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RFK Jr. rejects cornerstone of health science: Germ theory
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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politics
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"Alternate theory." Oh dear god, it's miasma, isn't it.
Ok.. he was aiming for miasma, but missed. We're doomed.
Edit: Apparently "The White Man's Burden" is a racist poem by Rudyard Kipling from 1899 about how the US should colonize the Philippines.. the "half devil, half child" people of the Philippines... Curious what that has to do with antiquated ideas about illness, but I'm afraid reading his book might give me brain worms. That's how contagions work, right..?
Excuse me? In the chapter "The What, Now?!?!" Holy fucking christ... dude is pre-Darwinian in his takes.
Edit: autocorrect
Also, I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
It's worse than you think.
The miasma part is pre-germ. The worst part is what's following. The immune system and healthy living part is an ideology that is popular in the New Age beliefs. It was very popular in some communities in the 60s and 70s. But, it's an older ideology about health. The Nazi themselves used this and believed (at least partially) in the immune system bullshit. They all base their beliefs on a German umbrella term and movement, the Lebensreform (German Wikipedia for a longer article )
It was promoted by wealthy bourgeois that lived in urban and industrialized areas of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. The intent was a natural and healthy lifestyle to counter the detrimental effects of industrialization, urban living, and "modernity" on health and overall well-being. It included for example organic food, alternative medicine but also spiritual and religious beliefs.
I highly recommend reading some lines about it. It helps to understand RFK Jr. and where his bullshit comes from.
I hate that in part because as someone who's health has been damaged by industrialization (and by illness in my youth) they get even that part wrong.
Yes, a healthy diet and frequent exercise help me, but more important is avoiding pathogens and avoiding harmful pollutants.
It looks like these things are all over the board, going from useless and detrimental, to actually good, most of them contextual.
It's like rfkj got brain damage and then tried to make sense if it. It's like he almost gets it but then veers off to the side.
I was actually just talking to a person about this. How it's pretty easy to pursue truth of a topic and continue down the wrong road, all just from a wrong premise or even a missing fact that gives you the wrong perspective and direction. Continuing to deepen an "understanding" of something, stubbornly. Add cognitive biases to a deep impairment, and now you're ready to run the United States apparently.
The white man’s burden is also used referentially to call out people who do things like travel to poor countries to build houses even though they have far less building experience than locals and the money they paid to get there would have gone much further, had it simply been donated in the form of building materials.
I don’t know how RFK Jr. is using it, but it almost certainly makes no sense.
Edit: oh, voluntourism! I knew there was a term for it
Ah yes, that makes sense. I pointed out this problem when I was a church kid on a mission trip to build shitty houses. I was told “it’s ok, it’s not really about the money spent now on flying you all here and feeding and housing you for two weeks, it’s that people who went on missions as teens are 500% more likely to donate to missions later.” It was the beginning of the end for me in the religious world.
Honestly, good for you for realizing young. I was around 20 when a coworker got annoyed about a company that sends a pair of shoes to people in need for every pair purchased and a lightbulb went off in my head.
Ah, yes. The “Put local makers out of business and then abandon the area” model. :: chef’s kiss ::
No, you don’t get it! The benefit is not in the houses and wells that we must show those savages how to build. The blessing is the chance to spend time with their white saviors.
The ~~silver~~ quicksilver lining is that plague doctor masks might be making a comeback, at least?
Thank you for saying this I_Fart_Glitter