My God in heaven, we are in the hands of the mad men.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sat down for an interview with Dr. Phil in the most conspicuous public gathering of charlatans since the last time the president dined alone. (By the way, Oprah? Sorry, but you gotta atone for Dr. Phil.) The substance of the conversation took place largely on a different plane of existence, but all you need to know is that Mr. Secretary actually used the magic phrase that has murdered science and rational argument in this century. From The New York Times:
“I would say that we live in a democracy, and part of the responsibility of being a parent is to do your own research,” the health secretary said, in response to a question from a woman in the audience who asked how he would advise a new parent about vaccine safety.”
He actually said it. “Do your own research.”
“You research the baby stroller, you research the foods that they’re getting, and you need to research the medicines that they’re taking as well.”
I’m sure Mr. Secretary has some interesting websites on which you can do your own research. Then you can learn how space aliens built Moses a nice house on the slopes of Mt. Horeb, where he ran a B&B until the Philistines bought him out.
Another vaccine expert, Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said Mr. Kennedy was being disingenuous. “He says that — doing your own research — knowing full well that when a parent does their own research, they are now mostly downloading an onslaught of disinformation — a lot of it from the health and wellness, nutritional supplement influencer industry trying to peddle alternatives.”
Always hip to da yout’, the Times was not fooled.
The phrase “I did my own research” became a cultural and political touchstone during the coronavirus pandemic, when proponents of vaccination, mostly on the political left, used it to denigrate those who had chosen not to get vaccinated. It became an internet meme and popped up on mock tombstones in Halloween-themed graveyards in liberal neighborhoods.
Substitute “sensible” for “liberal” and you’ve pretty much got it.
You have to be amazed by any conversation in which both participants agree that the late ferret Roger Ailes was a nice guy, and that isn’t the most unmoored thing said by either of them. My first choice would probably be Mr. Secretary’s assertion that we had less chronic disease during his uncle’s brief administration than we do today. This is not true. And, if it’s not too impolite to mention, Mr. Secretary’s uncle was a walking compendium of chronic disease his own self.
My second choice came when an audience member, and this was quite a crowd, seemed to ask Mr. Secretary how to keep her and her loved ones safe from the poison in … wait for it … chemtrails. Mr. Secretary whiffled through the 3×5 cards in his personal mental X Files, and said:
“That is not happening in my agency. We don’t do that. It’s done — we think — by DARPA and a lot of it now is coming out of the jet fuel. Those materials are put in jet fuel. I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it. We’re bringing on somebody who’s gonna think only about that, find out who’s doing that and hold them accountable.”
I want this job. A paycheck from Uncle Sugar to think only about something that doesn’t exist. Hire me immediately. Check me out. Do your own research.
