• Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Ardent anti-vaccine activist and current US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly on thin ice with Trump for not being anti-vaccine enough for the president’s liking

    How are there so many completely delusional people in the world in a time of education and information?
    Is the human brain rigged for insanity?

    I don’t mean RFK Jr. or Trump, but the fact that Trumps delusional policies got him elected in a country of 300+ million people.
    😡 🤥 🤡 🤮

    USA as a country and society is stark raving mad.

    • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Anti-vaxx stuff used to be on the fringes - once the stupidest people took over the Republican party anti-science sentiment in general came with them. Because they’re stupid.

    • SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today
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      23 hours ago

      I have lived in the bible belt all my life, still trying to escape. People are proud of their beliefs even though they aren’t true. “Everyone is entitled to their beliefs” is the common sentiment, but it’s wrong. Everyone is morally obligated to align their beliefs with reality as closely as they can.

      That’s where science comes in. It is not an authority, not a religion, not a system. It is a process we use to acquire and refine knowledge. Given the physical limitations of our senses and minds, it is the best we can do.

      People need to learn before we all die of stupid.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        Everyone is entitled to their beliefs

        That is such a stupid saying, basically it’s true that people are entitled to their beliefs, but that doesn’t make their beliefs worthy in any way, and it definitely doesn’t mean crazy beliefs have to be respected, and it also doesn’t mean they deserve special consideration.
        Everybody is also entitled to jump off a cliff, but what would be the point of such a statement?
        Americans fail to debunk the widespread insanity as a society, and as a result the insanity is spreading.

      • WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today
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        22 hours ago

        I don’t really wish death upon anyone, but there are definitely times when I wish we hadn’t been able to tackle COVID so quickly. Much more significant losses of people who obstinately refused to buy into the science would likely have made us come out of it FAR stronger than we did. We might not even have had Trump around any longer since he apparently got an early access dose of treatment.

        • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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          10 hours ago

          he got access to the expensive monoclonal treatment, definitely not accesible to even normal health insurance customers.

        • Talcosis@lemmy.zip
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          21 hours ago

          It wasn’t an early access dose of treatment outside the US, my (unconnected) grandpa got the same stuff at almost exactly the same time in a country with proper healthcare.

          • WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today
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            21 hours ago

            No offense, but that’s irrelevant since we’re talking the rules the US was operating under. I’m glad your grandpa was able to access it earlier than we could, but it doesn’t change the reality we were working with here.

            • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca
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              14 hours ago

              The point is, that scarcity in America had no bearing on if Trump would have gotten it. If there hadn’t been one dose of vaccine in America, or even if it had been illegal to dispense, Trump would have had it within 12 hours of thinking it was better to have that shot than risk the most important person in his world suffer an early death.

                • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca
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                  14 hours ago

                  Ah, so your fervent wish is that the whole world was as dumb as the average American, and that if it was bad enough then millions of stupid Americans and Trump would have died. In that case, you’re right, my previous comment was totally irrelevant.

                  This stupid wish doesn’t need a cursed monkey’s paw, the nicest genie in the world couldn’t have made this turn out okay.

                  • WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today
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                    13 hours ago

                    Wow. That’s… one interpretation. Did you miss taking your meds this morning?

                    We’re done here. I’m not dealing with someone so uncivil and plainly itching for an argument - I’ve already dealt with one of those recently & had my fill of bullshit. Good luck to you in getting your easily inflamed rage under control.

            • Talcosis@lemmy.zip
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              21 hours ago

              Heh, you think those rules were real and not just artificial scarcity used to prop up the price tag?

              • WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today
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                21 hours ago
                • There was no (direct) price tag in this instance. I’m sure we paid significantly for it through taxes, but how do you put a value on millions of lives?
                • Yes, those rules were real, and had been in place for quite some time. They were actually somewhat pared back for this issue.
                  • WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today
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                    20 hours ago

                    They were real for most everybody, with a path to exceptions in place for cases where it was a potential last ditch method of saving someone’s life. Trump’s treatment seemed to have bypassed even that process, but given the time constraints it was understandable.

                    Are we done with the inane & irrelevant arguments now?

    • HeartyOfGlass@piefed.social
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      22 hours ago

      You gotta understand the US’ version of democracy hasn’t functioned properly in decades. I don’t know what all happened; seems like a culmination of things.

      I mean, “the people” didn’t promote him to the head of the GOP presidential lineup. When he did something disrespectful and disgusting, he wasn’t dismissed by his party. He just assumed control. His words were repeated and analyzed by every news station as if he had merit. His wasn’t a grassroots movement, it was plotted & paid for by who knows (I’m assuming corporations & foreigners powers).

      Not to mention his uproar over voting machines during Biden’s entire term - I struggle to believe the same fascists pushing & investigating these machines & corporations for years prior to the election actually won said election.

      “Stark raving mad”? Maybe. “Delusional”? Also maybe. But I think more than anything the population is the victim of a broken government.

      • sobchak@programming.dev
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        5 hours ago

        There’s no good evidence of widespread voting shenanigans (yet; I’m worried about future elections). Trump was popular in rural US, and that pretty much explains everything. I agree with everything else you said though. There’s a ton of evidence of foreign meddling, and all the dark money in politics is basically legalized election influence for the wealthy.

      • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        I mean, “the people” didn’t promote him to the head of the GOP presidential lineup.

        They did, though. How do you think that happened? He was voted for in Republican primaries.

        You believing in “election fraud” is more destructive to our government than not. Believing wild bullshit without evidence is what you criticize in one breath and then actively do in the next.

        • HeartyOfGlass@piefed.social
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          6 hours ago

          I think your blind faith is more destructive than my hunch, so I guess we come out even, eh? Who put Trump there to begin with? Who allowed him to run on the GOP ticket at all? Who convinced his rivals to drop out so they could get positions in the new regime?

          “The people” have been convinced they’re in a competition where the ‘other side’ wants to ruin their lives. To far too many Americans, it’s not a choice of good or bad, it’s “Red or Dead”. The people sure as shit didn’t spontaneously divide themselves bitterly along party lines.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Claiming the population as a whole is victim of the government they themselves elect is circular logic. And makes it an obviously false proposition.
        Yes democracy in USA is dysfunctional, but it is still a representative democracy.

        • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          It’s functional and it is a democracy, the biggest problem is the first-past-the-post system. Most of other forms of democracy seem to work better but we’re super wrapped up in tradition and nationalism so people get offended if you suggest something could be improved.