No. of Recommendations: 8
There is no "explosive growth of autism in our population." Kennedy is using data from the 1960s when scientists found rates of autism as low as 4.7 in every 10,000 kids and comparing it to 2022 when the CDC showed the rate of autism in kids under 8 was 1 in 31 without mentioning that, in the 1960s, autism was characterized by “profound impairments,” and today that definition is no longer used. The definition of autism has changed several times since the 1960s and now includes kids with Asperger’s Syndrome and ADHD.
Let's not forget; this current publicity bid from RFKJr, a study to determine the cause of autism, is nothing more than an attempt to buttress RFKJr's assertion that "vaccines cause autism". The results of this "study" (to be completed by September) are preordained. We know this because of the people he's putting on this study.
Even though several large studies have failed to prove any causal link between vaccines and autism, RFKJr. is getting ready to spend millions of dollars on yet another. Finally, he will be able to point to his "proof", which he will have conjured up from the bowels of the conspiracy-generating hell of America's fringe.
This is the reason American exceptionalism is dead. This aberration of an administration is destroying all that was exceptional about America.
From the recesses of memory, I recall some at the fool demanding to know whether or not I believed America was an exceptional nation. And at the time, I had no way of knowing that these very people trumpeting "American exceptionalism" would be the very people cheering on the destruction of every premier quality that made this country great.
History seems to progress in leaps and starts. Decades or centuries of advance, followed by decades or centuries of stagnation or reverse. Three steps forward. Two steps back. The high culture of ancient Rome, followed by the early Middle Ages, followed by the early stirrings of renewed advance. The Enlightenment... leading to the high pinnacle of the American century..... and now the barbarians are again at the gates.
Who knows? After almost three millennia, perhaps Western culture has exhausted itself, and now the torch of civilization is being passed to others more suited to carrying it. Or perhaps not. I guess we'll all find out.
