- Anti-Vaxxers and how it’s not about evidence;
- Paul Krugman on Trump’s incoherent war on drugs;
- Short takes on how Trump is elevating Sen. Mark Kelly; how Maga’s idea of Christianity implies a “cold-hearted Jesus”; and why a Bible-based essay on psychology was given a failed grade;
- Connie Willis’ Trump Dementia Watch today.
Once again, I am thinking that the limits of cognitive ability, combined with the inclinations toward tribalism and intuitive superstition, may cap the progress of the human race.
NY Times, Rachael Bedard, 25 Nov 2025 (but in yesterday’s paper, 30 Nov): I Went to an Anti-Vaccine Conference. Medicine Is in Trouble.
It’s never about debating evidence. It’s about stories and belonging to a tribe. The writer seems to conclude that there’s no way over this. Concluding,
Anti-vaxxers are often characterized as misinformed, and people like Mr. Hildebrand are often characterized as exploited by leaders of Children’s Health Defense when they are vulnerable. But that doesn’t give the people I met at the conference enough credit for the agency they exercise in their lives, or for how sincerely they hold their beliefs. They are there by choice because they accept the group’s worldview. In that world, they feel believed and valued, and are encouraged to think of themselves as brave instead of scared.
Medical culture, in contrast, tends to approach preventable tragedies as teachable moments. This is a mistake. Crises are opportunities to show people what you can do for them, not to ask them to change their minds. Prevention is about risk mitigation; providing people with care and options when they disregard your best advice reduces harm. Effective public health policy should aspire to do both things well.
It isn’t the role of health policymakers or even individual doctors to make meaning for people; the local health department is not supposed to be a source of spiritual succor. But I am thinking hard, after attending this conference, about where spiritual succor is supposed to come from in a technocratic world.
I now understand more viscerally that MAHA and the anti-vaccine movement are growing because they offer people ways to translate their stories into new purpose. Public health and conventional medicine, on the other hand, are only losing people who we might otherwise help. We cannot affirm untrue beliefs, but perhaps we should start listening for new ways to meet people in their moments of need.
At the same time: there are *plenty* of people who understand science and risk analysis and so on and who aren’t hobbled by this inchoate yearning for “meaning,” which always seems to entail the shocking revelation that one is not at the center of the universe, and the selfish need to feel that one is the primary concern of the omnipotent God, who created all the billions of galaxies and planets yet who would favor one race on one tiny planet in all of that. Religion is always about favoring one’s own circumstances, and ignoring everything else.
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Widely covered today, the subject of my post two days ago. I’ll post Paul Krugman’s take.
Paul Krugman, 1 Dec 2025: Trump: Pro-crypto or Pro-crime?, subtitled “Or are they the same thing?”
He summarizes recent events. Then:
At first glance, the juxtaposition seems bizarre – Trump is either murdering or committing war crimes against people who are at worst small-time drug smugglers, and may be innocent fishermen, while pardoning a drug lord who was responsible for thousands of American deaths while savaging his own country, Honduras. But there is a pattern to this murderous madness, once one connects the dots between Trump’s mob-boss persona and the billionaire crypto/tech broligarchy.
Going on:
First, understand that Trump’s vendetta against purported penny-ante drug smugglers is all about dominance display, an exhibition of his ability to order violence. The real object may be to set the stage for invadingVenezuela.
Second, while Trump is clearly willing to inflict gratuitous suffering on the little people, he positively revels in his association with big-time criminals, whether it’s Putin; or Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had a critical journalist dismembered with a bone saw; or Ross Ulbricht, creator of Silk Road, an underground e-marketplace known for drug trafficking, whom Trump pardoned immediately after assuming office; or Larry Hoover, a Chicago crime boss, who was sentenced to several lifetimes in prison for leading the Gangster Disciples, also pardoned by Trump. Yes, Trump really and truly cares about crime in Chicago.
And yet again I have to wonder why Trump’s fans don’t care about any of this. My provisional conclusion is that they simply don’t hear about it. Fox News, et al., will not run it.
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Briefly Noted.
- Salon, Jason Kyle Howard, 1 Dec 2025: In attacking Mark Kelly, Trump is elevating a 2028 contender, subtitled “The president’s threats are setting up the Arizona senator for a presidential bid” — — That would be cool, if there were a president with my name.
- Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 1 Dec 2025: MAGA’s war on empathy was started by a woman, subtitled “Allie Beth Stuckey weaponizes her gender to sell the idea of a cold-hearted Jesus” — — The MAGA idea of Christianity implies a “cold-hearted Jesus”.
- Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, 1 Dec 2025: She turned in a Bible sermon instead of an essay and failed. Now conservatives say she’s the victim., subtitled “Samantha Fulnecky’s Bible-filled essay earned her a failing grade. After whining to Republican leaders, the University of Oklahoma is caving to her demands.” — — Also widely reported. Hemant in his post reproduces and comments on her entire essay. Basic problem: you can justify *anything* with religion, or the Bible. Again: religion hobbles reason. She doesn’t understand this.
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As mentioned two days ago, Connie Willis’ daily posts about the latest in political news now has its own site.
Connie Willis, 30 Nov 2025: ANOTHER GOP REP STEPS DOWN
Despite the title, I’m noting this for her section on “Trump Dementia Watch.” I’ll quote. (Various Facebook friends of Connie have been reposting her daily posts.)
–On Trump’s Middle East trip last month, he told an imaginary story about the first time he met Egypt’s Sisi. Trump said he was supposed to meet Hillary Clinton, too, but “he liked me so much he never even got to see Hillary.” (Sisi actually met with Clinton for 70 minutes.)
–Trump on the Israel-Gaza ceasefire: “Israel can say that ‘we killed 50,000,’ and so you’d say it’s a whole net set of people. And it is. They get replaced by other people. Young people.”
–When Trump had his press conference with MBS, MBS said he had had a great relationship with every US President. Trump said, “But does Trump blow em all away? Trump doesn’t give a fist pump. I grab that hand.” (Trump reached over and shook MBS’s hand vigorously. “I don’t care where that hand has been.”
–Trump, talking about that time he made French fries at McDonald’s: “I’ve been on that line many times. Actually, that line was incredible in the commercial, right? But it wasn’t a commercial. It was about, but they have the line. The people had no idea. So, I made the French fries. The guy was really good. He had a great wrist. He was, nyee, Sir, he was going like sui…”
–Trump, talking to a meeting of McDonald’s employees: “I’ll bet they use real sugar in your Coca-Cola. You know, they didn’t in the US. I said to the head of Coca-Cola, you got to go to sugar. They do in other countries. And you know what? They went to sugar. Isn’t that nice? I said, ‘You got to go to sugar.’ Just like I said why is the Gulf of Mexico called the Gulf of Mexico? I said, We’re changing the name. And now it’s the Gulf of America. Has nothing to do with McDonald’s but maybe it does because it’s very nice cycle.”
–JV Last: “Coca-Cola has not reverted to sugar.”
–Trump: “Our nation now is the most respected nation anywhere in the world. Europeans respect your President. They call me the President of Europe, which is an honor.” (Note: No, they don’t.)
–Trump: “I met with two pollsters. They said, Sir, if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln came back from the dead and they aligned, you’d be beating them by 25 points.”
–Trump: “The one pilot said skedaddle and that thing just turned in its side—pppph. And it’s so unbelievable. And that knocked out Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”
–Trump: “It’s an amazing story. They hit and then they said skedaddle, the word skedaddle. And that plane went like this, you know, when it drops a bomb, it goes down very steeply because that gives it a better angle. The very, very heavy bombs. And they go boom. And as soon as those things, the one pilot, the first said skedaddle. I mean it’s just so unbelievable.”
–Trump: “I gave them unlimited water. Biden came back with a rigged election and he restricted the water again. But I came back and immediately restarted it again. So now you have unlimited water to clean your damn dishes.”
–JV Last: “Trump has a playlist of grievances and stories in his head. What seems to be happening here is that Trump can’t tell his stories apart. He starts talking about flow restrictions on faucets, which brings him to water, but the word water triggers another of his obsessions–water supply issues and delivery to farms in the American West. And Trump’s brain now mashes these two stories together into a single, unintelligible blob.”
–Angele: “This is all simply terrifying. He’s an angry insane little evil man.”
–Mercy Ormont: “The people now holding Trump’s leash have a tiger by the tail. They may still want to make use of the tiger, or they may have figured out that this tiger is becoming increasingly erratic, but either way they don’t know how to let go of the tail.”
–Daily Kos: “Like all malignant narcissists, he always tells on himself. He undermines the cover up every time they try to create one. This is why they will all go down to defeat–his own pathology will bring him down (along with the Republicans who have propped him up.)
–A paper sign saying “Oval Office” was spotted outside the White House right next to the Oval Office. Claude Taylor, an ex White House staffer, said: “It’s pretty clear to me they are marking the path from the Residence to the Oval Office like they do in memory care facilities.”
