• @ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
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      5725 days ago

      In images shared on social media, Kennedy can be seen getting fully underwater, including his head, and then splashing around with several of his grandchildren. Kennedy, who does not have any background in medicine or science, was a long-time anti-vaccine advocate before President Trump appointed him to be health secretary. In a 2021 book, Kennedy indicated that he does not believe in germ theory, the fundamental concept that microscopic pathogens, such as those abundant in sewage, are the cause of disease.

      Prions have the opportunity to do the funniest thing

      • @Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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        324 days ago

        Did the brain worm leave anything for the prions to replicate in or for the poor brain-eating amoeba?

    • @immutable@lemm.ee
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      1524 days ago

      I get sometimes going “I’ll roll the dice”

      • Me: I’d like my steak medium rare
      • Government: That could expose you to some health risks because it’s not cooked well done.
      • Me: Yep, I’d rather enjoy a medium rare steak and take my chances.

      What the fuck was the logic on this one though?!

      • RFK: I want to swim in sewage
      • Government: it’s a bad idea to swim in sewage
      • RFK: I LOVE SEWAGE!!!
      • Government: you are a Kennedy right? You all dont have a pool?
      • RFK: worm in brain need poop, poop in water, yum yum poop
  • @itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    14624 days ago

    Stop calling everyone a “skeptic” and call them what they are: deniers. Anti-science, fact resistant deniers. Calling people germ-theory skeptics, or climate skeptics, or vaccine skeptics, and so on and so on, makes it sound like there’s an honest scientific debate going on

    • goodeye8
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      4124 days ago

      Exactly. Skepticism is about casting doubt on beliefs and dogmas, not outright rejecting facts. When it comes to germs and vaccines there’s scientific consensus on those matters. They’re as close to facts as you can get. But rejecting those you’re not a skeptic, you’re a denier. There’s no scientific debate on those topics, only a political debate on whether to reject science or not.

          • @xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1524 days ago

            i’m adding, not disagreeing… guess i should’ve said, “yeah comrade, well put, scientists are the real skeptics 🤝”
            but, for the record, i agree with your preceding comment.
            i apologize for lack of clarity 🎩 🤏

            • TomAwsm
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              24 days ago

              This comment is peak Lemmy 🤌

              (I mean this in the best possible way)

    • Lorem Ipsum dolor sit amet
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      1824 days ago

      I’m sorry but “Germ-theory sceptic” is damaging enough considering the last one should have died in the 1800’s.

      • @Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        724 days ago

        I honest to God can’t believe how such fucking morons managed to get power. RFK jr. Would have been seen as a bigger crackpot than Alex Jones if he wasn’t RFK’s son.

      • @Almacca@aussie.zone
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        324 days ago

        He’ll be calling himself a ‘gravity-theory sceptic’ next and flinging himself off a building. It’s the only next logical step.

    • @Akasazh@feddit.nl
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      1224 days ago

      ‘idiots’ is my preferred term. I’m in favor of calling stupid people out again. Too long has stupidity been condoned and even championed ‘He tells it like it is’.

      They are morons and need to be called that unabashedly.

    • chingadera
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      2425 days ago

      For real just call him a reality skeptic and be done with it.

    • @Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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      324 days ago

      I would plead for someone to show this man a microscope but I fear the conclusions he might draw.

  • Headofthebored
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    24 days ago

    Usually the people in charge of regimes like this are often sadistic hypocrites and absolutely know that what they spout is bullshit. RFK jr. here on the other hand, is apparently actually a fucking idiot.

  • @ZC3rr0r@lemmy.ca
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    6625 days ago

    Wouldn’t it be an absolute riot of a “leopards ate my face” situation if he ends up croaking because of this?

    To clarify: I don’t wish any harm on his grandchildren, but this man’s level of willful ignorance and sheer recklessness makes it hard for me to sympathize with any negative outcome he may suffer personally.

  • @MNByChoice@midwest.social
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    5625 days ago

    the creek’s bacterial counts—particularly E. coli counts—were dangerously high all the time.

    Sorry for those children.

    • Goldholz
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      1524 days ago

      Worm or sickness? Who will be faster! MAKE YOUR BETS NOW!

  • Lovable Sidekick
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    24 days ago

    Like most con men, RFK is using people’s ignorance of what odds mean. If the chance of getting sick from swimming in that water is only say one percent, he knows the odds are extremely good that he won’t individually get sick, and then he will palm this off as “evidence” that it’s all a big fuss over nothing. The park service might know maybe 100,000 people will swim in that water this season, so they’ll probably save about a thousand from getting sick by closing the place. Even if somebody who does get sick manages to get the attention of a news outlet, they can be scoffed at as an anomaly. “How do you even know the water was responsible? Where else have you been? You’re just looking for attention!”

    • @andros_rex@lemmy.world
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      1224 days ago

      This is how dumbasses are going to kill us all. “I grew up drinking milk straight from the cow and never got sick! Big government just wants to prevent you from unlocking the magic of drinking pus!”

      • Lovable Sidekick
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        123 days ago

        They won’t kill us all, just the ones dumb enough to believe reverting to the pre-science era to reinforce political beliefs is a good idea.

    • GratefullyGodless
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      3025 days ago

      To him: yes. To his grandkids: no. They don’t deserve to get sick and possibly die just because their grandpa is an idiot.

      • @iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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        2324 days ago

        Funny enough not even Steve Jobs level money can save you if you prefer alternative treatments over modern medicine. Of course despite your stupidity you end up stealing a liver that actually someone else deserves more because you are stinking rich but even that does not prevent the inevitable.

  • @MangoCats@feddit.it
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    3725 days ago

    Stuff like this isn’t a problem, until it is.

    What was in that sewage? Anybody with typhoid? Diphtheria? Probably not because vaccination and treatment is still over herd immunity levels. Then, of course, there were the kids who used to get vaccinated for Polio naturally by exposure to untreated sewage, and us rich countries having terrible cases of polio survival in older people because we didn’t bathe in toilet outflows.

    Thing is, it’s a numbers game. The first hundred people might not get sick, immediately, but if you form two lines, one bathing in the sewage pool and the other bathing in a treated sanitary pool, run 100 people a day through each one and track them for two weeks, you’ll see the differences. That’s why we have scientific publications, so we can read about these kinds of past experiments and don’t have to repeat them.

    • @ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      625 days ago

      Yes, but… have you considered that no one who listens to this dispshit cares about all that? That’s the issue at hand. Everyone with common sense knows this is an idiotic publicity stunt.

      • @MangoCats@feddit.it
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        324 days ago

        Just like DeSantis & Co. getting their COVID jabs on camera, sitting around for 5 minutes and then saying “see: I’m fine, it’s not harmful.”

        Bashing low flow shower heads, engine stop-start at red-lights, and everything they hear anyone bitching about - this is the party of “give the people what they want!”

        What I want to know is: besides John McAfee, who wants to bathe in poo?