"Describing [RFK's] views as ‘controversial,’ I think, is dishonest. They’re not controversial. They’re false. He’s not spreading controversial views, he’s spreading lies. And so the framing matters enormously, and that’s something that I foresee being a huge, huge issue in the 2024 campaign."
Agreed!
Some key distinctions made by journalist Seth Mnookin in this sharp interview. (He wrote a book about the anti-vaccine movement in 2011.)
I have a hard time calling them lies cause I think he believes them. I think he's very mentally damaged from his emotional experiences. Like Hunter.
On the political stage there is no functional difference between incompetence and malice. The one will always fuel the other, and the harms caused by them are indistinguishable in the end.
Besides, whether or not RFK actually believes them, the anti-vax stories began as lies, they'll end as lies, and they're mostly spread by liars.
for the audience, there's no difference. but there's all the difference in the world as to whether a conversation with them can get them to stop spreading the misinformation. maybe even turn them into an asset for changing minds since they now have the trust of those on the other side.
and what we think we know might always be wrong. we have to approach the public conversation with empathy and epistemic humility, lest we become like the worst visions we have of them.
@cadenza @theogrin @jayrosen_nyu
most of the world thought Sinead was nutty and wrong and her words would have a horrible impact. And that SNL did the right thing banning her. Or the bands that Clear Channel took off the radio during the Iraq War.
the companies (which are too big tho) have the right to decide, as they do now re RFK Jr. and there's not infinite space for every voice. but if somebody isn't acting out of bad faith, you treat them equally. show they are wrong if you believe that.
@wjmaggos @cadenza @jayrosen_nyu
Sinead's repudiation of the Catholic church was hardly out of left field. For decades beforehand, the 'joke' about abuse, particularly sexual, in the Catholic church was treated as simply an understanding of How Things Were, and calling them out for that was an act meant to curtail that harm, much like her refusal to sing following the US national anthem and her activism in general.
Contrast the fact that Kennedy's words are written to cause untold harm, no matter where they originated: Wakefield's Lancet article, or elsewhere. Anti-vaccination is a eugenics movement, full stop.
For what it's worth, innumerable folks have tried in the past to show that RFK and his ilk are spreading dangerous lies. But, no matter how often they're proven wrong, antivaxxers will continue to move the goalposts if not outright denying the argument.
It's no question that at this point, he'll continue to cause harm until he's no longer given a platform.
Jay Rosen
william.maggos
Jennifer Kayla | Theogrin 🦊
Pamela Ehn