The woke-washing of right-wingers in opposition to public health.
Spare me arguments that someone against public health is going to solve public health issues.
(If you’re unfamiliar with the term “woke-washing” it means using progressive or pro-social concepts disingenuously to defend things that aren’t woke at all in order to trick people into silence with DARVO. Related terms are green-washing or pink-washing.)
I’ve been a little disturbed by people trying to bully me into watching some interview, in order to “understand” that (not true) Bernie Sanders is a supporter of RFK Jr. (he’s not). And worse, that (also not true) RFK Jr. is an embattled savior against big business (he’s not).
I’m always disgusted by and suspicious of people claiming to be on the left trying to tell me I should like this or that because of this or that person - seemingly thinking someone like Bernie Sanders is like a god to people assumed to be progressive, or generally on the left. It’s an insult to my autonomy. I don’t decide to think something because Bernie Sanders says it. I almost feel like that reveals the person to be right-wing in some way. Looking for “heros” like the flag I’ve seen in a neighbor’s yard with Trump depicted like a Fabio figure from the cover of a bodice-ripping period romance novel.
I do happen to like a lot of what Bernie Sanders has to say because it happens to coincide with a lot of stuff I already thought, and witnessed for many years. And in fact a lot of the policies and issues Bernie Sanders talks about happen to be what a lot of Americans actually agree upon. But he’s not some god. He’s a politician who makes deals and compromises - he’s a U.S. Senator wheeling and dealing in Washington DC. That’s his job, and he seems to do it better than most, but that’s not my role - I’m not a representative of the entire population of Vermont who needs to find bipartisan ways to get things done or whatever. I’m a person who wants good public health policy. And RFK Jr. is objectively against basic forms of effective public health. And the idea that he’s going to get more regulation on processed food as part of an administration with highly articulated and distinctly mapped out plans to dismantle the administrative state that does the regulation in order to get rid of regulation… Well that is completely ridiculous magical thinking.
The American Prospect - Dr. Strangekennedy - Or, how you should learn to worry more about illiberal politics in liberal guise by Rick Perlstein November 27, 2024 The HHS chapter includes this line: “We must shut and lock the revolving door between government and Big Pharma.” It sounds like something Bernie Sanders would say. Read the whole chapter, and you recognize it as part of a saga meant to frame all COVID-era public-health measures as an elite conspiracy to enrich what it calls “a small group of highly paid and unaccountable insiders.” Calls to ban pharmaceutical advertising, for which RFK has also received praise from some on the left, sound great, too—but in context, they come off as a Trump-style vengeance play against a rival power center: something to use as a bargaining chip to bend Big Pharma to their will.
And even if one man was able to go against the entirety of the Trump administration and all the Project 2025 big business backers, and the Great Barrington Declaration proponents, and the fossil fuel and commercial real estate interests… all who are against public health in various ways. Even if RFK Jr. could keep one one and only one regulatory body for exclusively processed foods (or more likely just foods he thinks aren’t “pure” whatever that might mean)… even so what good does that do when the rest of the food supply is contaminated with infectious diseases and we can’t get vaccines for stuff?
Perhaps people think he’s going to “raise awareness” about ultraprocessed foods and thereby solve the problem? The deal with that is we’ve been aware of the problems with ultraprocessed foods for years!
Don’t wait for the influencers. Don't Wait For Everybody - Episode 010 Chloe Humbert Sep 21, 2024 I’m all for more science. We definitely need more studies and more data, advancing science-based preventions and treatments. I’ve been shouting from the rooftops for years that we need more good science out there being published, considering all the pseudoscience product purveyors and the anti-vaxxers keep pumping out their publishing, even if some of them keep having work retracted. But information alone will not bring change, clearly, as demonstrated about the worsening climate situation we’re in. In July 2024 there was a New York Times article about ultraprocessed foods and why they’re so hard to resist. There was also a New York Times article published way back over a decade ago — in February 2013 explaining the science of addictive junk food. And yet, you can find a science publication in 2022 pointing out that ultraprocessed food is still offered in schools despite it being associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. Awareness is not change. Publishing is not political praxis.
We’ve also been aware about climate change, and air pollution - but they’re still planning on burning tires in Pennsylvania for no other purpose than to print cryptocurrency.
None of these problems get solved via “consciousness” of anything. That’s an elitist right-wing wellness fantasy. It takes people pushing for regulations - and the right-wing agenda is the opposite of that.
And Matt Stoller seemed to think that JD Vance and Matt Gaetz were signs that Trump was leading pro Lina Kahn conservatives. But as we see, that didn’t come to pass. Already Trump has announced a guy to replace Lina Kahn who’s promising to undo the pro-worker anti-corporate agenda at the FTC and make it more pro-business.
Lina Khan Proves Right-Wing "Populists" Are Con Artists The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder Dec 11, 2024 Matt Lech: “this is one good thing that was and why it was preferable to have Democrats in power versus Republicans now um because of this sort of uh these sort of Labor policies and it is a stark difference and don't let people uh confuse you with election spending it is absolutely corrupt that Democrats take so much money from these businesses but these businesses invest in Democrats because they're worried Democrats might win and do something about them whereas they don't need to buy Republicans cuz Republicans are already theirs and just as evidence of this this is in the financial times the paper I read every day today merger Monday buying spree signals deals Revival since Trump election this was yesterday us companies forged more than $35 billion in deals yesterday marking the clearest surge in deal making confidence since Trump's election Victory including uh Mars uh the Giant Food conglomerate and a Capital One um so yeah this populism stuff or this idea that um like like very clearly we have two capitalist parties but there is one which is has the knives out and one which has a difficult Balancing Act to do and now that Trump and the Republicans have won all of these business people just get to go hug wild and consolidate and become bigger and bigger and bigger”
If there was populist demand for anti-monopoly, perhaps Republican politicians would have to budge a bit. But most conservative and liberal voters don’t speak up against corporations for fear of being called “unemployed losers” for daring to criticize “job creators”, and most anti-monopolists are Democrats who just don’t see the value in writing to their Republican senators who could’ve mounted support for Khan, because they don’t agree with their Republican senators. I hear so many people who say “I don’t need to write to my Democratic Senator because he already agrees with me” and also will say “I don’t bother writing my Republican Senator because they won’t agree with me” and this couldn’t be a worse self-own frankly, because the right-wing is very busy pressuring all your representatives, scaring their Republican representatives and persuading Democrats to “reach across the aisle” and become more conservative to please their vocal right-leaning constituent frequent fliers.
The Dark History Behind RFK Jr.'s Health Policies The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder Dec 11, 2024 in the case of uh RFK Jr um couple points can be made one is that you know um even though you know a lot of what he says is you know very enticing and sounds quite humanitarian you know taking apart big Ag you know uh nailing big pharma to the wall which is also a big part of Project 2025 uh even though it sounds enticing uh it often means kind of eviscerating the kinds of institutions that it actually requires to do those things but the other point I made in the piece is that actually there's actually a long tradition on the right of this kind of purity - bodily purity politics which is actually one of the scarier kind of fascist traditions on the right - right and I gave as you know the example from the early 60s uh the right-wing crusade that held that fluoridation of water was a communist plot right so anyone who's seen Dr. Strangelove knows you know that hilarious scene in which the right-wing General says that um the Communists are trying to sap our purity of essence and have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water right
I see it all as more evidence that humane people need to step up into putting more pressure on politicians. I don’t think we’re going to have anything but more backsliding into a new dark age in the immediate future. But sometimes the payoff isn’t seen immediately - it’s the support that’s built up for the future which needs to be communicated now. The right-wing have been at this for years while the left has been divided and co-opted.
So we can’t wait for anybody else. Certainly not some weirdo who buys into right-wing eugenicsy kind of stuff. And casting about for “signs” of hope that something good will come from “behind the scenes” or “where we least expect it” is not going to lead anywhere good. But there are things you can do. Organizing does work. But there’s something you can do without without having to commit to any political party, or having to formally join any organization - and that’s speaking up to your elected politicians about what you actually care about.
You don’t need RFK Jr. You don’t need Bernie Sanders either. You can start lobbying the government right now on processed foods or about any other public health concerns you have.
American Journal of Public Health - LAW AND LEGISLATION - JAMES A. TOBEY, LL. B., DR. P. H. Pass the Parker Bill - 1928 (NIH.gov) Though the Parker Bill by the amendments lost a certain effectiveness, it is still a very important measure, especially in its provisions for allowing the detail of U. S. Public Health Service personnel to other government bureaus; in granting a commissioned status to sanitary engineers and other scientific personnel of the service; in providing for a Nurse Corps; and in setting up a national advisory health council. Sanitarians are still interested in this excellent measure and keenly desirous that it be passed now. If it is not, the bill must be reintroduced and passed all over again in the next Congress. It would be helpful if sanitarians would communicate with their United States Senators and Representatives regarding this important matter. Do it now.
Join me. Write your reps. Do it now.
"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." — Alice Walker