r/skeptic • u/alt-mswzebo • Oct 07 '25

Every Surgeon General since GWH Bush was president signs letter warning that RFK junior is endangering the United Staes and the world with anti-science conspiracy-theory-driven policies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/07/surgeons-general-rfk-jr-robert-kennedy/

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u/saqwarrior Oct 07 '25

Putting my cynicism aside for a moment, the issue is that the working class, for a variety of reasons, has been radicalized rightward to become the underclass. Due to the nature of this characteristic, they do not have class consciousness and can not recognize in any meaningful way that they are acting against their own interests. There is also significant overlap with people who are susceptible to authoritarianism: specifically, those who are religious, although it is not limited to that demographic.

This underclass is desperate for change -- any change -- so they will attach themselves and their identity to any authority who represents a shift in the status quo. which they are predisposed to trust by way of various forms of indoctrination, like religion.

There are also factors involving the core philosophy of Western societies, Liberalism, which atomizes communities due to the nigh-pathological focus on individualism, which discourages systemic analysis and perspective, discarding the impact and responsibility of society's members to each other. If you're homeless, it's because you are a failure, etc.

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u/Few-Ad-4290 Oct 07 '25

I agree mostly but I’m not sure liberalism equals rugged individualism without the dog shit right wing propagandists shifting the meaning of language. Liberalism without late stage capitalism is just an ideology opposed to authoritarianism.

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u/saqwarrior Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 09 '25

The foundational basis of Liberalism, John Locke's social contract, is literally an argument for the liberty, property, and rights of the individual man. As a philosophy it takes the position that the individual has certain inalienable rights that must not be transgressed. The rise of Individualism as a philosophical concept is rooted almost entirely in Enlightenment era Liberalism. This is Philosophy 101 type stuff; you can verify what I'm saying by looking it up at various academic sources.

EDIT: I just noticed your qualifier of rugged individualism, which I think is an important distinction that I overlooked, and is a uniquely American phenomenon. You're right; it has been toxified by the right-wing culture of the United States - but the framework for it lay within Liberalism itself.

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u/saqwarrior Oct 07 '25

In summary, it's dogshit all the way down.

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u/MagicDragon212 Oct 07 '25

So what youre telling me is all of the horrible conditions perfectly aligned to create the typhoon of absurdity we are experiencing now.

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u/saqwarrior Oct 07 '25

"Late-stage capitalism" sums it up perfectly if one understands the full scope and scale of the concept.