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.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    23 days 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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      23 days 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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        23 days 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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          23 days 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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              23 days 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.

              • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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                23 days 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.

              • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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                23 days 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.

      • Billiam@lemmy.world
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        23 days 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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        23 days 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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          23 days 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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            23 days ago

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

  • rothaine@lemm.ee
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    23 days ago

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

    • Gamoc@lemmy.world
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      23 days 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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      23 days 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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        23 days 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.

      • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        That paper specifically concludes that despite all that, there is no reason to even look into whether fluoridation in drinking water might be a problem because there has clearly been no corollary deleterious effect. So, knowing what it would look like if it was a problem, was enough to know that it isn’t even close enough to warrant checking how close it is. The highest reported extremes of exposure already didn’t cause issue, so there is certainly no cause for concern at normal levels.

        Basically, normal levels are so far below potential risky levels, that they aren’t even concerned of accidental overexposure due to mistakes or accidents. They concluded they had literally zero concern…

        So linking that paper isn’t really supporting your opinion.

          • airglow@lemmy.world
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            23 days ago

            The paper does not recognize fluoride as a neurotoxin in its current application in Europe:

            Overall, despite the remaining uncertainties, and based on the totality of evidence the present review does not support the presumption that fluoride should be considered as a human developmental neurotoxicant at current exposure levels in European countries.

            • eramseth@lemmy.world
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              23 days ago

              This is not true. To elaborate on what the other person who replied said… there is no safe level of lead in consumer products because lead accumulates in the body. Also, lots of consumer products still contain lead because there are loopholes. And the regulations any way aren’t that stringent.

      • macarthur_park@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Those concerns are for unrealistically high doses though. The last sentence of the abstract you linked:

        In conclusion, based on the totality of currently available scientific evidence, the present review does not support the presumption that fluoride should be assessed as a human developmental neurotoxicant at the current exposure levels in Europe.

        Calling concerns about the safety of fluoridated water “founded” is a bit of a stretch.

      • nightingale@lemmy.ca
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        23 days ago

        The issue is not whether fluoride is good or bad. Conservatives vilify medical experts as “woke” and it that as a reason to dismiss their advice.

        I too can cherry pick an article to support my position. The number of cavities in children born in Calgary, Canada within the decade after they removed fluoride from their water was higher than nearby Edmonton who kept fluoride.

        We can argue about who has more links to support their argument; or we can argue about whether politicians should govern based on the recommendations of experts, or trust that “they know best”.

          • airglow@lemmy.world
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            The article you linked explicitly concludes:

            Overall, despite the remaining uncertainties, and based on the totality of evidence the present review does not support the presumption that fluoride should be considered as a human developmental neurotoxicant at current exposure levels in European countries.

          • Jay@lemmy.ca
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            23 days ago

            … And it literally actually says it’s not a concern.

          • otp@sh.itjust.works
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            23 days ago

            When you dismiss other scientific evidence like this, it makes it seem less like you are mindfully sharing research for open discussion, and more like you have a link to use as “ammunition” to defend the conclusion you’ve already reached (and won’t be reasoned out of)

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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            23 days ago

            Claims to not have cherry picked anything yet follows up with the claim that scientists are fake experts and he doesn’t listen to them.

            You’ve exposed your ruse here, bud.

              • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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                23 days ago

                I’m not putting words in your mouth, you clearly don’t think they’re experts by your use if the snarky quotes around it and stated “you people worship” which obviously excludes yourself from that category.

                If you’re trying to challenge people, why aren’t you replying to the multitude of comments pointing out that the study you linked doesn’t say what you think it does?

  • normalexit@lemmy.world
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    23 days 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.

    • Noodle07@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

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

    • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.world
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      23 days 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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      23 days ago

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

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    23 days 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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        23 days 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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          23 days 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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            23 days 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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      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.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        22 days ago

        The same thing is seen all over the world when comparing places with and without fluoridation so I guess people in general have shitty dental hygiene so you can cut the holier than thou attitude.

  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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    23 days ago

    “Immediately” means a tweet or Truth Social post by Trump that is so vague no one under him knows exactly what they’re supposed to do to enact his order.

    And then right back to Day 1 dictatorial stuff like imprisoning political opponents and the press.

  • 800XL@lemmy.world
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    22 days 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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      21 days 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?

  • 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com
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    23 days ago

    Seriously? The bit from Dr.Strangelove? I mean, it’s not terribly surprising anymore but I still wish we could get these fucks on some stupid theory that kills them more directly and immediately so they take less of the rest of us with them.

    • NABDad@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      It was a John Birch Society talking point at one time. It was condemned as a communist conspiracy. Of course. Just like civil rights are a communist conspiracy.

      Anyway. A few years ago I discovered that my home town newspaper had digitized all the old issues and made them searchable online. I decided to search for family members.

      Found my dad mentioned in a report of a hearing on fluoridation. He was talking about it being a communist plot.

      Edit:

      I just listened to this episode of revisionist history recently. If you aren’t familiar with the beginnings of the shit show we’re living in, you might find it interesting and/or horrifying.

      https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/john-birch-vs-the-pta

    • unalivejoy@lemm.ee
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      22 days ago

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