RFK Jr and the perils of the proletariat

The anti-vax presidential candidate has no need for truth

On June 25, Robert F Kennedy Jr tweeted videos of himself doing push-ups and incline presses at Gold’s Gym in Venice, CA. The spectacle evoked a past time: RFK bench pressing in jeans, shirtless as all golden-era Venice iconography, his (likely) TRT-chiseled sunburnt torso shimmering in the westside sunlight.

Kennedy is a romantic. He craves the (narrowly defined) freedom of past times. He doesn't like seatbelts. (He really doesn’t like seatbelts.) He thinks the free market will solve climate change and health care. His presidential run is premised on the idea of restoring the middle class (which free market solutions won’t do) and telling “Americans the truth.” 

The problem is he lies, constantly. RFK is consistent only in his inconsistent relationship with facts. He constantly opines about how no one has ever successfully disproven his errant theories about vaccine safety, when they have. Many times.

He claims to be science-forward at every turn. He’s not.

Untrue. Sixty-one percent of Americans claimed they experienced undesired weight changes, with 42% stating they gained more than intended. Those respondents gained an average of 29 pounds, yet the median amount of weight gain by all respondents was 15 pounds. 

It might seem like a small aside, but therein lies the problem: Kennedy doesn’t read data to present what it reveals. He weaponizes it to support arguments he’s already formulated. He’s a lawyer, and that’s what lawyers do. But it’s not the truth.

Same thread: 

RFK’s bootstraps mentality creates a false correlation. He’s effectively saying that he’ll restore America through moral fortitude and self-determination, which will have a trickle-down effect of making everyone stand up straight and make their bed. Then, and only then, will a “wellness” approach to health care make everyone whole.

Kennedy starts at a place of truth: Americans are unhealthy. Six out of 10 adults suffer from a chronic disease. (The reasons are many and complex and, despite RFK’s protestations, often point to the free market.) Plastics really are killing us. Soil fertility is dismal. Obesity is a real problem (but doesn’t always mean ill health). 

These problems have a common theme: chemistry. Chemistry is Kennedy’s real bane, even if he consistently confuses types of mercury. Yet chemistry is the reason so many of us live so much longer than ever before, be it antibiotics, vaccines, water filtration, or the soap we scrub our hands with. Which makes RFK’s pick-and-choose assault so disingenuous. He’s not seeking truth, he’s trying to win an argument, and win votes along the way. His messages are meant for a specific crowd, and they’re eating it up, which is why they ignore his Pharma-is-evil autism-vaccine rhetoric while championing his apparent testosterone boosts.

That crowd is devouring RFK’s torso the same way they’ve been bowing to Trump’s blustering bravado. Since Kennedy doesn’t have the same capacity for dismissive rhetoric, he needs another lane into strongmen leadership. Shooting videos at the mecca of muscles is now his lane, and it’s working.

Like his vaccine disinformation, Kennedy’s fitness hot takes are problematic. He wants to be the nation’s first wellness president, but his messaging is too narrow. The chronically ill don’t always have the means or energy to exercise. Kennedy never meaningfully addresses income disparity when it comes to health. It’s hard to hit Gold’s when you’re working two (or more) jobs and not even getting by. And yes, some people have the means but not the drive to take better care of themselves. But they’re only a sample of a much larger pool.

Kennedy’s pool is ankle-deep. Same thread, again:

At the very least, Zuckerberg takes training seriously. Musk actually started this stupid feud, one which Zuck would finish. I’d hardly call watching two tech bro billionaires wave their dicks on Twitter “an example,” however.

Maybe it is, though. An example of binaries that play well on Twitter. This reveals why Kennedy is the ideal Conspirituality candidate: he’s speaking the language of wellness-infected brains. The influencers who put the onus of disease and obesity on the individual unable to rise above their circumstances and live the best life ever are his crowd. He knows their language well, and anyone discrediting him is bucketed into “haters.”

Some people really overcome adverse circumstances to achieve remarkable results. They should be celebrated, but not fetishized. And if they turn their triumph into an expensive course or weekend workshop promising the same for you—run. Prosperity preachers don’t make millions because their followers make millions. 

Still, the space Kennedy now occupies is common in wellness downlines. He’s selling an aspiration he never had to fight for. This isn’t to negate the traumas he’s endured. But coming from a billion-dollar family affords a certain distance from the perils of the proletariat. 

The myth of Camelot has endured for over 500 years for a reason. This Kennedy is only the latest to pretend commoners can enter the castle. Knock at the door, however, and you’ll quickly discover the moat. And good luck pushing up out of there.