracy precision or truth, so he very well may announce some cause in September. I’m sure his _Children’s Defense Fund_ has their own “research” which draws conclusions that he will most likely crib from.

Lmao

[flagged]

Can you please make your substantive points thoughtfully? Regardless of how right you are or feel you are, snark is the wrong thing to optimize for on HN.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Remember, the space lasers were manned by the Jews and Republicans like Jews now.

Republicans only like specific jews. Trump consistently calls Schumer a Palestinian. By being able to selectively exclude jewish people from the category of "jew" they get to redefine antisemitism. This lets them keep both the neonazis who hate jewish people and the christian zionists who support israel as a mechanism of creating the End Times in their party.

My guess is Jerome Powell.

It’s funny the HN’ers who support this administration won’t dare reveal themselves by sharing their views but they are sure here lurking and downvoting where they see fit.

Those people are called cowards.

Cowards aren't known for standing up for their convictions.

To give credit where credit is due, the long-time HN user and Trump supporter named refurb did reveal himself and expressed happiness about "finally getting some adults in the room," with "adults" being RFK Jr., Bondi, Hegseth, Gabbard, Noem, Vought, McMahon, etc.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42776504

Autism is a hoax orchestrated by the Democrats.

This is the way.

Just like the Epstein files and climate change! Why those damn dirty democrats are always up to no good!

He's going to say it's 5G, isn't he? Please don't say it's 5G. heavy sigh

A better bet is WiFi. He's complained at least as much about WiFi danger as he has about 5G, and WiFi is much more widespread and also 20 years older than 5G. Its availability to the public and growth correlates a lot better with the rise in autism rates.

Can we take bets on Obama in a ghost mask a la Scooby Doo?

Clearly trans* and immigrants

windmills

Naa this guy prefers tilting at other things.

You imbecile — it was the emails!

"'clearly almost certainly'" !

I'm happy to see this woke liberal BS flagged /s

Turning it into this big media circus is beyond the pale.

Acetaminophen/Tylenol? Nah, it's more palatable to blame the vaccines than give up those sweet pain-killers.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45008733

Considering it is basically the only over-the-counter pain med allowed during pregnancy, I think we will learn that this government doesn't understand the difference between causation and correlation.

Tylenol causes pregnancy! Since they seem to be so worried about fertility rates, maybe Tylenol use will be made mandatory.

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