Robert F. Kennedy Jr. represents what happens when a nation looks to podcast hosts and self-professed journalists more interested in boosting subscriber numbers than dealing in facts, for their opinions.
Much of our society has become ratings driven; a million mini-narcissists looking to cash in as influencers and content creators, mining the digital gold rush that has been gaining momentum in our tech-driven, attention economy.
Outrage and anger can be turned into cold hard cash on either side of our current political spectrum; each time you donate to ‘help us fight back’ you are supporting PACs that more often than not are more interested in building their own brands than actually being effective advocates.
Their own celebrity quickly overshadows whatever good intentions they may have begun with.
Much of this dynamic has of course been fed by the ‘cannot look away’ train wreck of the Trump years and the GOP chaos agents who have decided to follow Trump’s lead into celebrity as its own reward.
It has become the coin of the realm in political circles; the ‘no such thing as bad press’ has made freshman pols very wealthy, very fast.
Beware of anyone trying to get in on the act.
Especially if they have a long track record of boorish behavior and promoting outlandish conspiracy theories, such as the scion of America’s most famous and revered political dynasty.
The last thing this country needs is another ne’er-do-well son of a famous and more competent father (and in RFK’s case, legendarily inspiring and gone far too soon), trading in on the family name to serve outside interests.
In Bush 43’s case, we all got to watch him dance on the strings of Dick Cheney to serve the oil & gas industry, the war profiteers at Halliburton/ KBR and whatever behind the scenes deals they had with Saudi Arabia’s richest families (including many of the Bin Ladens who were flown out of the States under protection in the days after 9/11).
Trump was obviously dancing on many strings for outside interests - including KSA’s, Putin’s and whatever side deals Jared Kushner was concocting in the Middle East.
Trump is now diverting campaign contributions for his 2024 presidential campaign to pay his legal fees for crimes he committed after losing the 2020 election; including stealing and potentially sharing classified documents, interfering with the post-election ballots and fomenting an insurrection on January 6th to stop the electoral ballot certification.
Trump did all these things to grift, slaking his avarice with pathological criminal behavior.
Anybody who was truly honest about who Trump was in the decades before he became POTUS would expect nothing less from such a flawed and unsavory character.
We should apply the same magnifying glass to RFK Jr. and any other Democratic Party spoilers and chaos agents that pop up.
We sort of collectively gave Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard a pass when they appeared in primary debates along with actual Democrats, only to show their true colors when their candidacies failed to connect.
I have no doubt RFK Jr. will join them as frequent contributors to Fox News and other right-wing outlets as soon as his stint as a spoiler candidate and conspiracy-theory-spouting, deranged-uncle act is over.
Being obnoxious is a lifestyle brand now in the United States.
Millions of people don’t even think twice about behaviors that even twenty years ago would have been anathema to a civilized society.
We’re losing it.
The stunts that Joe Rogan, Elon Musk and RFK Jr. pulled the weekend before last, by attacking Dr. Peter Hotez online and challenging him to a ‘debate’ was a perfect example of this mostly recent phenomena.
Their actions would have garnered apologies, retribution from their corporate sponsors in years past and there would have been some sort of public admonishment stemming from such an imbroglio.
Instead, a doctor who helped provide free vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable had to hire round-the-clock security and was confronted at his home on Father’s Day; while the ‘Joe Rogan Podcast’ no doubt became more popular, Musk got his narcissistic adrenaline fix he so desperately needs and RFK Jr. got to promote his conspiracy theories and his deranged campaign for President.
Civilization itself loses in these equations, not to mention what becomes of democracy herself when he who lies the loudest gets equal footing in the narrative.
Idiots with outsize influence have been a fixture of these broken years we are all living through and their misdeeds are not without consequence.
Just ask the hundred thousand Texans who died needlessly because they fell under the sway of anti-vaxxers and corrupt GOP politicians more concerned with personal power than public safety.
Texas will reach temperatures that rival and exceed the Sahara over the coming week; meanwhile, their feeble and immensely corrupt governor rescinded a law that mandated water breaks for construction workers and other laborers that toil under an unrelenting sun, made hotter every year by the industry that owns the Republican politicians of the Lone Star State without exception.
A crueler irony may not exist: that it is served up with an extra dose of meanness just makes it all the more maddening.
We all suffer for these misdeeds.
Many of us have forgotten what it feels like to live in a society that goes out of its way to look out for others.
I spent a couple of weeks in Amsterdam and Lisbon recently and the feeling between those fine and functioning cities and much of the USA right now could not have been in more stark relief.
Put aside the sanity of a place like Holland and the Dutch spirit of cooperation for which they are justifiably famous (at least among each other, historical colonialism notwithstanding).
Over the course of the trip I was never exposed to the toxic cacophony that we have grown so accustomed to in daily American life.
Whether online or on our roads, there is an inherent aggressiveness to our society now that is wholly unhealthy and blocking us off as a people from seeking some higher rewards of a society; doing the work of moving together as a people instead of tearing each other apart.
Folks modify their muffler systems on American highways in order to be louder and more intimidating to their fellow commuters.
In Amsterdam, they quietly line up for the free ferries that will carry them across the Amstel River to the central train station and all points local and far away.
Or they hop on their bikes and ride on smartly laid out bike lanes that traverse the city and its canals and provide a fast-paced rhythm that should end in catastrophe but turns into pure delight with the ease and civility of intracity travel.
Not to mention what it does for the human spirit to move together, in concert, under our own power instead of burning yet more fossils fuels on a planet already on the brink.
In Lisbon, I watched what seemed like all of Portugal descend on that beautiful and ancient city to celebrate the Feast of St. Anthony.
They packed it’s winding streets that snaked up its hills until you felt like you were climbing above the sunset itself and dancing for no other reason than being alive.
They ate sardines, and drank beer and laughed and sang and didn’t seem like they were going to let anything get in the way of a good time.
I didn’t see any of the rancor and potential menace a similar crowd would bring in the United States, where many of our conservative states have open carry firearms laws, mass shootings with weapons of war are common place and increasingly caused by extremist white supremacists being indoctrinated by far right-wing rhetoric that has been making its way into the mainstream at an alarming rate.
We are the nation of men and women who yearn to breathe free but our untreated trauma and antisocial behavior is spoiling the party for many.
It is not too late.
In the coming week we will celebrate the birth of our nation and the ideals to which we charted a flawed and circuitous path but one that still has the full potential of delivering us onto the shores of the righteous.
We just need to cut through the dark clouds and find the North Star again.
This was well written. I'm over 55, and keep wondering if I want to spend my last decades here or in a place with lower stress and common decency. I'm not sure if we can get to a place of caring for one another, well being, and humane quality of life anytime soon.
Are you on Telegram?