Summary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that a Trump administration would prioritize removing fluoride from public water systems, a position at odds with major health organizations like the CDC, the American Dental Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, all of which endorse water fluoridation as safe and beneficial for dental health.

Despite Kennedy’s controversial stance on health and environmental issues, which includes previously debunked claims linking vaccines to autism, Trump has praised his passion, stating that Kennedy would have significant freedom to influence health policy if Trump were elected.

  • 800XL@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    What fucking year is this? And while he’s at it, that horses’s ass can get tinfoil hats into circulation to protect against <dumb old ass boomer conspiracy theory bullshit>

    God damn it, will all these fossils with their lead poisoned brains just die already?

    • NormalPerson@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I used to respect the hell outta my boss. Chief engineer, man can fix and diagnose just about anything. Then he started talking about this guy and how great he is… Like how can someone be so smart yet so so dumb? How can you not apply the same critical thinking into politics as you do into your work? Where does the disconnect come in?

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    Roe v Wade: “This should be decided by the states!”

    Fluoride in water: “This should be decided by the federal government!”

    ???

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      They’re proposing to ban vaccines too, and they’re not mentioning particular vaccines, just “vaccines”. So no healthcare for trans people or pregnant women, and no vaccines. It’s only a matter of time before someone convinces them antibiotics are the devil’s work.

      • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I mean…

        At this point let’s just tell them we forbid them from drinking arsenic because, even though it massively increases testosterone production, all liberal science says most humans aren’t strong enough to handle it.

        Fucking let moron nature take its course.

        • randompasta@lemmy.today
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          2 months ago

          Except they’ll take a lot of us with them. We need herd immunity, clean air and water, safe roads. They’re going to fuck us all with their idiocy.

            • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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              2 months ago

              You can actually, evolution is driven by selective reproduction, not selective survival. Yes, reproduction is usually tied to survival, but natural selection would still work even if everyone always lived to 80.

              It would not select for traits useful for survival though, it would most likely select for traits that get you laid.

              • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                You have seen Idiocracy, yes? About selective reproduction.

                I’ve seen the kind of people that reproduce well. Most of them are both immoral and not very smart.

                My cousins’ parents are a good exception, though. They are exactly the kind of people that should have children, and their daughters too. My parents, on the contrary, were the kind of people about whom I’d never say that. It’s a pure miracle I’ve turned out at least kinda similar to a human.

                On the contrary, the best people I know personally of my generation either have problems they haven’t yet solved or are gay.

                OK, then thinking about myself, I actually think I’d not be that bad of a parent, in case one of those strange creatures likes me enough, but it would be really hard.

              • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                This requires us to prevent people from reproducing, we have to pick and choose who can breed.

                Gonna put that in the “probably not a great idea” category.

      • Billiam@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        someone convinces them antibiotics are the devil’s work.

        Antibiotics are proof of evolution, since the various microorganisms create resistances to vaccines.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Antibiotics shouldn’t be used as easily as people think, though. Because, ahem, antibiotic resistance is a thing.

        It’s a responsible position to only use antibiotics when you really need it. Not when you have cold. EDIT: just in case, by cold I mean cold, not covid

        • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          That’s the kind of responsible and sensible advice the Republicans would never give. It requires too much nuance.

          • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I don’t think I’ve heard anything responsible and sensible from politicians with chances to succeed in a two party system.

  • normalexit@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    How about making sure 100% of US residents have access to clean, safe tap water first? Eliminate lead and forever chemicals. I don’t feel strongly about fluoride, I do feel strongly you should be able to drink water from your kitchen sink without having to worry.

    • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      There actually is a huge push to replace ALL lead service lines in the next few years. Also the EPA has extra funding for treatment of “emerging contaminants” which includes PFAS. Republicans are trying (and succeding) to reduce this funding.

    • Etterra@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      See that would require 100% of Americans to be rich enough for these chucklefucks to care about us.

    • Noodle07@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Wow are you a commie? Tap water should only contain flammable gas from nearby fracking plants! Yeehaw

  • rothaine@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Don’t we have real problems to solve? Why are Republicans always making up new shit?

    • Gamoc@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Because Democrats tend to agree with reality, so if republicans want to oppose them they must insist that reality isn’t true.

    • RagingSnarkasm@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Distraction 101. If we’re too busy fighting about stuff like this, we won’t come after them for the stuff they absolutely do not want to address. More often than not, the other side doesn’t really want to do the hard work either, so it’s easy to just fight with them about the meaningless shit and get credit for being the reasonable ones. Meanwhile the homeless camps get larger, the health care gets more expensive, the one income family with a pension for retirement becomes a two income family juggling multiple part time jobs with no benefits, higher education becomes something that traps you in a lifetime of loan debt, and we spend billions to elect people who will address none of it.

      Pick up a fiddle and enjoy the view of Rome.

      • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Sometimes I hope I’ll see a starship Enterprise, but it’s looking more like Bell riots and Eugenics wars for the rest of my lifetime.

        Vote blue and punch a nazi whenever you can, be the change you want to see.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    2 months ago

    Ignore that buzzing noise.

    It’s just the sound of 200,000 dentists rubbing their hands together at the thought of all the extra money they’re going to make.

    • unalivejoy@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Flouride makes teeth white. White light passing through a prism makes a rainbow. Therefore, fluoride makes my teeth gay.

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    We don’t have it in Quebec, we have more dental health issues on average than in Ontario (our neighbors)

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        It was never introduced on a large scale to begin with (Montreal never did it for example) and there’s a group that helps citizens fight it where it’s still done (5 cities still do it).

        One of their main argument is that the studies that most cities refer to to defend it date from the 60s/70s and their methodology was so so, more recent research don’t seem to find as much of a difference if socio-economic criterias are taken into consideration (but again, Quebec as a whole vs any other province as a whole should cover that, Quebec is richer than New-Brunswick yet kids have more cavities in Quebec) and there’s the environmental question considering that about 1% of the water is used as drinking water, it’s 99% of the fluoride being wasted.

        • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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          2 months ago

          Sure ok. I appreciate you taking the time to answer.

          The issues you’ve mentioned apply generally to fluoridation anywhere. It sounds like the reason why it’s not present in Quebec is that the resistance was better organised.

          There’s fluoride in the water here in regional Western Australia, but I fear that’s probably the least concerning additive. I’ve never really thought much about it but apparently there’s chlorine in the tap water, you can smell it from time to time. If you think about it, things love to live in water and keeping it free of things like cholera must take some doing.

          • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            Yeah chlorine is everywhere because it’s used to make the water safe to drink, without it I hope you have a good, uncontaminated well, otherwise you can’t drink tap water!

            Yeah resistance is better organized to stop it since the 90s, but I think adoption didn’t happen as much back in the day because of the very conservative government in place when it became normalized all over Canada (we call that period of Quebec’s history the great darkness for a reason!)

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Sounds like the residents of Quebec just have shitty dental hygiene, and I suspect the same in Ontario. It’s just that the residents of Ontario are having their teeth taken care of by the government, because they can’t do it themselves.

    • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It’s quite bad and crazy though. fluoridated water helps to protect people’s teeth, and all you need to do is drink tap water. This means that anyone with access to tap water will get at least some basic protection against tooth decay and all the health problems that stem from that.

      Without fluoridated water, the people who do not have access to regular dental care (including toothbrushes and toothpaste) will be the ones who suffer the most. Those are the people who will end up in emergency rooms with infections, heart disease, etc. and will also not be able to pay the hospital bill, thus not only adding stress to already stretched thin emergency rooms, but also overall creating a larger financial burden on the industry.

      Something something an ounce of prevention and all…