Robert Kennedy Jr. has been banned off Instagram. This sends a signal to the world
The Information War just claimed its latest victim — Here’s what that means for you
I originally wrote and posted this article on February 14, 2021, during the beginning of the pandemic. This and other articles eventually got me kicked off Medium for “counterperspectives and unpopular opinions.” I’m reposting it here on Substack. Enjoy!
Robert Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.)
The man, the myth, the legend… that you’ve probably never heard about. For those unfamiliar with him, but recognize the Kennedy name, you’d be correct in linking him to the famous President John F. Kennedy (JFK). As a matter of fact, he’s the son of former Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and nephew of former President JFK.
The Kennedy family has a few noteworthy accomplishments to American History. To start, President JFK was instrumental in the civil rights movement. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, aunt of RFK Jr. founded the Special Olympics. His father, as mentioned earlier, was both the Attorney General and a U.S. Senator. In short, the family and the name are synonymous with American History.
It should come as no surprise that RFK Jr. would have some noteworthy claims to his name based on his lineage. To start he’s an environmental lawyer by profession and for over 30 years, he was a senior attorney for the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council), a non-profit environmental organization. He was “Save the Planet” before Captain Planet. Some other achievements include:
1999, TIME Magazine’s “Heroes of the Planet”
2001, Men’s Journal “Heroes” Award
2007, Vanity Fair “The Green Team”
2009, Rolling Stone “100 Agents of Change”
The man, true to the Kennedy legacy, has been a champion for the people. Just as his uncle, President JFK with the civil rights movement, RFK Jr. is no different.
Fighting for African Americans
In his first case as an environmental attorney, he represented the NAACP in a lawsuit against a proposal to build a garbage transfer station in a minority neighborhood. He’s had multiple parks reopened in New York for minorities that the city had shut down.
He’s also called out that “polluters always choose the soft target of poverty” and mentioned how 80% of uncontrolled toxic waste dumps are found in black neighborhoods. The largest waste dump in America is found in Emelle, Alabama which happens to be 90% black.
But more recently and quite historic, RFK JR. and his team successfully defended their client, Mr. Lee Johnson in his suit against Monsanto.
In 2016, Lee filed a suit against Monsanto claiming that their herbicide caused him to develop terminal cancer. After five weeks of proceedings, the jury unanimously awarded Mr. Johnson $289.2 million in damages.
Last but not least, Russel Okung, offensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers, recently made history by being the first NFL player to be paid in Bitcoin. Russel is a proud promoter of RFK Jr.’s and his organization, Children’s Health Defense (CHD). He wears it proudly on his football cleats as shown through the NFL’s “My Cause, My Cleats” program.
So why would Instagram remove a modern day legend and man of the people? Before we answer that, let’s continue the history lesson just a bit further.
The Kennedy Legacy and The Tuskegee Experiments
The Tuskegee experiments was a study that took place between 1932 to 1972. It was conducted by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The purpose of the study was to observe the natural history of syphilis if left untreated.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Tuskegee experiments, let the magnitude of deception that takes place, really sink in.
The participants, African American males, were told they were receiving free health care from the United States. 600 men were enrolled, 399 had syphilis and were never informed, and all received diagnostic procedures called “treatments”. Participants were informed the study was going to last for six months.
It lasted 40 years and killed 128 men.
How did this experiment finally end?
In 1966, Peter Buxtun, a PHS venereal-disease investigator, expressed his concerns about the ethics and morality of the study. The CDC reaffirmed the need to continue the study until completion, which was until all subjects had died. To gain support for this study, the CDC employed it’s “fact checkers” organizations, the National Medical Association and the American Medical Association. Both supported the CDC in this study.
Four years later, Buxtun went to the press, which was the social media at the time. Someone finally listened. Two years later, in 1972, the New York Times, which would be the Instagram back then, published the story on its front page. Senator Edward Kennedy (uncle to RFK Jr.) immediately called congressional hearings in which Buxtun and other whistleblowers testified. Shortly after, the study was determined to be medically unjustified and terminated.
My question to you is this: what happens if the press decides not to print Buxtun’s work? What happens if the New York Times doesn’t make the story front page news?
Buxtun was going against the CDC and the medical associations, so the press and New York Times had every right not to publish his claims.
Fortunately, in that time, the public had a right to know. The public had a right to make their own decision with all available information. Now? Not so much.
Thanks to the brave work of Bruxtun, Kenney and many others, the experiments came to an end and no more lives were lost. Again, I pose the question, why would the press of our day silence a descendent of the family that gave voice to the people?
Children’s Health Defense
RFK Jr. is the chairman of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), a nonprofit advocacy organization that was started in 2016. To understand the true origin of CHD, a more thorough search is needed, more than what just comes up on Wikipedia.
As we mentioned earlier, RFK Jr. was an environmental lawyer. In addition to the NRDC, he’s also the founder of Waterkeeper Alliance, which helps tracks down and sue polluters. Waterkeeper is the world’s largest clean water advocacy organization. While doing work for Waterkeeper, he encountered mothers with a similar story:
“Rita Shreffler: How did you first get involved in the autism/vaccine controversy?
Robert F. Kennedy: I was dragged kicking and screaming into this brawl. By the early 2000s, I was fighting multiple lawsuits on behalf of Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper against coal-fired power plants. I was touring the country speaking about, among other things, the dangers of mercury emissions, which, by then, had contaminated virtually every fresh water fish in America. Following many of these appearances, mothers would approach me. Their tone was always respectful but mildly scolding. They said that if I was serious about eliminating the perils of mercury, I needed to look at thimerosal. Vaccines, they claimed, were the biggest vector for mercury exposure in children. I really didn’t want to get involved because vaccines were pretty remote from my wheelhouse. I’d always been pro-vaccine. I had all my kids vaccinated and got my annual flu shot every year. But, I was impressed by these women. Many of them were professionals: doctors, lawyers, scientists, nurses and pharmacists. They were overwhelmingly solid, well-educated, extraordinarily well-informed, rational and persuasive.”
Shortly after that encounter, CHD was born.
Children’s Health Defense versus the Coronavirus
In 2021, we are seeing a hard division between “vaxxers” and “anti-vaxxers”.
The sad part of this pseudo-divide is that both sides are completely wrong. One side claims that all vaccines are safe and the other claims that all are dangerous. This allows for no middle ground is often where the truth lies.
RFK Jr. and CHD have been placed in the “anti-vaxxer” column.
Now, if that is the case and if RFK Jr. and CHD are anti-vaxxers, does that discredit the work that he’s done for the past 50 years or so?
Absolutely not. At the end of the day, he’s created the world’s largest clean water advocacy group. He’s defended minorities and their neighborhoods against cities and states on multiple occasions. He defended a black man against a multi-billion dollar company and won. What I see is a proven track record of someone who’s consistently stood up for the people. Those people without a voice and those who cannot be heard, individuals like RFK Jr., tend to speak for them.
The question that needs to be asked and answered, is who determines what voice we need to hear? The Public or Social Media?
We’re entering an information war where we have social media conglomerates deciding what we, the public need or need not see. When was that their right?
To play Devil’s advocate, I understand that these companies are private and can choose what they will and won’t allow on their sites. However, a clear delineation needs to be established. And not fact-checkers as that delineation. We’ve seen time and time again, that these fact-checkers only support the facts they are being paid to support.
Let’s remember that the CDC used the AMA to fact check the Tuskegee experiments.
Conclusion
RFK Jr. being taken off of Instagram due to his claims regarding vaccines are a sign of the times. It’s deeper than violating the terms and conditions of the platform as he did no wrong. He simply posted data that was contrary to the popular opinion.
We’re headed down a path to where anyone that disagrees with the public opinion may very well be ‘cancelled’. What happens when it’s no longer celebrities who are cancelled? What happens when regular individuals are cancelled because of their thoughts disapproving of the official narratives?
Time will only tell where we as a society go from here. But let’s not forget one important fact.
We are at war. We are in an informational warfare. Information will be hidden from you.
You have to choose if you want to believe the official story or do your diligence in researching the story for yourself.
The choice, as always, is yours.