Quote · The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol: Trump Wants All-out Kleptocracy
Where this was said
RFK's Podcast, Dead Twins, and the Real Costs of Conspiracy Culture
At 42:10 · chapter starts 40:50
Miller pivots to what he calls 'The Bulwark Podcast goes true crime': an Idaho mother was charged with murdering her infant twins a year after going on a Children's Health Defense Fund podcast to claim vaccines killed them. [1] — Tim Miller "An Idaho mother charged with murdering her 18-month-old twins had appeared on RFK Jr.'s Children's Health Defense Fund podcast blaming the …" 40:52 Miller finds this story both horrifying in itself and symptomatically important: it illustrates that conspiracy culture is dangerous in ways that are hard to predict. The path from anti-vaccine propaganda to a murder charge echoes similar trajectories — Tina Peters convinced herself the election was stolen and broke into voting machine software; the Pizzagate shooter showed up to a restaurant with a gun. When public figures with institutional platforms — including the current Secretary of Health and Human Services — promote these conspiracies, real people act on them. The chapter closes on Miller's pointed observation: participating in conspiracy culture and being surprised by its consequences is not a coherent position.
An Idaho mother charged with murdering her 18-month-old twins had appeared on RFK Jr.'s Children's Health Defense Fund podcast blaming the deaths on vaccines. Miller connects this to a broader pattern: conspiracy culture is dangerous in ways hard to predict, from Pizzagate to election denialism, and now the Secretary of HHS is adjacent to it.
