MAHA is as delusional as MAGA
RFK's health promises are like Jared Kushner solving the Middle East
RFK Jr went full MAGA as soon as the Harris campaign refused to entertain his pleas for a cabinet position. His cosplay version is MAHA, yet as evidenced at yesterday’s “Rescue the Republic” event, there’s little distinction between these acronyms, in principle though not always in practice.
A question I ponder as Covid-19 becomes endemic: will the conspirituality scene die down? I suspect it won’t given how much anti-vax and anti-pharma fear-mongering money now flows into wellness spaces. Spigots that won’t be turned off by their beneficiaries. Supplements grifters, like The Wellness Company and Mikki Willis’s Rebel Lion, have been warning of the “next pandemic” for over a year while pitching their latest untested “immune boosters.”
The wellness misinformation pipeline will keep flowing. But the political piece of conspirituality has taken flight in strange directions, often under the guise of health, in large part due to Bobby and his MAGA opportunism.
I’ll return to that. First, a few thoughts on Rescue the Republic, the one-day event in Washington DC that drew hundreds (though not quite the million some predicted) of MAGA acolytes. That’s not hyperbolic: a number of speakers implored the audience to make this country great again, a call to arms that drew the biggest cheers.
Produced by Matt Tune, founder of the anti-vax-fueled Defeat the Mandates (which Allison Neitzel covers here), Angela McArdle, chair of the Libertarian National Committee, and DarkHorse podcaster and contrarian extraordinaire, Bret Weinstein, the event was marketed to resist a whole lot of complexes.
On its face, an honest discussion of these issues is worthwhile. But this isn’t about honesty or even discussions. If a speaker isn’t explicitly anti-vax, they’re certainly not telling people to get updated Covid jabs and flu shots. The injustice and censorship pieces boil down to Twitter rants: we’re being censored they scream at their millions of followers across multiple platforms. Their financial revolution amounts to a sophomoric take on crypto. Instead of engaging in good-natured critiques of academia, they start their own “university.”
Speaking of Jordan Peterson, rocking his custom Harvey Dent suit, fresh off his 25-minute promotion of an all-meat diet in front of Congress, the Canadian gave a lecture hall intro to (some sort of) psychology course to a mostly silent audience. He railed against Marxism and heralded the Old Testament. When speaking about the inevitability of slavery under tyranny to an all-white audience, the whites roared.
Among other notable (?) moments:
Twitter files journalist Matt Taibbi spoke behind bulletproof glass for some reason
So did disgraced physician, Robert Malone, who claims to have “invented” mRNA technology (it was actually hundreds of researchers),says Americans are undergoing “psychological warfare” (i.e. public health officials suggest getting vaccinated)
Struggle Jennings, step-grandson of the great Waylon, offered what he called a rap show
Tulsi Gabbard told the audience that the American people “will not come last anymore,” in reference to the left and liberals taking away all our freedoms—a common theme throughout the event
Vani Hari, “Food Babe,” yelled about MSG (which is not a health threat) and other preservatives while holding up a variety of slides of packaged foods while the audience blankly stared
After Peterson’s long solo slot, he returned to perform with Russell Brand, which culminated in this moment:
The entire event, like most of MAHA, had little to do with addressing health. No talk about climate change. Anything that addressed the social determinants of health was only in passing, with no actual policy solutions offered. Well, one was, but…we’ll get there.
The conflation of “freedom” with “health” is a large part of MAHA rhetoric. Even while addressing “evil institutions,” MAHA still places the onus of health on the individual. If the speakers at events like this truly cared, they would address public health instead of rants rooted in chemophobia spread by people incapable of or unwilling to read studies.
And so public health is only invoked as a caricature, because true measures—vaccines being among the first line of defense—are not monetizable by anyone on this stage, or in the MAHA worldview more broadly.
Monetization is not the only reason speakers show up for these events. Attention capture transcends industry. Though Bobby has seen quite an uptick in donations to Children’s Health Defense (and the salary he’s paid via it), my guess is that the end goal is power.
And so Bobby presents big “Jared Kushner will solve the Middle East” vibes with his platform. His four MAHA pillars:
Reverse the chronic disease epidemic. Bobby claims he’ll do this by “reorienting federal agencies toward chronic disease,” getting Big Pharma out of government, banning hundreds of food additives and chemicals, reducing subsidies that help produce ultra-processed foods, cleaning toxic chemicals out of our air, water, and soil, and “ensure that research into pharmaceutical drugs, pesticides, additives, and environmental chemicals is scientifically unbiased.”
End the forever wars. He’ll do this by exerting a “strong pro-peace influence on foreign policy” and “fortify President Trump’s instinct to abstain from military interventions, regime-change wars, and provocation of the world’s other great powers.”
Protect our Constitutional rights. Because, as he frames it, “the Democratic elite that is most zealous about policing the speech and curtailing the freedom of American citizens. That is a big reason why Mr. Kennedy has joined forces with President Trump, to stop this assault before it is too late.” Right.
Get corruption out of Washington. Finally, Bobby’s going to end “corporate capture,” and “will help the president unravel the web of secrecy, lies, cover-ups, and corruption that has enveloped our public institutions.” Laughable at best, downright insidious at heart, given that Trump was the most corporate captured president in history.
Trump cares about none of the above, unless it helps him win and retain power. Bobby aligning himself so strongly with Trump, and implying that his cabinet position is a given, means the man is either highly delusional or highly gullible.
Neither quality makes for a good leader.
When an actual policy solution that could help chip away at these Herculean tasks is offered, like the one Jillian Michaels put forward last Monday when calling for an end to Citizens United, Bobby sits there, unmoved, stone faced, without the slightest acknowledgement. Sadly, Michaels folds quickly, nervously laughing as Kennedy and Ron Johnson realize that one of their “nutrition experts” has crossed the line. They move on quickly.
MAHA is as much about health as MAGA is about restoring greatness. That is: not at all, except for those who can already afford the privileges of health and power. And those are things neither Kennedy or Trump will ever surrender.