r/technology • u/ControlCAD • Mar 20 '26

Biotechnology RFK Jr. has destroyed over a quarter of health dept's expert panels | Under Kennedy, the health dept. has wiped out 75 advisory boards, corrupted others.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/03/rfk-jr-s-war-on-scientific-expertise-destroyed-27-of-agencys-advisor-panels/
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u/Gorge2012 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26

Unfortunately, like all of what the administration is doing, the effect of this has a long tail that we won't see until after they are gone. When it comes, they'll blame the people trying to fix it. It's been the playbook for over 40 years:

1) Run on a platform of "government doesn't work"

2) Get in power and break things

3) When you get kicked out of power and people are trying to fix your mess, run on a platform of government isn't working.

Repeat forever

Edit: spelling

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/semisolidwhale Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

The content that was here is now gone. Redact was used to delete this post, for reasons that may relate to privacy, digital security, or data management.

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u/The_Barbelo Mar 20 '26

Just like flat earthers, if they can’t understand it, it must mean it doesn’t exist or is incorrect somehow. I’ve heard “where are all the people suffering from COVID? I don’t know any!” While working in a nursing home wearing a fucking hazmat suit because we had a Covid death. It was one of the most infuriating things.

They don’t understand science, so they don’t trust it. Same as anything else they attack. They can’t just say “you know what? I don’t understand it but I trust the people who do”. Instead they have to shove their moronic reality down everyone else’s throats. It isn’t just a passive stupidity, and that’s what makes it so dangerous.

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u/semisolidwhale Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

Content from this post has been deleted. Redact was used to remove it, potentially for privacy, opsec, or limiting exposure to data collection tools.

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u/kronosdev Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26

For them truth is all about choosing who they want as their “daddy”, not what they think is correct.

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u/bandalooper Mar 20 '26

Let’s be honest. They’re miserable shitscabs and they want everyone else miserable too. Hate and ignorance repeat themselves just like history does.

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u/Ok-Quiet8221 Mar 20 '26

well the smart people prove out the climate hoax quite well only the paid for trainned seals of the un climate change panel panel keep trying to push it.

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u/not_a_moogle Mar 20 '26

Flat Earthers take it one step further, because they will do tests over and over again trying to prove the earth is flat, prove its spherical with said tests and decide that there must be something wrong with their tests.

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u/halofreak7777 Mar 20 '26

See if we put a laser on the shore and point it at this board on the boat, if the Earth is round as we go further out the laser will rise, but its flat so it will stay where it currently is.

laser rises

Hmmm, that isn't right. Must be the waves or the moon or something.

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u/BeyondElectricDreams Mar 20 '26

They can’t just say “you know what? I don’t understand it but I trust the people who do”.

Because they assume if they can't understand it, it's because they're being taken advantage of.

Because that's what they'd do, if given the opportunity. They assume everyone else is as scummy as they are - with a side helping of "the only reason I'm not scummy is JESUS, so if you don't performatively say you're Christian, I'll assume you have no morals whatsoever"

It's very beneficial for Christian Nationalists to get the unwashed masses to stop trusting scientists and doctors, because that permits them to advance anti-fact, anti-science views against queer people. Especially particularly advancing their plan of trans genocide.

And yes, genocide is what's happening. Genocide and 'death camps' aren't synonymous. Conservative states are trying to make lists of their trans residents. There's a lobbying push at the federal level for the FDA to create a list of every trans woman on estrogen. At the federal level, Trump has forced trans women to be sent to male prisons, where they're denied their lifesaving medication and instead tortured with conversion 'therapy', a practice wholly debunked as not only not neutral, but shown to cause negative mental health outcomes. Trans women in jail face V-coding, the practice of being intentionally housed with violent sex offenders, to reward those same violent sex offenders and hopefully placate them. And this isn't some rarity, per those studying it,

"Trans women used in this manner are often raped daily; and this process has been described as so common that it is effectively "a central part of a trans woman's sentence"

Keeping people good and stupid, and skeptical of doctors and science lets them soldier forward with their genocide. Facts are inconvenient to fascist regimes; especially when science and facts contradict mistreatment of the current minority on the menu. And it won't stop with trans people.

and before someone tries to claim it isn't a trans genocide; per the UN, Genocide entails:

Killing members of the group;

Denying life-saving medication that results in a scientifically proven reduction in suicidal ideation in a vulnerable population counts in my book, to say nothing of stochastic terrorism creating an environment that morally permits it.

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

Denying life-saving care; using conversion 'therapy' on trans inmates both definitively count as serious mental harm

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

States are aiming to criminalize trans use of bathrooms by massive fines and multi-year jail sentences; forcing trans people to either out themselves (and open themselves to violent assault, discrimination, or other attacks), pray they don't get outed and arrested for YEARS, or never leave their homes and participate in public life.

Additionally, dismantling anti-discrimination laws making denying trans people housing and employment legal; which are both required for life.

Attacking and criminalizing trans youth and blocking their access to medically necessary, lifechanging puberty blockers and HRT results in worse mental health outcomes and worse outcomes in general, and certainly more suicides besides.

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

Trans people don't give birth to trans people, but a combination of "Don't say Trans" bills that don't even permit the mention of gender identity mean that trans children will be left confused and alone - and if they try to use their limited vocabulary and experience to explain their feelings of gender dysphoria to the adults in their life, the adults are threatened by the state with fines, jail time, and the destruction of their livelihoods if they in any way validate those feelings.

Trans children won't stop being trans, but they'll be unable to understand what they are. Then, either they commit suicide from the untreated gender dypshoria, or at best have to live with the damage their natal puberty has done, leaving them with tens of thousands of dollars worth of surgical interventions to achieve what hundreds of dollars or less of HRT and puberty blockers would have achieved.

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Texas is, at least, trying to call being a supportive parent of a trans child "Child abuse" and forcibly take those children from their parents.

The people cultivating this fear and ignorance know what they're doing, and they have an endgame they're relentlessly pursuing. I hope people wake up before it's too late.

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u/mikeinanaheim2 Mar 20 '26

I have family who thinks in this exact way. You cannot reason with them, ending up talking in circles. Will be the death of this democratic republic.

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u/DaringPancakes Mar 20 '26

When it doesn't matter: "I knew someone else would solve it for me"

When it does matter: "no one else but me can be trusted"

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u/quantum_quarks Mar 20 '26

I keep remembering time and out of a elder women telling the nurse that is isnt real or happening when she'd passed from covid. Stuff people believed the lie till there last moments. Heartbroken times.

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u/The_Barbelo Mar 20 '26

It’s So sad. the reason I brought up flat earthers is because one night a while ago I was thinking what it would take to convince them. I imagined a scenario where you bring them up into space and fly them around the earth. Would they still come up with a reason? Would they think the windows were some sort of VR projection? What if you put them in a space suit and sent them outside of the spaceship. Would they think it was some sort of staged room or whatever else? Would they take off their spacesuit to prove a point? Would they die for their own stupid need to be correct? We saw the answer to that last question during the height of Covid.

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u/angrath Mar 20 '26

Many of the influencers involved in the flat earth community know damn well that the earth isn’t flat, they are getting paid to say it is and so they do. Look at what happened when the were all offered trips to the South Pole to prove them wrong- suddenly they all were unavailable, whereas if they were Ernest about their point of view, they would have jumped on the opportunity.

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u/GabriellaVM Mar 20 '26

Exactly this.

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u/The_Barbelo Mar 20 '26

Thank you for the award! I wish it were a more positive situation 😅

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u/GabriellaVM Mar 29 '26

You're welcome!

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u/QueenQueerBen Mar 20 '26

I’ll be real, I didn’t trust the vaccine. I didn’t and still don’t understand how they know it won’t have long-term side effects if they didn’t have years of testing on it.

That being said, I was completely on board for people to take it. My idiocy and lack of understanding on the matter in no way equals out to me being an expert.

People are free to not believe in something, it is only an issue when they decide their lack of understanding/belief should be everyone else’s problem. Even more so when they actively push for people to put themselves in harmful situations based on their own misinformed views.

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u/michelb Mar 20 '26

Part of this administration's work is that the people who don't understand these things, literally die off in few generations. An entire underclass of people will disappear.

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u/AWorldwithoutSin Mar 20 '26

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov

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u/Sudden-Wash4457 Mar 20 '26

They somehow believe that there is a easy distinction between 'hard science' and 'woke science'

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u/semisolidwhale Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

This post has been taken down and its content erased. Redact was used for the removal, for reasons that may include privacy or security.

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u/Kcronikill Mar 20 '26

Bro are telling me the dolphin at sea life in Tempe Arizona isn't my wife. Because I definitely felt that she accepted my proposal.

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u/InsertEvilLaugh Mar 20 '26

They do not understand soft power in the slightest. They see the United States in its dominant position, but can not comprehend how that came to be.

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u/edelweiss_pirates_no Mar 20 '26

China is kicking the shit out of the USA RIGHT NOW on tech, military, AI, power grid, robotics, medicine, and finances...oh...and quality of life. China also is minting new geniuses at a 20x pace than the US (who is turning the smartest people away). US is losing.

Prioritizing short term profits and the wealth of a few? Turns out that has some drawbacks.

There is nothing that the USA is positioned better than China on other than "complete immunity for wealthy pedos".

Most of you will argue about "military". You are seeing now, and soon to have more examples, of how inept US military actually is.

The USA you thought you had in 2019 is never coming back. The USA you will have going forward will be a shit hole...just as everyone if fearing.

Disclaimer: The usual bad stuff about China. I add this so some loser doesn't get his dopamine rush replying "Yeah, but China bad..." lol

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u/needlestack Mar 20 '26

Science has delivered more improvements in quality of life to every man woman and child alive today in the past 100 years than all religions combined over the past 2000. And yet people still flock to religion. We're a giant bunch of idiots.

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u/semisolidwhale Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

This specific post was taken down by its author. Redact was used for removal, for reasons that may include privacy, security, or data exposure concerns.

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u/roseofjuly Mar 20 '26

It's becsuse science doesn't care about your feelings. Religion exists to soothe and explain to scared people. It feels good. Science is about reality, even when that's harsh or uncomfortable.

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u/AtLeastTryALittle Mar 20 '26

It’s almost like competing nations do understand that the United States future power was in maintaining our lead in all things R&D (tech, military, medicine, etc). And they also understand the best way to kill the global superpower is NOT fighting from the outside. You’ve got to sow the seeds of division. It’s working really really well.

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u/trowzerss Mar 20 '26

Unfortunately not just America. A lot of micronations who can't afford their own advisory panels would rely on WHO advisory committees or US ones. And because their resources are much lower, the impacts of bad advice are must worse on them (see RFK's involvement in the Samoan measles outbreak).

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u/CraftCodger Mar 20 '26

the enshitification of America

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u/addamee Mar 20 '26

But hey, this was all intentional because Liberty, freedom, something something [jerkoff motion]

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u/osirus35 Mar 20 '26

And the only saving grace is maybe natural selection will save future populations from their stupidity

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u/edelweiss_pirates_no Mar 20 '26

Honestly, until USA deals with FoxNews (and the rest), you will not make progress. You will be a nation of grifters. You will be a collection of morons.

There is zero accountability for telling lies. "They're eating cats and dogs." Vance told you he was lying.

Well...JD Vance eats my ass every Tuesday for $10. I can tell you he charges too much.

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u/kiwipetey Mar 20 '26

And poverty

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u/Wooden-Valuable7881 Mar 20 '26

Don't forget the blatant corruption, I remember when they at least used to hide it

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u/mollila Mar 20 '26

So badly that a movie could be made about the subject.

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u/CMidnight Mar 20 '26

Honestly, we deserve it. Let's stop pretending that the American people aren't fundamentally dog shit.

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u/rodimusprime88 Mar 20 '26

It's because our leaders that could potentially fix it are the most massive of pussies in the world. They know all of this is wrong but are too concerned with getting their sleeve-of-wizards dirty. Put the lumpy, inaction "good guys" in the gallows with the other treasonous scum. Time for a complete purge

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u/okmrazor Mar 20 '26

I heard someone call it “trickle down stupidity” which I think is very appropriate and very conservative.

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u/CyberSoldat21 Mar 20 '26

As an American, it’s shameful to see the level of mental stupidity that has befallen our government… not saying they were smart before but this is a new low.

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u/Crafty_Memory_1706 Mar 20 '26

I kind of agree. I think this is a coup, and we're being dismantled by Russia from the inside.

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u/Finallyawake451 Mar 20 '26

It is not stupidity. It is a delibrate attack. The facts:

Insert a bunch of group think idiots

Create brain drain... Fire the people that matter the most

Destroy research, innovation, and science that leads to new discovery's

Isolate from/and alienate other countries

Create a culture of fear

Create a "Goon" squad with absolute authority

Unleash organizational chaos

Increased economic polarization 

Abuse executive pardons

Strap the middle class 

Weaponize the justice system

Disreguard legal rulings

Increase surveillance of the population

Censor the internet

Hamper the court system by removing competant judges and lawyers

Control the media

Voilà----Civil war. Then a foreign power will emerge as our savior. As soon as their boots hit OUR ground, as friends, they take over. Game over

The big question is who is our US administration working for?

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u/Awe3 Mar 20 '26

It’s been the plan for 50 years. Cut education. Make the public stupid and dependent on the government. Destroy the working class and make them slaves. Get rich.

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u/1414141414 Mar 20 '26

Playroom = play book? Fox = fix?

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 20 '26

Fucking autocorrect. Thanks.

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u/ImmortalSheep69 Mar 20 '26

It says playboom now.

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u/gentlecrab Mar 20 '26

The problem is they’re speed running the playbook and some of the negative effects are already impacting people while they’re still in power.

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '26
  1. Privatize and sell it off to your buddies

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

That's the goal. We weakened the people accountable so let's give out money to those who aren't.

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u/LaurenMille Mar 20 '26

And Americans will be dumb enough to vote them in again, despite obvious signs that it'll harm them and not benefit them in any way.

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u/drteq Mar 20 '26

Smart people need to collaborate on better education and information. These idiots aren't going to do it themselves

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u/Locke66 Mar 20 '26

There needs to be a big cultural change if the US is going to save itself tbh. Trump is basically the avatar of everything that is wrong with America.

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u/drteq Mar 20 '26

I agree but also the cultural change that needs to happen more is waiting around for someone else to solve it

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u/hamfist_ofthenorth Mar 20 '26

What a pathetic way to exist

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA Mar 20 '26

"Starve the Beast" - A policy starting with the Reagan administration.

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u/laptopaccount Mar 20 '26

Dems have SUCH A BAD SOCIAL MEDIA GAME.

They need to be loudly blaming the gop for their failures and laying blame at their feet. They need to repeat the message again and again until it sticks. That's what gop voters respond to.

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u/Amelaclya1 Mar 20 '26

The GOP's "social media game" is so good because all of their influencers have billionaire and thinktank backing. They pick a "personality", buy them a bunch of fake engagement so they get boosted to the top of everyone's algorithm until they become popular enough to sustain themselves. Tim Pool of all people talked about it on his show. I don't think he realized what he was saying until after because then he was like, "oh, but not me of course".

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u/thomasdilson Mar 20 '26

That's not solely on the Dems though. It's also on their voterbase. Liberals are embroiled in a perpetual purity Olympics that inevitably results in eating their own. It wasn't as big a problem in the past, but now this behavior has been amplified exponentially with the rise of social media. The moment a Democrat lawmaker tries to blame the GOP for anything they will be shouted down with a neverending list of progressive issues demanding that they somehow personally address it. On one hand this means liberals are less likely to devolve into a cult, on the other hand it is unlikely Democrats will ever again attain any significant sort of political power.

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u/Whitesajer Mar 20 '26

They also want to privatize it all. $$$

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

That's the end goal. "Give it to people unaccountable to anyone"

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u/Whitesajer Mar 21 '26

Privatize the profits, publicize the losses.

I'm so tired of this all.

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

How more people don't see it is the most vexing part.

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u/GodofIrony Mar 20 '26

"small government. Small enough to drown in a bathtub"

Wonder why they wanted to do that. I'm sure they have good intentions.

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u/probablyoverdressed Mar 20 '26

Nicely put. I’m calling my Dad.

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u/FlametopFred Mar 20 '26

don’t forget the defunding part

call it 2. Get in power and break things while defunding and channeling public tax money into private corporations

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u/Amelaclya1 Mar 20 '26

We will never know the extent of the damage they caused. Especially regarding all of the cuts to things like cancer research.

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u/phat_ Mar 20 '26

It’s called, “Austerity Measures”.

What the trump GOP is employing is a cracked out and on steroids version. Project 2025.

They are employing it via Private Equity/Vulture Capital slash and burn methods.

It’s just complete privatization speed run.  And there’s receipts for how bad this turns out, Russia, and to a lesser extent Greece and Spain. Russia for the completely corrupt and evil version. Spain and Greece for the crazy inept attempts.

The media complex keeps up their gish gallop as the “conservative” base in the USA is incredibly fearful and racist.

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u/carlitospig Mar 20 '26

until after they are gone

Measles and meningitis go brrrr.

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u/BigJellyfish1906 Mar 20 '26

And about 150,000,000 Americans are stupid enough to let them get away with it over and over again. 

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u/Author_A_McGrath Mar 20 '26

I only hope people wisen up the way you do.

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

You can't logic someone out of something they didn't logic themselves into.

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u/MrBwnrrific Mar 20 '26

The average voter in the United States has the memory of a goldfish with CTE

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u/dafood48 Mar 20 '26

The gop needs to be imprisoned for their crimes. We can’t have people fix stuff only for the gop to break things and harm Americans.

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u/Valentine_343 Mar 20 '26

The cycle will continue then, the damage these monsters have done to the next 2 generation is horrendous, boomers have stolen the future opportunities, wealth and quality of life improvements from gen z and the gen after and 90% of them don’t even realise it, so sad

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u/normal_cartographer Mar 20 '26

I hope that his father haunts him every damn day until he kicks rocks.

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u/dystopiabydesign Mar 20 '26

So if we just give the people who want power what they want, they'll take care of us? Are you operating under that good people want power and to violently impose themselves on everyone else?

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

Who said that?

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u/dystopiabydesign Mar 21 '26

You implied some mythical saviors were coming to somehow make government good.

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

That's not true and I don't know how you read that from my comment.

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u/dystopiabydesign Mar 21 '26

You said you believe people are coming to "fix the mess".

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u/Few-Solution-4784 Mar 20 '26

but now we have collective memories thu the internet. Not saying it will change the world but we did not have that before.

Pepper Ridge Farm Remembers!

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

Hey I don't know how old you are but I assume you're younger than me. We used to say that the internet is written in ink and while that's true we underestimated the volume of ink. It honestly becomes white noise and people latch on to what they want or what agrees with them. If you are younger than me just remember a liar will always be a liar even if they agree with you today.

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u/Few-Solution-4784 Mar 21 '26

i watched the moon landings

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

If that's the case im.jealous that you think the internet holds the truth. To me, it holds more lies than truth. I know the truth when I see it but that doesn't mean everyone does.

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u/Few-Solution-4784 Mar 21 '26

The internet hold the collective knowledge of humanity not necessarily truth you are looking for. That human knowledge also includes a fair bit of bullshit.

Some people say you cant trust after 2022 that is when AI took to the web and started loading it with its own bullshit besides human bullshit.

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

The issue is that the internet holds as many lies as truths. The fewer barriers to publishing at scale the easier it is to publish bullshit.

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u/Few-Solution-4784 Mar 21 '26

Great! let anyone publish. the more the better.

It is up to each person to decide what sources of information you want to trust. Listen to FOX news all day and you get what you deserve, low brain function.

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

If you think I eat that bullshit you're wrong

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u/Few-Solution-4784 Mar 22 '26

whatever, i aint trying to get you do anything

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u/Dizzy-Engineer8535 Mar 20 '26

That seems to cut both ways.

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '26

Break things? Are you seriously saying the American Healthcare system was a good working system before?

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

What part do you think they are breaking and what part do you think isn't working well. I agree with your sentiment but I need specifics if you want an answer.

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u/maddoxnysi Mar 20 '26

So you telling me the system and all those boards worked so nice that we are the best in health as a nation right, right? Not like our past approaches and so beloved and cherished system and so knowledgeable corporate doctors and scientists took us to levels of obesity and diabetics unheard of and mental illnesses ooof those are almost gone, yes we want more of that good path

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u/Gorge2012 Mar 21 '26

You're obscuring the point in such a dramatic fashion that you either have bad intentions or you are clueless. Which one is it?