In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. And among those diseases could be COVID-19.
Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong. A leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said he received a “standing ovation” from a “hardcore MAGA” crowd at a recent speaking engagement for floating the idea of a bipartisan Trump-Kennedy ticket. “Bobby Kennedy would be, I think, an excellent choice for President Trump to consider” as a running mate, Bannon said this week on his War Room show.
Roger Stone, the former Richard Nixon aide who was one of Trump’s early political advisers, called Trump-Kennedy a “dream ticket” on the news program Real America.
While Stone said he disagrees with Kennedy on some issues, he likes the candidate's opposition to “globalists” and skepticism of continued U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia. “On those geopolitical ideas, he makes a lot of sense. In fact, he sounds a lot like Donald Trump,” Stone said.
Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, on Friday tweeted, “I am really starting to like this presidential candidate’s attitude.”
Turning Point USA head Charlie Kirk on April 6 called Kennedy “one of the most articulate and thoughtful political activists going after the administrative state.”
A day earlier, conservative talk show host Steve Deace posted a picture with Kennedy on Twitter saying, “As long as he doesn’t go trans, a man with high character and courage like RFK Jr will be tempting.” And QAnon influencer Jordan Sather posted to Trump’s Truth Social platform saying he hopes to see “RFK Jr. redpilling the hell out of libs on the vaccine.”
..
An environmental lawyer by trade, Kennedy has devoted much of his adult life to attacking what he views as an unholy alliance between the pharmaceutical industry, the government and the media to promote vaccinations, which he claims are responsible for autism and other chronic diseases, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence against that theory.
...
I don’t agree with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on some topics, but he’s a man of integrity that fights fluoride and poison shots and fentanyl and everything else. He’s a good man,” Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist said on his Infowars broadcast this month. “He’s got a lot of guts, and I really support him for the Democratic nomination.”
