Silicon Valley money men are buzzing about Robert F. Kennedy Jr

https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-money-men-are-buzzing-about-robert-f-kennedy-jr-3b5dea5e

by archo • 3 years ago

22 62 3 years ago

wsj.com

archo• 3 years ago

https://archive.is/U5P7g

65a• 3 years ago

A candidate unredeemable except as a pass-around-rube for billionaires and hostile nations, cool.

sharts• 3 years ago

The he's clearly the wrong candidate for the everyday men.

lowkey20• 3 years ago

After hearing the man in his own words, instead of listening to what the media tells us to think, I am convinced that Robert F. Kennedy Jr is the most authentic candidate to run in recent history.

His strong stance against the endless interventionist wars. His incredible track record of accomplishments for the environment and his plans to reform the corruption and revolving doors between our federal institutions such as the FDA and Big Pharma have created powerful enemies amongst the richest corporate elites.

Unlike other politicians who only regurgitate talking points fed to them by mega-donors, he has opened the Overton window and finally made it possible for us to openly discuss many of the root causes behind our country's deepest problems.

wutho• 3 years ago

You should apply for his campaign.

We hear this every election cycle.

You know what’s changed history?

Public non-compliance.

That’s it; the only effort that’s ever output a rethought social contract.

Any President will be hamstrung by helicopter parents in Congress and in SCOTUS who of course no what’s best for their stock portfol… public freedom of agency.

Joe Manchin was carrying on about preserving American heritage; these dudes all collide out of view to ask their handlers what sound bites play best.

The whole thing is a behavioral economics scheme. Make all the elite landlords walk the plank or feel there’s a serious risk of that about to happen and only then will things change from top to bottom.

I’m cool with an obligation to “United States.” Not to any specific elites and politicians.

lowkey20• 3 years ago

I'm not going to comment on the downvotes as that would be boring. Instead, I would like to ask for feedback on my comment above.

What specifically do people disagree with?

JimtheCoder• 3 years ago

This probably makes me sound really bad, but does someone with the speech issues he has really stand a chance at the presidency?

I know his health isn't under his control, and it isn't cool to judge someone because of it...but, as humans, we do, and for someone whose job is to clearly communicate his ideas and inspire with words...he seems to fall short here.

lowkey20• 3 years ago

He is currently polling at 20% amongst democrats and has a higher favorability rating than either Biden or Trump in some polls. All this while facing an unrelenting smear campaign by powerful media interests.

Despite his voice issues, his message seems to be resonating amongst Democrats, Independents and even Republicans. He is the only candidate who seems to be gaining support across the political spectrum.

I think his message of peace and diplomacy over endless interventionist wars and healing the divide are gaining traction.

Let's just hope the powers that be don't decide to give him lead poisoning like they did his uncle and his father.

marlor• 3 years ago

I was waiting for a conspiracy theory to be woven in there, and you didn’t disappoint.

mindslight2• 3 years ago

I think his message of peace and diplomacy over endless interventionist wars and healing the divide are gaining traction.

It's the right message at the wrong time. It sure sounds noble, "peace". But as an ally to a defending party, it essentially means leaving Ukraine to fend for themselves against Russia's invasion - which would actually be expanding the war. I've made many attempts at following these arguments that Russia is somehow a reluctant party here, and they just never add up. They're always full of assertions hyperlinked to supporting posts that don't actually check out as being true. (But if you don't dig, I can see how they would be persuasive)

And just for reference, I was against the Iraq War even before the invasion. I routinely call the US an "empire". I've been generally against the casual US meddling in various foreign countries that is now characterized as the "forever war". But I also understand that it's fallacious to focus on the US as the only possible aggressor, and this situation seems like a straightforward case of Ukraine wanting to avoid being re-subjugated by the Russian empire by choosing to align with the looser business empire of the West. If anything, all of these narratives against helping Ukraine by echoing criticisms of the Iraq War just feel like more terrible consequences of that misadventure.

I am all for peace and ending the war in Ukraine. But this is not an American political issue, but rather a Russian one.

esalman• 3 years ago

A lot of people regularly bash Trump and Biden for being old so I'd imagine they won't have issues with RFK.

jauntywundrkind• 3 years ago

I liked Krugman using RFK as a reflecting glass from which we could observe & understand the rich. The Rich are Crazier than You And Me: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/opinion/robert-kennedy-jr...

Krugman's emphasis on reflexive contrarianism in this writeup is a powerful illumination of an incredibly potent, present, & chaotic energy of our times.

Krugman spends more time talking about Tech Bro ideology than RFK, but I think it's pretty great & tells a real story about a sizable chunk of the world (by dollar value at least). For a much long writeup with much more RFK in it & with less laser targeted West Coast ideology focus, Michelle Goldberg's RFK and the Coalition of the Distrustful is another smash hit. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/opinion/robert-f-kennedy-...

lowkey20• 3 years ago

Krugman's analytical and predictive record leave much to be desired.

I've yet to find a single prediction he made that was accurate in hindsight. I do however, recall this brilliant prediction, among many others:

"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s."

Dig1t2• 3 years ago

I listened to him on Lex and Joe Rogan podcasts. I went from from one end of the spectrum on him to the other in the span of one episode. I started expecting him to be a total crackpot and was surprised at how sensible his ideas were and how clearly he articulated them. I would totally vote for this guy, seems way better than Biden or Trump.

I recommend just listening to him with an open mind, seems pretty nice.

gloryjulio• 3 years ago

This guy? Are you sure? https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/07/rfk-jr-covid-ethnica...

Dig1t2• 3 years ago

I read his response, seemed pretty reasonable to me.

https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/16802273225096355...

I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews. I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns, and Ashkenazi Jews.

midoridensha2• 3 years ago

If this nutjob gets the DNC nomination, Trump is going to look like the better choice, even if he has to carry out his term in a prison cell.

America is really going off the deep end.

lowkey20• 3 years ago

What makes you think he is a "nut job"? And how do you justify making baseless ad-hominem attacks instead of coherent arguments against his proposed policies or positions. Isn't that kind of smear better suited to Reddit? It is certainly against the Guidelines of this site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

_kbh_7• 3 years ago

What makes you think he is a "nut job"? And how do you justify making baseless ad-hominem attacks instead of coherent arguments against his proposed policies or positions. Isn't that kind of smear better suited to Reddit? It is certainly against the Guidelines of this site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

He thinks wifi causes cancer and leaky brains. He doesn't think AIDs is caused by HIV .

midoridensha2• 3 years ago

Promoting the idea that vaccines cause autism is more that sufficient to be a nut-job. This isn't a "baseless ad-hominem attack", this is well-known about this fruitcake. And that's just one of the insane conspiracy theories he pushes.

webmobdev• 3 years ago

    I have spoken here today about India's race with Red China. We want India to win that race. We want India to be a free and thriving leader of a free and thriving Asia. But if our interest appears to be purely selfish, anti-Communist and part of the Cold War – if it appears to the Indian people that our motives are purely political – then we shall play into the hands of Communist and neutralist propagandists, cruelly distort America's image abroad, and undo much of the psychological effect that we expect from our generosity. - JFK

John F Kennedy made those remarks and I find it remarkably prophetic because after his death, India - US relationship faltered precisely because we indians felt that later US politicians only viewed India through the "purely political" lens of cold war. The impact of it can still be felt today where many Indians feel that US is only seeking a selfish need-based based partnership with India to counter China and not out of any genuine respect which is the basis for any strong relationship.

For a foreigner like me, Robert F Kennedy's political ideas does seem like a breath of fresh air among the current crop of stale US politicians and their stunted political values. He seems to be the only one who recognizes that the US needs to fix its fractured polity and reach some semblance of political understanding with the opposition (unlike others who think it is "unfixable") and end the "us" vs "them" narration that both major party's now increasingly depend on. His subscription to JFK's political vision and values and his pragmatic pacifist-leaning ideas are obviously welcome in a world increasingly divided. As JFK noted:

    The Free World cannot shame Russia and China into freedom – but it can inspire democracy to enrich its own freedoms. Freedom's banner will be vindicated or lost not by the test of military strength alone – but by the purity and passion of our commitment to democracy, by our dedication to the advancing hopes of new nations, and by our determination to prove that freedom can lift the haggard burden of poverty from desolate lands. We have not yet conquered the frontiers of fear. But neither have we yet fully explored the horizons of hope. - JFK

If RFK is genuine about the political values he espouses, I sincerely feel that India and US (under Robert F Kennedy as President) can become true ideological allies.

(JFK source - https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-k... ).

dang• 3 years ago

All: whatever you think of "money men" or any politician, HN posts need to remain (1) thoughtful, and (2) respectful, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are. We want curious conversation here, not repetitive flamewar.

If you're going to post, please review the site guidelines at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, and if you can't participate in the intended spirit, please wait until you can.

If other commenters break the site guidelines, the tools to use are downvotes, flags, and (in egregious cases) hn@ycombinator.com. Please don't react by breaking the site guidelines yourself; that only makes everything worse.

asadotzler• 3 years ago

"the rich SV people I so desperately admire are excited about RFKJr so I will be too" is exactly the hackernews take I expected and got, especially from that lowkey bootlicker.

lowkey20• 3 years ago

To be fair, I went down the RFK Jr rabbit hole before he went on the All-in podcast - so thought leader? It’s no secret I am a huge fan of him, not so much the rich VC schmucks tho.

Silicon Valley money men are buzzing about Robert F. Kennedy Jr

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