I think it's part of a psuedo-religious death cult thing trying to force the apocalypse to happen. War and Death are easy. They're hard at work on Famine and Pestilence.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

wtf do they get from it though. i get how war makes them money, disease is not that clear.

[–] GreenSkree@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

I think there's a few things going on.

On one side, you have Americans that have deep-rooted anti-intellectualism. You see this as the myriad of anti-woke, anti-vax, anti-science attitudes. These ideas aren't grounded in anything useful or real, but leaders in the far-right find these attitudes useful in various ways for pushing their cause. I don't think there's an actual goal of promoting disease necessarily... it's more that the further right-wingers can push people into extreme points of view, the easier it is to keep them there. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of drivel in the anti-woke/anti-science sphere today became popular due to clickbait engagement, though, this movement has been promoted generally by the right wing for a long time.

I also wouldn't be surprised if there's some aspect of foreign influence going on as well. Russia has been working for decades at destabilizing the US. The spreading of disease here would definitely work towards that goal, so long as it doesn't generate a new pandemic that might bite them too.

[–] grueling_spool@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

They want to make money. Spreading disease is just a side effect.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

but like... how does spreading disease makes them any money? if anything they are losing money mid to long term.

[–] grueling_spool@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Like I said, it's just a side effect. They make money off the grift.

Prior to his current position as Secretary of Undermining Health, RFK Jr. was the head of the Children's Health Defense, whose mission is to defend children's health from various things that improve it, such as vaccines and fluoridated drinking water.

From the linked Wikipedia page:

From $13,000 in annual revenue in 2014, World Mercury Project brought in $470,000 in revenue in 2015, when Kennedy joined the organization. Its revenues increased to $1.1 million in 2018. With the group becoming a major disinformation hub during the COVID-19 pandemic, its revenue reached $6.8 million in 2020, $15 million in 2021, counting among its new donors LimeWire's founder Mark Gorton,[6][64] and $23.5 million in 2022.[31]

Basically, it's just another variation of rallying people against a problem that doesn't exist. Once you have their support, you can start asking them for money. And since your cause is a farce, you don't have to worry about getting results - just keep banging that drum and let the donations roll in. An unfortunate side effect is that you might eventually start succeeding at eliminating public health measures, but who cares as long as you're getting paid?