Cartoon from Stephen Colbert show depicting RFK and worm coming out of his ear

Hank Green said (8-11-25) that he was trying to understand RFK jr. The Brain-worm-ridden secretary of HHS seems capable of arguing against modern medicine, but nonetheless seems completely ignorant of modern medicine. How is that possible? I think Hank looks at argument from a different perspective than RFK jr.; for Hank, knowledge is an asset in a debate. For someone like RFK jr., ignorance is the asset. Let me explain with a story.

When I was a kid, it was the middle of the AIDS crisis. There was this TV movie (probably the Ryan White Story) that was a sort-of public service / after school special. It was about a kid who acquired AIDS from a blood transfusion (before they were testing for that). When people found out he had HIV, they freaked out and kicked him out of his school. The point was to spread some AIDS awareness and education: you can’t catch AIDS by going to school with someone with AIDS; yes, sometimes kids get it; no it’s not their fault.

But at that time, AIDS was still perceived as a death sentence and provoked a lot of fear. Additionally, it was associated with being gay which was something that would get a kid bullied or worse (I could make an ironic joke here about how it’s hard to even imagine such bigotry in these enlightened times).

It was good to get the information out there: it’s not dangerous to hang out with a kid with AIDS and it’s not a gay disease.

When my friend saw this at age 9 or so, he said “this is the problem; we know too much.”

He hated knowing AIDS was real, that it made kids sick, and that it made people hate kids. We were ignorant of AIDS, and we were happier before we saw the movie.

That’s RFK jr. Not knowing means anything can be true if you want it to be.

If you never count, ANY number could be the real number. Pick one that sounds good.

It’s pleasant to think that scientists are alarmists who don’t do much useful. It’s pleasant to think that engineers and teachers and doctors are all wrong; we don’t need to do maintenance, vaccinate, pasteurize, wash our hands, or wear masks! Nothing is dangerous! It’s all fake news! Nothing to fear but fear itself, and so on. We should just fire all those scientists and teachers and doctors and stop measuring and stop counting and save a lot of money. Or at least underpay them (be cost efficient!).

There’s a shield of knowledge and technology between us and the state of nature. That shield requires constant maintenance. The people doing that maintenance are being overworked, underpaid, or outright fired. It’s more pleasant to not know that, to believe their work is unnecessary, especially if you’re the one firing them.

RFK Jr. is wrong. We don’t know too much. And his attempts to return us to a state of ignorance will not end well.