I have varied thoughts on the larger, big picture motivations for this schtick. But I think in the case of this specific podcast, a pretty significant factor (if I'm reading him correctly) is that Ezra Klein himself is somewhat sympathetic to RFK Jr. style woo.
I think a terrifying number of people are, tbh. And like, there are always degrees and reasons why people get into different parts of the woo-universe but then like...you have to dig the moat.
It's why they say MAHA has reasonable concerns over stuff like food dyes. Even though there isn't really a lot of concrete evidence that food dyes are anything to worry about.
People half remember stuff about harmful food dyes and then say it's impolite to suggest that people could have bad faith objections to stuff
It's not even a matter of bad faith objections. A lot of sincere beliefs in alt health stuff are just simply incorrect.
"We can at least work with RFK Jr. on banning food dyes!" Why? To what end? All it would do is give him a win, while not actually materially improving anything for anyone.
But ... but ... real sugar in Coke? Fries in beef tallow? Those are game changers for the health of the country we can all get behind, surely. 😬
If certain people said 1+1=2 I would not say they were right, they just happened to say something that was not completely wrong
don't get me started on "ultra-processed foods"
It is such a totally meaningless term! It's pure, pure vibes.
Sugar, in general, is bad though. Maybe there is some agreement there?
Agreement on what? Sugar tastes good. People should consume it in moderation. That’s it.
Thank you. Sugar is not BAD. That take always kills me. Sugar, in some instances, is GOOD.
Ehh...
But real cane sugar is so much better than corn syrup.🙄
it's not really that different
That Stuff is just making an eating disorder into politics, step one would be defining what it included and then why they were bad and how and then you would need to have stuff that could be done beyond the person buying food should have more money to buy better food
We need to get people off those horrible, factory-frozen reheatable pizzas and onto fresh, healthy hand-made pizzas.
Plus, he may *talk* about banning artificial dyes. But the Donor Class will prevail on the Administration to keep it in the talking stage.
Having a sincere belief in something that is probably wrong is worse because you have no excuse
Right, like - there are reasonable concerns about, idk, the overall health of the country and the food system, and the limits of conventional medicine (with or without access). But RFK makes all those problems worse.
Yeah, and making skittles less red does absolutely zero to make anyone even a bit healthier. Same with the kind of cooking fat you use to make fries. No variation in cooking oil is going to make fries healthy.
Nope. Least of all beef tallow.
Making things probably better would take work
…wooniverse
Sorry
Don’t be it’s a brilliant coinage
The extended RFK Jr Wooniverse is a good description