As a person? Perhaps. As HHS Secretary? It is a valid criticism.
A recovering addict who is otherwise qualified should be exactly the type of person we want involved in healthcare and public health administration, because a recovering addict is uniquely qualified to understand substance abuse patients and policies related to them.
Many healthcare professionals simply cannot empathize with addicts and instead treat them like moral failures. Comments like these are exactly what I’m talking about - a recovering addict is just as capable as anyone else, and anyone else is just as capable of becoming an addict.
Worse yet, most public health responses to situations like the fentanyl crisis boils down to “try to stop the drug dealer” rather than “try to manage the underlying conditions that lead to addiction and substance abuse.”
But, this particular recovering addict happens to swim in sewage, doesn’t believe in germs or vaccines, and thinks that extremely expensive rehab is accessible to everyone. This is not because he is an addict, it is because he’s a fucking madman.
So having been a heavy drug user in the past disqualifies you from those roles in your mind?
I said exactly what I meant: It is a valid criticism.
Why would being an expert in the field disqualify you from becoming an expert in the theory?
Because being a heroin addict only makes you an expert to some degree in heroin not the job of a cabinet secretary
Being or having been an addict does NOT make anybody an expert. It makes you an (ex-)addict. That’s all. I am by no means an expert on tobacco use or cessation, nor am I an expert on binge eating.
Cabinet secretaries shouldn’t be experts in their department’s business anyway. They should be advised by experts, but not come into the job with preconceptions or biases from their own experience.
Yes, I would say the same for most drug addicts and that role.
Don’t mock him for his drug addiction.
Mock him for giving himself brain worms by eating roadkill. Mock him for his antivax beliefs (something the disqualifies him from his current position more than his former drug addiction imo). Mock him for his raw milk fetish. These are things that are under his control.
Heroin addiction is something that should disqualify someone from heading Health and Human Services though
I’ve known drug addicts who have turned their lives around in very positive, inspiring ways. I don’t think any of them would argue that they should be head of Health and Human Services.
I have seen a concerning amount of support for outright stigmatisation. It helps absolutely no one but the oppressor.
Not to demean addicts, but is this saying that addicts are much better people than RFK BECAUSE they can get clean and learn from their mistakes
Yeah I mean I get what they are trying to say. They don’t want to be lumped by that association. They don’t want that commonality I guess.
For instance I’m a recovering alcoholic. I’ll always be an alcoholic, I just don’t adhere to those thoughts.
It’d be weird of me to get upset if they started calling trump an alcoholic. It doesn’t change my situation and I can still choose to not drink.
Calling someone else an alcoholic doesn’t make the world think of me
I can’t say I agree with their stance.
I think it’s more like they are saying junkie is a slur
Also applies to his voice.
what made his voice sound that way? like he’s moments from death?
Laryngeal dystonia. It’s a medical condition which he has no control over.
I have dystonia in my hand. Should I be made fun of for that?
Making fun of his voice is ableist garbage. Focus on something that’s actually wrong with him, like almost everything he believes and is trying to do
The dude sounds like a robot or a smoker who had their larynx removed and have to use one of those electronic devices to talk. Except he doesn’t actually have a device. That’s just how he sound.
Yeah. It’s a medical condition. We shouldn’t make fun of people for medical conditions. There’s enough wrong with him that you can focus on without resorting to that.
MF’er looks like Frankenstein’s Monster’s ugly older brother.
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Don’t make fun of him for having a parasite, lots of people have parasites.
Don’t make fun of him for being anti-vax, it’s not his fault he doesn’t remember polio.
Don’t make fun of him for believing vitamin A and ivermectin can cure all diseases, he clearly never went to medical school.
Don’t make fun of him for having the skin-care routine of a rotisserie chicken, nobody stays young-looking forever.
Don’t make fun of him for being stupid, there are stupid people in my own family.
