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.
> I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews.
You can't say (and these are his own words from the video) "COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese." and then claim the second sentence has no link to the first.
I will assume good faith on your part and therefore infer that you missed the line at 0:30 seconds into the video, immediately before your quote begins where he says "There is an argument that .."
There is a huge difference between saying "He claims ..." and saying "He claims there is an argument that ..."
It also appears you missed the rest of what he said after you ended your quote, specifically,
"We don't know if it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial and ethnic differential - and the impact of that. We do know that the Chinese are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop bioweapons and that we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars developing bioweapons. That's what all those labs in the Ukraine are about. They are collecting Russian DNA. They are collecting Chinese DNA so we can target people by race."
The full quote is therefore,
"There is an argument that COVID-19 is ethnically targeted. It attacks certain races disproportionately. The races that are most immune to COVID-19 are, because of the genetic differentials among different races of the receptors - of the ACE-2 receptor, COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese - but we don't know if it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial and ethnic differential - and the impact of that. We do know that the Chinese are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop bioweapons and that we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars developing bioweapons. That's what all those labs in the Ukraine are about. They are collecting Russian DNA. They are collecting Chinese DNA so we can target people by race. "
Reading the full quote in context, it is clear he is citing this study [1] which backs up his claims about the differential targeting of COVID-19 by race. He also makes it clear in the full quote that we don't know if it was done intentionally or not.
He was clearly mis-quoted out of context in the article. Reading the full quote in context, it is clearly not the damning statement you believe it to be.
[0] https://twitter.com/ANTlWEF/status/1680476815993741312?s=20
He is very clearly doing the "wink to audience" dance in this paragraph. Yes, it gives him plausible deniability because he hasn't come out and explicitly said that C19 is ethnically targeted but he's following the Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck "just asking questions and pointing things out and look, if the audience take something more away from that WINKS TO AUDIENCE what can I do?" bullshit.
Instead he is genuinely saying that we don't know one way or the other but we should be open to the possibility of either option. One could, of course take a more cynical view and maybe that is the right course of action in a potentially adversarial situation such as this.
To be fair, the same argument could be made of the US and their 46 recently acknowledged biolabs in the Ukraine alone. We have many others around the world. I'm not an expert in adversarial bio-warfare or geopolitics so I can't say for sure what the right course of action.
I do however, love a statement he made in response to a question he was once asked by a reporter on how he would handle the potential of China invading Taiwan under his presidency.
His response was: "Strategic Ambiguity" in other words recognize the threat, prepare for the threat, but don't show your hand too early so as to keep your opponent on it's toes.
On a related note, RFK Jr. has, in my opinion, a truly novel view on how to engage with China in general. In his view, China is not interested in taking on the US in either a hot or cold war, and would prefer to compete with us on an economic rather than a military theater of engagement. In his view, and in mine, how you engage with your 'enemy' can have an enormous impact on how they choose to respond.
If the US under RFK Jr. were to signal that we also have no interest in engaging militarily against China but instead that we wish to compete with them for economic dominance - well then we might just teach each other how to be good free market competitors, competing on the basis of hard work, productivity and innovation.
As we look to compete with our rivals in AI, the next likely competitive threat - I would hope that this sort of framing would lend itself better to a China-US and even a global alignment on a policy framework that prevents an AI apocalypse.
We don't actually have to give all possible opinions even footing.
Fund raising for his vanity campaign. Attracting votes from Trump-adjacent voters who may have buyer's remorse from 2016 but still want a lunatic conspiracy candidate. The same goals as anyone spouting this kind of dog whistling nonsense.
He put out a public response with someone that is very pro Israel right after, which seems like it would torpedo his chances with the anti-semites.
One of the thing's that's going to hurt him in the polls the most I think is actually his very pro Israel stance. It's funny to see people try to paint him as an anti semite at the same time.
It's interesting that certain fans always assume others are also fans just in different factions. I am not interested in educating nutjobs about scientific method. You guys can have fun with wifi cancer;)
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.