Derek Beres
Appearances
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
Thank you for having us, Brittany.
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
That also is a misnomer if you think it's only always been hippies or leftists, because the very ideology of conservatism is this notion of protecting what has already existed. And we want to keep perpetuating that.
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
You referenced the 60s and hippies, well, you had the John Birch Society, which was a conservative organization in the 1960s that spread a lot of misinformation in order to drive people toward conservative values. That was agreeing with a lot of the hippies and actually influencing them at that time on things like fluoride in the water.
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
My personal feeling is that the crossover is rooted in individualism. So a lot of the times when you see wellness influencers talking about the universal application of their products and supplements, they really mean a specific audience that has the time for it and that can afford it. Because to partake in that industry, you have to have a certain level of privilege.
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
And that is rooted in the sense of individual responsibility when it comes to health. Yeah.
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
There has been a longstanding conservative anti-intellectual movement in America, but that's become a real anti-expert movement. And that is partly driven by the fact that wellness influencers, you're looking at Gwyneth Paltrow selling supplements and people on the right, Alex Jones selling supplements. They have a vested interest in saying that doctors don't know what they're talking about.
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
You should do this for your health. Coming up. He was going to crypto conferences. He is known as an environmental champion. Although if you look back at that track record, there's a lot we can pick apart from that as well. But he built up his brand, his name through the vaccine lawsuits.
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
When RFK Jr. was running for president, one of the things that Kennedy did really well is picking off fringe groups. He was going to regenerative agriculture conferences. He was going to crypto conferences. He is known as an environmental champion, although if you look back at that track record, there's a lot we can pick apart from that as well.
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
But he built up his brand, his name, through the vaccine lawsuits. What he did was he took all of these fringe groups and he kind of brought them together under his larger brand. Going back to your last question, there are a lot of people who are rightfully skeptical of a for-profit healthcare system.
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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
In fact, having interviewed dozens if not hundreds of healthcare experts over the years now, I haven't met one doctor or researcher who said, yeah, I love our system. people within the system know it's broken and know the problems with it. But what Maha has been able to do is exploit that gap in knowledge and just paint them with a broad brush.
It's Been a Minute
Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'
And unfortunately, because so many people suffer under capitalistic healthcare, they feel that sort of pain that they might have experienced. And it's very easy to indoctrinate people into your group or your mindset when people have that distrust.