A man walks into a bar and...um, that's the joke, the whole joke, and nothing but the joke
Me, RFK, and "impressively self-centric"
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.
H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy
One of the great things about being a writer is that everyone thinks they know what you should write. And it’s not that everyone’s ideas suck or even that they’re lacking in imagination or practicality. No, it’s that, more often than not, others lack a basic understanding of the writing process.
Of course, I can only speak for myself. Trust me, being in my head is more than enough for me (especially at the moment as I’m trying to evict the Migraine Fairy). Trying to inhabit anyone else’s would be enough to send me straight over the edge.
From where I sit, writing is pretty much pure selfishness. I take what’s bouncing around my skull and vomit it onto my laptop screen, all while I hope my fingers can keep up with my brain. The fact that I have to go back and correct so many spelling and grammatical errors in any draft proves that my brain is often way ahead of my fingers’ ability to keep pace.
So, when I post something and get a comment that says “impressively self-centric,” I have to laugh. Of course, it is; what else would it be but self-centric? I don’t do this for the paycheck. Or the adoring crowds of young women who throw their panties or hotel room keys at me. And Lord knows I’m not doing it for the boatload of awards that have (yet to) come my way.
No, I do this to maintain my sanity, so if you accuse me of being self-centered in this space and expect me to take that as a term of disrespect…well, I have an ice-fishing hut in Tucson I’d like to sell you.
Yeah, it’s impressively self-centric by design. If that triggers you, might I recommend a nice gardening blog? Otherwise, I’ll be as impressively self-centric as I want to be. This is, after all, my sandbox, yeah?
Everyone is welcome here. Y’all should know that by now…but no one should claim to be surprised when you discover that this space is impressively self-centric. If you want selflessness, you can join the Salvation Army.
If any of y’all watched the Super Bowl, you probably saw Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s campaign commercial, a 1960s-style “WTF??” ripoff of a JFK campaign commercial.
I don’t know how it went over generally, but I found it derivative and dishonest… and it seems the Kennedy clan was none too happy with it.
Anyway, before I head too far down the rabbit hole on this one, here’s JFK’s original, followed by RFK Jr.’s ripoff:
Let’s say that RFK Jr.’s cloning of the JFK ad, even though it’s only one-quarter the length, didn’t leave his siblings and others in the Kennedy orbit singing hosannas:
Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign is, unfortunately, going better than expected, with the poll averages in which he is included putting him at about 17 percent nationally. This is at least partially due to his family name. But his family? They’re not so thrilled about it, and at this point may be worrying that they lobotomized the wrong one.
They were especially unhappy about a new $7 million ad aired by his PAC during the Super Bowl and the fact that it included images several members of their family who were unable to consent to appearing in the ad on account of how they are deceased.
“My cousin’s Super Bowl ad used our uncle’s faces and my Mother’s. She would be appalled by his deadly health care views,” wrote Bobby Shriver, son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. “Respect for science, vaccines, & health care equity were in her DNA. She strongly supported my health care work at ONECampaign & RED which he opposes.”
To call RFK Jr. something of a black sheep with the Kennedy clan would be an understatement. He’s more than happy to trade on the Kennedy name, but he also has no problem dragging it through the mud, which is what upsets the family.
And RFK Jr. did…sort of…attempt to cobble together an apology of sorts….
Shriver wasn’t alone in finding the ad distasteful. His brother Mark and his sister Maria retweeted his sentiments themselves.
Upon seeing the tweet, RFK replied to Shriver and apologized, saying he had nothing to do with the ad and it was all his PAC’s doing.
“Bobby. I’m so sorry if that advertisement caused you pain,” he wrote. “The ad was created and aired by the American Values Superpac without any involvement or approvals from my campaign. Federal rules prohibit Superpacs from consulting with me or my staff. I send you and your family my sincerest apologies. God bless you.”
Yeah…except that rings rather hollow when you see this:
Indeed, the campaign ad was the pinned tweet…on his personal Twitter/X account. So the “ad was created and aired by the American Values Superpac without any involvement or approvals from my campaign” disavowal that sounds like so much B.S. IS just so much B.S.
How is a guy who’s opposed to vaccines planning to heal ANYTHING? Your guess is as good as mine and probably better. I’m a bit biased; I think RFK Jr. is a proper jackass, so I’m definitely not the most objective viewpoint in the room.
Then again, if RFK Jr. cared what people thought about him, he would be running a Presidential campaign that looks a lot like this:
Just as Ralph Nader is almost certainly responsible for giving us eight years of George W. Foot-in-Mouth Bush, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. might be accountable for gifting us four more years of Donald J. Diaperload. RFK Jr. might also be ultimately responsible for creating the circumstances leading to the end of American democracy.
It wouldn’t be entirely his fault, of course. It’ll take a plurality of Americans deciding that they’re tired of a quarter-millennium of democratic tradition and being too dense to consider the consequences of their actions to get us to the end of democracy. Still, RFK Jr. will undoubtedly help grease the skids because I suspect he’ll take far more votes from Joe Biden than Donny Diaperfull.
I keep wondering if this knot in the pit of my stomach is going to last for the next eight-plus months. I also wonder if, after 1.20.25, doing what I’m doing now will suddenly become an act of civil disobedience.
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