Is this in part because we keep the word 'theory' linked to long settled science, such as evolution, suggesting unfoubded to unfounded doubt? I've never heard of 'germ theory' and it is a poor choice of words.
Germ theory was/is the name for the (well backed up) theory that disease is caused by germs, which are actual things we can see with microscopes etc. Prior to germ theory was miasma (bad air) in western cultures. A cholera outbreak in England is noted as a major turning point on this.
That brain worm is dead, having ended itself over ten years ago in the hopes of escaping the otherwise neverending hell of living inside of RFK Jr's rotting brain.
Clearly you haven't been EDUCATED about the EMERGING science that has found with a confirmed negative inverse anti-correlation that most disease —or more correctly, DIS-EASE—is actually caused by BAD VIBES. In rare cases, an imbalance in the BODILY HUMOURS contributes to the dis-ease.
Nooooo, this man belongs in a prison cell for multiple life terms for all of the deaths he's directly responsible for, i.e., his cousins whom he plied with heroin, his exwife whom he drove to suicide and the 83 deaths and 57 hundred measles cases in American Samoa he caused with his lies.
Ugh. It's literally the opposite... I wonder if we could convince any of the centrist muscleheads by using the analogy that vaccines are a little workout for the immune system.
I'm shocked that this administration still finds ways to get my jaw to drop. Is there anything they aren't trying to fucking ruin just for shits and giggles
every reference to the phrase is basically just saying "why focus on AIDS instead of helping people?" from a guy who also doesn't want to help those people
The theory was common until the late 19th century. Led to some sanitation improvements, and draining swamps to try to control malaria (literally, "bad air")
Kennedy clan: for all that is sacred and honest, please stage a family intervention and have him committed. This is far beyond eccentric, and he's going to kill enough people that we'll talk about it in percentages.
Because it was once a popular theory that kinda worked, until better science came along. I don't think miasma was quackery so much as it was an attempt to explain what was being observed, before germs superseded it.
The air was bad, but it was the germs in the air causing disease.
I don’t care what he says about anything with regard to health. He👏Is👏Not👏A👏Dr!!! He has a worm in his brain and was addicted to drugs for years. He is a Kennedy and has money so people listen to him. That is the only difference between him and the crackpot spouting nonsense on my street corner.
@michaelhobbes.bsky.social @notalawyer.bsky.social this is probably not what you meant by If Books Could Kill but like if your Patreon backers want to hear you lose your entire shit on a live microphone then this might make a decent bonus episode
"It's so unbelievable, because you can't imagine that someone who's the head of Health and Human Services doesn't believe that specific viruses or bacteria cause specific diseases, and that the prevention or treatment of them is lifesaving."
rfk jr. is a jackass. i'm sorry he can't speak clearly and then when i can understand him...i just want to punch him and sew his mouth shut!!!! he spews nonsense that just hurts people!
It is insane to me that we're regressing this hard, that our leader of the NHS is embracing centuries old ideas that will lead us back into the dark ages.
Dr. Paul Offit tried to make it a topic of the conversation but it barely broke through. Some senator asked RFK Jr. if he believes in germ theory, and that was it. They didn't bring up his writing on it. Very few media outlets ever mentioned it (mostly, just a few blogs noted it).
Look, the hours some Dem Senate staffer might spend reading that book ahead of a confirmation are hours that are much better spent confering with political consultants about how precisely to calibrate the obsequiousness of their senators statements praising Kennedy's big muscles and impressive name.
It’s the old version. In medieval times they believed the plague was passed through a miasma (bad smells) that could be stopped by sniffing flowers. Plague doctors had their masks stuffed with flowers so that they wouldn’t get sick.
Further, 4 century BC Hippocrates II created his theory when trying to explain that we got ill due to external factors, a huge leap at the time. It wasn’t until 1800’s that we identified micro organisms. RFK, inhabits a different plane of reality from the rest of us, mad as a box of frogs.
I think the author meant that they aren’t speculating about what he believes because he has directly stated it, not that his views themselves aren’t speculation. A politer “we aren’t making this up, he said the damn thing” basically.
Pretty soon he’ll be espousing the benefits of a tobacco smoke enema, “an insufflation of tobacco smoke into the rectum by enema.” Oh, wait!He’s been blowing smoke up our asses for months!
His grandfather the NAZi sympathiser had his aunt lobotomised .
The “ good” Kennedys managed to die young and not actually get caught up in the disaster that was the US in the 60s.
Whenever you see a particularly cartoonishly stupid villain in any work of fiction and find yourself having trouble believing anyone would be so silly in the head... remember RFK, Jr.
Want to hear something depressing? That book has over 7,000 reviews on Audible and an average rating of 4.9 stars. That's 4.9 out of 5 stars, not 100. Amazon rating is 4.8 with 26.5K reviews.
I tried reading the reviews, but I had to stop to protect what was left of my sanity.
The only people reviewing and buying it are people who already believed that garbage and wanted to have someone validate their caveman views... And bots
Even if the reviews are legit, you have to think about who is actually reading that drivel and then reviewing it. Anyone who would give it a bad review already wouldn't touch that shit with a 10 foot pole.
Taking it a step further, the danger is that the great reviews remove friction with impressionable people from reading the book and normalizing the certifiably insane viewpoints of RFK.
My grandmother didn't believe in germ theory but at least she had the excuse of having never graduated high school and being functionally illiterate (less than an 8th grade reading level).
Comments
2. I am ok w it going over my head bc ableism and sanism.
The phrase "The White Man's Burden" originates with a poem by Rudyard Kipling, his celebration of the oppressive world domination of colonial England.
And he wrote The Jungle Book.
The damage to the US health system and overall impact on global health situation hardly can be overstated.
I expect Bill Maher to pipe up about how unfair it is to criticize germ theory denial.
Also, hey, did you all know that Bill Maher also believes in this nonsense? He genuinely thinks vaccines make your immune system lazy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NSJPTo1Nwc&t=323s
A pocket full of posies
Achoo! Achoo!
We all fall down.
Bobby is definitely hubristic.
The air was bad, but it was the germs in the air causing disease.
That's his name now. I changed it.
Now someone get me his birth certificate and a sharpie and we'll make it official
"It's so unbelievable, because you can't imagine that someone who's the head of Health and Human Services doesn't believe that specific viruses or bacteria cause specific diseases, and that the prevention or treatment of them is lifesaving."
It can be challenging to find one specific needle in a crazy needlestack...
https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/30/nx-s1-5281457/rfk-jr-vaccines-race-confirmation-hearings
White Man's "Burden"
https://www.vox.com/2015/7/2/8884885/american-revolution-mistake
Might die later from dysentery IDK
The UNironic return of *bloodletting* to "fix" shit is on his radar, isn't it?
I smell a rotting brain.
☠️☠️☠️
What?
WHAT?
He vaccinates his kids.
Thanks! I bet Doug Heye is singing a different tune now
if someone can verify this, I'd love to see it
...ohhhhh my gods, it is.
Man, every new thing I hear about that guy breaches hitherto unknown depths beyond the bottom of the barrel.
#doYourOwnResearch
The “ good” Kennedys managed to die young and not actually get caught up in the disaster that was the US in the 60s.
He hurts my ears and my brain.
I tried reading the reviews, but I had to stop to protect what was left of my sanity.
Maybe someone in the “Press” will ask Trump?
Ha ha, yea, sure they will …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/05/01/senate-vote-epa-air-pollution/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
“No no, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide are good smells”
Frankly, the worm would be more interesting and intelligent than Jr.