this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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Kennedy’s hearing signifies how close a man with medically racist beliefs is to becoming the US’s leading health official

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 hours ago

What I really think America needs is an unqualified heroin addict that is a self proclaimed arm chair scientist.

[–] falynns 27 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Someone just say the racist old man is a racist old man with racist views. But then they would be the target of attacks for "not being civil" to the racist. This country sucks.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 hours ago

Everyone needs to remember the Paradox of tolerance. Allowing intolerance will only breed more intolerance. Everyone should speak out and shine a light on it when they can.

[–] njm1314 14 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It's just super old school racism is what it is. I'm talking like 17th century racism.

[–] StopTouchingYourPhone 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Creating Caucasians/Aryans remains the stupidest science. Bunch of hateful twits obsessed with bullshit like where Noah's Arc was and measuring their own heads. Filthy rotten fuckers, every one of them. Paved the way for shit like

A 2016 survey revealed that of 222 white American medical students and residents, nearly 60% thought Black people’s skin is thicker than white peoples, and 12% thought Black people’s nerve endings were less sensitive than those of white people.

jfc...

[–] andros_rex 7 points 5 hours ago

This is a huge problem, the stats are way worse for nurses as I recall. Even some textbooks still claim that black people have higher pain tolerance and need less medication. Black people are denied opioids and treated as “drug seeking” far more than white patients. They can have problems accessing treatment for opioid use disorders too.

In 2021, maternal mortality rates for black women were about 2.6 that of non Hispanic white women. Its not hard to see why.

[–] iAvicenna 6 points 9 hours ago

RFK Jr is the embodiment of unscience. If there was ever a god of unscience RFK Jr would be its avatar.

[–] UncleGrandPa 16 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

the insistence on there being differences between the racists is central to Fascism.

they NEED it to be true to bolster their ideas and goals.

[–] Jeffool 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I think you made a typo, and meant to say "races".

[–] chiliedogg 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

They need the racists to be different too.

When they wipe out whoever the majority hates, diversity in racism means there will be new groups hated by the majority that can be wiped out. And then another group the majority hates.

Turn everyone against everyone else, and everyone becomes disposable.

[–] kepix 10 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

how it started with the jews back in the day.

[–] IndustryStandard 9 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

Actually how it start with black people. Classical race science was invented to prove how black people had thicker skulls and felt less pain in order to excuse slavery.

Fun fact "The origin of species" is only half of the name of Darwins book. Don't ask about the other half.

[–] wildlyfist 1 points 2 hours ago

Yea, along the old meme of Black people being fast runners by default.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

Do you think Darwin meant this in an aspirational or observational way?

[–] IndustryStandard 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Darwins was pretty bullish on white surpremacy and sexism.

https://wng.org/roundups/darwins-racism-1617223432

After religion took a nosedive it was very convenient that slaves and colonies suddenly turned out to be "biologically inferior" humans.

[–] andros_rex 3 points 4 hours ago

That’s not talking about Darwin’s views though, that’s talking about how scientific racism adapted and distorted Darwinism.

Darwin was against slavery and connected to several abolitionists. Darwin never really promoted social Darwinism, and his writings point out how human society does take care of its weak/those who would not otherwise survive.

Slavery, although in some ways beneficial during ancient times, is a great crime; yet it was not so regarded until quite recently, even by the most civilized nations. And this was especially the case, because the slaves belonged in general to a race different from that of their masters. As barbarians do not regard the opinion of their women, wives are commonly treated like slaves.

Like these are not the words of an evil sexist pro slavery eugenicist. I would not argue that Darwin wasn’t sexist or racist at all - it’s the 1800s, they all are - but Darwin is not responsible for eugenics/social Darwinism.

[–] 2ugly2live 72 points 1 day ago (1 children)

During Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Senate confirmation hearing on 30 January, Angela Alsobrooks, a Democratic senator from Maryland, pressed the nominee on his past claims that Black people have a stronger immune system than white people and thereby, should receive vaccines on a different schedule than them. “What different vaccine schedule would you say I should have received?” Alsobrooks, who is Black, asked the health secretary nominee. Kennedy then referenced a “series of studies” showing that “to particular antigens, Blacks have a much stronger reaction”.

I randomly rewatched The Help and one of the racist white ladies was talking about how black people have different germs. "How ridiculous," I thought. And yet here we are.

Again.

[–] Cosmonauticus 41 points 1 day ago (6 children)

They were still telling students in med school as recent as the past 4 years that black ppl need less painkillers because we, "Tolerate pain better than other races."

Ppl surprised by this rhetoric haven't been paying attention

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

Despite there being other studies showing that it's factually untrue, and this perception comes down to different levels of empathy. (I know, what a surprise)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Pretty fucked up if they were teaching that despite a lack of evidence.

That said, the concept itself isn't completely far fetched... Red heads need more anesthesia than everyone else for some genetic reason. Another group needing less for genetic reasons seems plausible.

[–] RunawayFixer 10 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Redheads are probably less genetically diverse than the rest of the population, iirc it's mostly caused by a recessive gene. So if someone is a redhead, then the chances are high that they share other special genes with other redheads.

Africans on the other hand are more genetically diverse than people from other continents. It's possible that some African population groups require different levels of medications, but you won't be able to tell those population groups apart by the color of their skin.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

As a redhead, I would like to say that I feel like the human equivalent of one of those dogs bred for looks who has problems. Because man, do I seem to have problems.

Which isn't to say that's true for all redheads, but it is for me.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Redheads need a lower opioid dose than the general population to achieve the same effect. At least those who are redheads because of a mutation in their MCR1 gene, which is about 75%, IIRC. Interestingly, the same mutation group also have worse tolerance of cold, which seems odd given that scotland is the global redhead centre!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

It’s a bit complicated, both because some studies just asked people if they are ‘natural redheads’ and didn’t actually test whether they have the MCR1 mutation and because it depends on the mechanism of action of the drug. Some sedatives are less effective, so need higher doses, but the majority of opioid based pain control drugs require lower doses in redheads.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/study-finds-link-between-red-hair-pain-threshold

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool 24 points 1 day ago

It’s well documented that black people get less care and are prescribed less painkillers because of this myth, as well as the racist assumption that block people seeking out pain relief are just after drugs

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear 155 points 1 day ago (27 children)

This is what is known as scientific racism. The US has always been the world's #1 producer or it

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racism

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[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Is it really too much to ask for Secretaries to at least have some experience or education in the industries they are the head of?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago

Nah, educated people don't agree with conspiracy theory nonsense enough to be useful tools.

[–] FlyingSquid 50 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's apparently too much to ask for Secretaries to not be super fucking racist.

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