San Francisco Chronicle

RFK Jr. is not spouting conspiracy theories

- John Stedman, San Francisco Marilyn Langlois, Richmond

Regarding “Don’t believe RFK Jr.’s conspiracy theories” (Letters, Dec. 10): Thank you for publishing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s insightful commentary.

A letter in response disparages RFK Jr. with the conversati­on-stopping, thought-arresting term “conspiracy theory,” inimical to critical inquiry.

Abundant evidence corroborat­es the assertion that Sirhan Sirhan’s bullets did not kill Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, including Lisa Pease’s meticulous­ly documented book, “A Lie Too Big to Fail: The Real History of the Assassinat­ion of Robert F. Kennedy.”

Whose interests were served by extinguish­ing this popular, principled presidenti­al candidate?

As to RFK Jr.’s lifelong public interest advocacy, the left praised him back when he took on Monsanto and other corporatio­ns that pollute rivers and the food supply.

Oddly enough, once he started challengin­g abuses by pharmaceut­ical giants, he’s dismissed as an antivaxxer (another conversati­on-stopping, thought-arresting term).

His core values haven’t changed, as his well-referenced 2021 book “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health” demonstrat­es. Big Pharma is simply doing a better job of indoctrina­ting otherwise intelligen­t social justice promoters.

End domestic violence

Regarding “The crime we aren’t talking about” (Open Forum, Dec. 10): The essay by Melissa Doiron-Min on domestic violence was gutwrenchi­ng and appalling.

This long-standing and seldom acknowledg­ed epidemic should be at the front end of conversati­on concerning violence in the U.S. and around the world.

The vast amount of the abuse of women and children is committed by men who use their physical capacity and social dominance to control women’s lives so abusively.

It is not surprising that this power is asserted in the control of women’s reproducti­ve lives as well. Men, who have collective­ly never had to experience even one second of pregnancy, are always at the forefront of creating laws and social norms depriving woman’s reproducti­ve agency.

Millions of women have suffered or died over the years as a result of unsafe illegal abortions or from the experience of pregnancy itself. Millions of other women have anguished over having their reproducti­ve choices determined by the society or the men in their lives.

Recent laws in Texas and other states can be characteri­zed in one way that clarifies the role of male violence in women’s lives: They in effect protect the paternity rights of men who rape women into pregnancy. Disgusting.

 ?? Antonio Calanni / Associated Press ?? Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the slain senator, delivers a speech at a protest against Italy’s COVID-19 vaccinatio­n green pass in Milan in November.
Antonio Calanni / Associated Press Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the slain senator, delivers a speech at a protest against Italy’s COVID-19 vaccinatio­n green pass in Milan in November.

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