RFK Jr has no scientific training.
-
RFK Jr has no scientific training. He's a history major with a law degree who worked as an environmental advocate but has never spent any meaningful time doing science, or understanding how science is done. This isn't "an alternative scientific view". It's just kooky opinions. https://x.com/atrupar/status/2083907234405269638?s=20
If you'll allow me a bit of a philosophical digression here: I have an undergrad degree in molecular biology and biochemistry and an MS in biochemical engineering. I spent 1993 - 1997 doing basic benchtop research in cancer and biofuels. I would not claim expertise in either BUT...
-
If you'll allow me a bit of a philosophical digression here: I have an undergrad degree in molecular biology and biochemistry and an MS in biochemical engineering. I spent 1993 - 1997 doing basic benchtop research in cancer and biofuels. I would not claim expertise in either BUT...
...like anything you do in the early part of your career, it shaped the way I think. Doing science well requires you to train your brain to be hyper skeptical of yourself. Asking honestly what the data tells you is VERY different from asking what part of the data confirms your pre-existing belief.
-
...like anything you do in the early part of your career, it shaped the way I think. Doing science well requires you to train your brain to be hyper skeptical of yourself. Asking honestly what the data tells you is VERY different from asking what part of the data confirms your pre-existing belief.
When people ask me now what part of that training prepared me for being in Congress, I always tell them that Congress is best when it includes people who think in lots of different ways. And the way that scientists think if often antithetical to the way politicians and lawyers think.
-
When people ask me now what part of that training prepared me for being in Congress, I always tell them that Congress is best when it includes people who think in lots of different ways. And the way that scientists think if often antithetical to the way politicians and lawyers think.
Not better, not worse. Just the opposite. And having a group of people working together who think in different ways makes that group better as they all come at the problem from different directions.
-
Not better, not worse. Just the opposite. And having a group of people working together who think in different ways makes that group better as they all come at the problem from different directions.
But legal training at core doesn't train you to seek truth. It trains you to understand the law, use the law to emphasize facts that advocate for your client and develop strategies to protect you from those facts that create risk for your client.
-
But legal training at core doesn't train you to seek truth. It trains you to understand the law, use the law to emphasize facts that advocate for your client and develop strategies to protect you from those facts that create risk for your client.
Political training also doesn't seek truth. You learn to persuade. You learn to understand what people believe and perhaps to shift that belief. But it is not, at core, a truth seeking exercise, at least not at the level of the individual politician.
-
Political training also doesn't seek truth. You learn to persuade. You learn to understand what people believe and perhaps to shift that belief. But it is not, at core, a truth seeking exercise, at least not at the level of the individual politician.
And that's fine! If I'm on trial, I don't want a lawyer who is explaining that my alibi makes it 48% likely that I'm not guilty and depends substantially on the jury cherry picking data from the evidence presented even if that is factually true.
-
And that's fine! If I'm on trial, I don't want a lawyer who is explaining that my alibi makes it 48% likely that I'm not guilty and depends substantially on the jury cherry picking data from the evidence presented even if that is factually true.
Which brings me to RFK Jr. Because the reverse of that is also true. You do not want someone running a scientific agency like the HHS who has been trained to persuade you of things that he believes without any consideration for whether they are actually true.
-
Which brings me to RFK Jr. Because the reverse of that is also true. You do not want someone running a scientific agency like the HHS who has been trained to persuade you of things that he believes without any consideration for whether they are actually true.
All this may sound very philosophical, but when you put true believers in charge of science, people die. If you think bad weather is caused by witches, people die. If you think AIDS is God bringing vengeance on the LGBT community, people die.
-
All this may sound very philosophical, but when you put true believers in charge of science, people die. If you think bad weather is caused by witches, people die. If you think AIDS is God bringing vengeance on the LGBT community, people die.
And if you slow the deployment of vaccines that have kept people from getting measles, polio, hepatitis and countless other communicable diseases, people will die. Not because RFK Jr. is evil. But because he is a true believer who is totally unqualified for his job.
-
And if you slow the deployment of vaccines that have kept people from getting measles, polio, hepatitis and countless other communicable diseases, people will die. Not because RFK Jr. is evil. But because he is a true believer who is totally unqualified for his job.
The danger however comes when we confuse his title for his expertise. "Secretary of Health Kennedy says ___" gives the air of legitimacy. Far better to say "Heroin addict Kennedy", "Man who eats road kill and has a brain worm", "Harvard drug dealer" or even "Nuzzi's ex boyfriend".
-
The danger however comes when we confuse his title for his expertise. "Secretary of Health Kennedy says ___" gives the air of legitimacy. Far better to say "Heroin addict Kennedy", "Man who eats road kill and has a brain worm", "Harvard drug dealer" or even "Nuzzi's ex boyfriend".
Not to be mean. But because all of those things do a better job of attuning the public to whatever he is about to say next. And it's the best way to ensure that the kooky shit he says doesn't get any more people killed. /fin
-
The danger however comes when we confuse his title for his expertise. "Secretary of Health Kennedy says ___" gives the air of legitimacy. Far better to say "Heroin addict Kennedy", "Man who eats road kill and has a brain worm", "Harvard drug dealer" or even "Nuzzi's ex boyfriend".
@SeanCasten I like "Secretary Brainworm".
-
Not to be mean. But because all of those things do a better job of attuning the public to whatever he is about to say next. And it's the best way to ensure that the kooky shit he says doesn't get any more people killed. /fin
But he is also evil. He refuses to take responsibility for the harm his actions have done to other people, and that's a pretty good definition of evil.
-
Political training also doesn't seek truth. You learn to persuade. You learn to understand what people believe and perhaps to shift that belief. But it is not, at core, a truth seeking exercise, at least not at the level of the individual politician.
@SeanCasten Very similar to the Salesman "profession". Say whatever is needed to make the sale. Withhold facts, make things up that sound true.
And when so many parents' incomes depend on this type of "saying things you don't even believe" as profession, it's not surprising that schools to not teach kids well to identify liars.
-
The danger however comes when we confuse his title for his expertise. "Secretary of Health Kennedy says ___" gives the air of legitimacy. Far better to say "Heroin addict Kennedy", "Man who eats road kill and has a brain worm", "Harvard drug dealer" or even "Nuzzi's ex boyfriend".
@SeanCasten
"Health influencer" is the contemporary description of RFK Jr.'s real expertise. He's basically a salesman who sells people on an allegedly healthy lifestyle and associated lifestyle products.Trump has hired a ton of influencers rather than people with real expertise. Hegseth is a defense influencer, Ka$h Patel is a legal influencer, Dr. Oz is a health influencer, etc. Not too surprising, since Trump is basically an influencer himself.
-
Not to be mean. But because all of those things do a better job of attuning the public to whatever he is about to say next. And it's the best way to ensure that the kooky shit he says doesn't get any more people killed. /fin
Not to be mean.
I mean, I think it's okay to be mean to bad people. Yeah, calling out Kennedy's deficiencies shouldn't be done primarily to be mean, but bullying a bad person seems to me like a perfectly fine secondary objective.
We didn't bully Dubya, or Cheney, or Reagan into ragequitting politics, and look where being polite to villains got us.
-
And if you slow the deployment of vaccines that have kept people from getting measles, polio, hepatitis and countless other communicable diseases, people will die. Not because RFK Jr. is evil. But because he is a true believer who is totally unqualified for his job.
@SeanCasten Sorry, but he is evil. Because of his twisted ideology, babies are dying & kids are dying. Plus he supports a truly evil administration who mass murders school children in bombings, separates children from families, & runs concentration camps.
-
RFK Jr has no scientific training. He's a history major with a law degree who worked as an environmental advocate but has never spent any meaningful time doing science, or understanding how science is done. This isn't "an alternative scientific view". It's just kooky opinions. https://x.com/atrupar/status/2083907234405269638?s=20
But he can tell you how much the cocaine got stepped-on just by smell.
JrBob is still a junkie. And he's killing Americans and spreading disease.
No
More
Kennedys
In
AmericaThat name is verbotten.
-
Not to be mean.
I mean, I think it's okay to be mean to bad people. Yeah, calling out Kennedy's deficiencies shouldn't be done primarily to be mean, but bullying a bad person seems to me like a perfectly fine secondary objective.
We didn't bully Dubya, or Cheney, or Reagan into ragequitting politics, and look where being polite to villains got us.
It is absolutely fine to be "mean" to a man who is deliberately harming people. I don't care what excuse they give, the GOP is about harming people. I truly believe they get off on it.
RFK Jr. is dangerous not because of his background but because HE WANTS TO HURT PEOPLE. And he does not care who he kills or harms.
