Summary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused Bernie Sanders of taking millions from Big Pharma during a heated exchange, but Sanders refuted the claim, stating his donations came from workers, not corporate PACs.
Kennedy repeatedly insisted Sanders was the top recipient of pharmaceutical money in 2020, but financial data shows no corporate PAC contributions to Sanders.
Meanwhile, Kennedy has profited from anti-vaccine activism, earning millions from lawsuits and speaking fees.
The debate ended without Kennedy answering whether he would guarantee health care for all as HHS secretary.
Contrary to the circles we reside in, most of the US despises any act of “socialism”. It’s ingrained in the culture after 50 years of waging a cold war against an entity that was associated with everything on the left because of propaganda. It will take a long time before enough of the people born before 1990 have died off before people will warm up to it again (I’m in this group too, being born 1982, but I wasn’t politically aware enough care at the time, but some other kids’ parents no doubt instilled this hate of socialism into them growing up. Millennials/Xennials, the generation that was supposedly the most left leaning in recent times, basically started 4chan, and look what it became).
We ARE in an echo chamber. I came to discover this when talking to young folks about Harris/Trump. Despite the enthusiasm I saw here for Harris, it did not translate to the real world at all. We have to come to grips with the fact that the majority of Americans suck.
Most of the US hates the word socialism, but if you pitch an actual example through a lens of saving money or creating jobs or something, they fucking love it. Just don’t actually say the word and your golden.
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I think about this every time I talk to my “liberal” family and they don’t even realize they’re spouting conservative bullshit.
“I worked hard for my house, I deserve to live in it alone until I die” while their son who didn’t ask for cancer or to not be able to afford his medications is on the verge of homelessness. I guess my hard work and being underpaid my whole life just doesn’t count compared to theirs? I guess the fact that our country mercilessly exploited the rest of the world, preventing them from living such comfortable lives, to be able to achieve such comfort for ourselves, means nothing? Those people in other countries worked hard too and lived in multigenerational housing for, well, generations. But they don’t deserve it somehow, they aren’t American, and we’re the best so we deserve it or some other fucking delusional shit I don’t fucking understand it.
They don’t get it and at this point I’m pretty sure they never fucking will because the poison of Individualism has gotten them and US citizens don’t understand Collectivism or the sacrifices you make for society at all.
All the Boomers are just like Biden. No matter being the source of all our problems, they won’t lift a finger to make a sacrifice at the end, because “they worked hard and they shouldn’t have to.” Sure, when all the queers are being lined up for the firing squad, I’m sure it will mean a lot to them that you just couldn’t lift a finger to prevent it because “you worked hard” and “you deserved a calm end of your life” as if these other people being rounded up to be murdered didn’t deserve that.
Biden could have done a fuckton for us on his way out, but not a single fucking person in charge is going to make a sacrifice for us. Not Biden, not Merchan, not anybody.
My immediate family is largely conservative voters, and they go on about what government should do, and it’s all decently lefty suggestions, but try to point that out to them and they go nuts. Most people just seem very ignorant of politics in general.
Except younger.
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Just off the top of my head: He could have released the whole unredacted Jack Smith Stolen Secrets report. Something far more damning to Trump than anything else. But nope, that got memory holed because of Judge Cannon even though it was no longer her case since she dismissed it and had no standing to sue to stop its release. So he literally already had precedent of the law being broken/ignored to keep it under wraps.
Yes, it would have been illegal. But the Supreme Court gave the President immunity for “official acts.”
As if the stuff Trump is doing right now isn’t way more illegal.
Biden wasn’t willing to sacrifice a sliver of his stupid fuck principles to prevent this.
Nah dude, Bernie was WAY more popular than you’re giving him credit for. That’s revisionist history. He won multiple states in the primaries. That doesn’t happen for a Reddit echo chamber candidate. He even won important states like Michigan and Wisconsin.
He really did shake up the Democratic Party, which is why they panicked and did everything they could to push Bernie out. Both in 2016 and 2020.
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Must be an interesting corner of Lemmy you found to have seen people who had enthusiasm for Kamala.
Most here we’re as enthused as a kid taking that old school bitter liquid antibiotic.
Okay, maybe not outright enthusiasm. More like relief in the hope we weren’t getting Trump.
People are still carrying water for her.
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Nah, people were pretty hyped for a while after Biden dropped out.
And then she made it clear that she wouldn’t differ from him except to move to his right.
Well of course, now the medicine was that old “bubblegum” flavor instead.
There are plenty of Trump supporters that liked Bernie. If you aren’t hearing them, you’re part of the issue. People are sick of being told they suck.
I mean… gestures around it’s probably time we come to terms with it, no?
So we need to be pandering more to complete fucking morons?
Plenty of Trump supporters say and do all sorts of stupid fucking shit.
And so do Democrats. Like insult people to get votes.
I am not a democrat, I just voted for one.
So you don’t want people to vote for the candidate you support? Or don’t really care that much? I can understand weariness.
What? Where did I say (or even imply) anything about not wanting other people to vote for someone? I was speaking only for myself.
I’m just trying to figure out your goal with communicating in this fashion. What’s the desired effect?
Also all the claims Bernie was cheated rely on a single guy whose math doesn’t entirely add up. Sanders likely lost for the same reason he did in 2020 which is as you say the opposition to socialism.