I saw the whole RFK and CDC debacle, how the agency is being weaponized to be antivax, and I cannot for the life of me understand what is happening. What does RFK has to gain with stopping vacines? What does the government gains from it? It cannot be just for show political streght, is it? Just to say “ha, in your face!” and then cause huge troubles for themselves down the road? There must be something they will have right now. But what is it? Money? Contracts? Favours?

  • Fyrnyx@kbin.melroy.org
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    16 hours ago

    I don’t get why these kinds of questions are still asked, when it has been the Republican and particularly, Trump’s mission to throw the government in disarray. He’s in it all for himself and everyone is at that expense.

    There is nothing that is in it for them, except dismantle everything recklessly, plunge the country into complete internal chaos and then leave any competent administration, if there’s any left, to spend all of their time fixing them if it is possible. Just in time for the chance of another Republican body to come in and do it all again.

  • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    RFK is a true believer; he actually thinks, against all evidence and logic, that vaccines are bad for your health. Trump does not give a shit about vaccines, but he offered RFK the CDC position because A) RFK was running a third-party candidacy in 2024 that could have cost him several swing states and B) anti-vaxers are a large part of the Trump coalition, but he was losing their trust after promoting the covid vaccine. Most congressional Republicans are just going along with this out if cowardice.

    So, tl:dr: ending vaccines is what RFK (stupidly) believes in, Trump put him in power to return a favor/appease a portion of his base, and every other Republican is too chicken-shit to do anything about it.

  • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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    3 days ago

    The Right hates the idea of an effective government that works for the people. They will tell you the the New Deal was a failure even though FDR was elected four times.

    RFK is a useful idiot. The richest are going to get great healthcare no matter what. But if they can break people’s idea that the government is there to help them, then the Right can break OSHA, laws that protect consumer rights, and anything else that keeps them from making more money.

    • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The right wing voters already believe OSHA is just an obstruction tog getting the job done. OSHA is the reason your climbing harness has interlocking double carabiners. Else, your job would only pay for one carabiner. Maybe.

      OSHA rules aren’t here to treat your job like a daycare. The rules are here because employers will fuck over their employees as close to the letter of the law as they can. No laws, no holding back.

  • whyrat@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    They’re working off of incorrect information & ideas. They think people will be better off not getting vaccinated. They genuinely think they’re doing a good thing. They don’t think we’ll have resurgences of diseases at any large scale because they don’t attribute the disappearance of those diseases to vaccines. They believe society will be relieved from some vaccine induced “side-effects” like increased autism (or 5G mind control… or whatever… it’s hard to keep track of their nonsense).

    Since they accept the above falsehoods; they don’t need to “get” anything. They’re as certain stopping vaccinations will help the general population as I am that it will do harm. But some idiot(s) put them in charge so they get to execute on their campaign promises.

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      They genuinely think they’re doing a good thing.

      No they don’t. Some are simply stupid, others are genuinely evil.

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      But they get validation. It’s not just that they think their ideas and information is correct. They are correct and doctors and entire industries are wrong or corrupt. That makes them smarter than those eggheads that went to school for sometimes a decade and have spent further decades with their face in a microscope. After decades of education and dedicated research somehow Cletus from BFE, Dumbfuckistan and Google was able to best them intellectually.

    • WarlockLawyer@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      And your explanation for the ones who always get the vaccines themselves but spread lies about how other people shouldn’t?

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Science has become political, projecting an antivax attitude resonates with the rubes. Nothing more to it.

    • pigup@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      King Putin is happily destroying the us and its institutions. Rfk was put there to destroy the US dominance, trust, and effectiveness on health. Most in the U.S. and the world, respect the FDA, the NIH, etc. to the extent that many defer to American regulations as the principal guide for other countries’ regulations.

      Institutions have power. When the president tries to do something stupid, people from the institution can resist. And since the general public trust institutions, that gives the institution power to create problems for the administration. By ruining the institution, you break that power and therefore break their ability to resist you. This is a very important part of fascist strategy. They’re doing it to the press. They’re doing it to research and development, to NASA. They’re doing it to all environmental agencies. Regulatory bodies, etc.

  • Delta_V@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    eugenics

    if the people human livestock who need medical treatment to live are allowed to die, then the babies of the survivors will be cheaper to maintain because they’ll need less medical treatment

    • towerful@programming.dev
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      3 days ago

      “God will protect us. He has sent judgement on those unworthy” also contributes. Not directly eugenics, but damn fucking close

  • starlinguk@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    RFK has a business selling snake oil. All those at the root of the antivaxx movement (and iirc that’s only 7 people) have something to sell.

  • zlatiah@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Two possibilities…

    • RFK does have a supplement/snake oil business(?) if I recall correctly, so he does have a personal stake in “MAHA”
    • This sounds nuts but there is a possibility that he really believes what he is doing is correct, and became a useful idiot in the process

    And don’t forget the people within CDC who are more involved… I will never forgive Jayantha “Jay” Bhattacharya and Matthew Memoli for dismantling the NIH. Btw the motive for Bhattacharya was very clear: he was an economist who proposed a fringe theory on COVID that was widely criticized, but then doubled down and essentially became entrenched in antivax himself. Which is also why I wonder if RFK also got high on his own supply

    • Canaconda@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      This sounds nuts but there is a possibility that he really believes what he is doing is correct, and became a useful idiot in the process

      You’d have a harder time convincing me a brain wormed, road-kill eating, fried potato has the capacity for such a lie.

    • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Not just that, but a poor, struggling society is easier to rule over. People are too worried about staying alive to fight the system.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It also means selling merch for the leaders pushing it (like RFKjr.)

      Frequently dangerous merch.

  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Remember the death camps, weaponized viruss’ and population control they accused the left of doing?

    Turns out it was projection the entire time

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    It’s all just more of the MAGA crowds overwhelming need to “own the libs” at all costs. It’s kind of like the flat earth movement. It started off as a joke perpetuated by a bunch of trolls with nothing better to do, but once it grew to a certain point a bunch of people joined in who were too stupid to understand that it wasn’t supposed to be this serious. Now everyone in power is too embarrassed to try and undo any of the harm so they’re all just doubling down even though they know it’s all bullshit because they’d rather everyone think they were right even if it destroys society than to ever admit they might have made a mistake.

    • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      Its not just intelligence it’s also emotion / trust.

      Dumb people don’t distrust scientists without a culture telling them they’re the victims of an elite, and the strongman will save and protect them by attacking their enemies.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    State sanctioned dilution of what it means for things to be true. It’s not about the vaccines, it’s about getting people to accept falsehoods.

  • MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    It’s all about control.

    If you can convince your cannon fodder to disregard their own health outcomes, you can convince them to go along with pretty much anything.

    Then you just hand them their marching orders, and they comply, regardless of their personal consequences.