Too on-the-nose? I don’t think so. Lysenko was put in charge of Soviet agriculture after declaring that Mendelian genetics was false, and that his Lamarckist delusions were the future of science. Robert F. Kennedy Jr rejects germ theory and immunology to promote his “miasma theory” bullshit. Lysenko came to power in the 1920s, RFK Jr a hundred years later.
It’s about time we noted the parallels between the two charlatans.
Lysenko’s views and actions have a resonance today when considering the activities of Robert F Kennedy Jr, who was appointed by Donald Trump as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services in February 2025. Of course, Trump has repeatedly sought to impose his own agenda on US science, with his destructive impact outlined in a detailed report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists in July 2025.
Lysenko set Soviet science back by decades. We should ask how far the similarities will go. It’s not reassuring.
Lysenko retained his position after Stalin died, and was reappointed by Kruschev. His scientific influence was waning — that none of his methods worked led to disaffection in the scientific community, if not so much in the political community. He wasn’t denounced until the mid-1960s (remember Sakharov?) and lingered on in retirement until his death in 1976.
If the parallels hold, let’s hope they don’t, we’re going to be wrestling with the ideological garbage RFK jr infused into American science until the 2060s.
So.
Much.
Needless.
Damage.
Suffering.
Grief
Pain.
Loss.
Torment.
Done.
Yes, I’ve been comparing RFK Jr. to Lysenko and referring to this administration’s science polices as “Lysenkoism 2.0” for months now (at least since March):
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/make-america-healthy-again-the-new-lysenkoism/
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/lysenkoism-2-0-and-the-dismantling-of-the-nih/
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/jay-bhattacharyas-plan-to-drive-gold-standard-science-a-trojan-horse-for-lysenko-izing-the-nih/
RFK Jr is worse. He has a hundred additional years of science and research that he ignores.
Make Measles Great Again.
maybe people just have shitty memories for news. i will never forget the first thing covid did in my home state was kill literally everyone in a retirement home, and not long after it took apart that young broadway actor limb from limb.
Perhaps the Nobel Committee could introduce a new prize: The Lysenko Award for Deadly Stupidity. Junior would win in a heart beat, but Don Dong would insist that he deserves the prize. And he wouldn’t be wrong.
On the other hand perhaps it’s a prize for reducing the world’s population. We gotta do something to offset the procreative habits of Elon and other billionaires.
O, Orac’s posts have been appearing at SBM instead of RI?! That’s a place I had wholly forgotten — thank you!
What a lot of people don’t understand is that, while trump is the big elephant of the absolute disaster of a presidency, its his appointees that are a major component of the disaster. Kennedy, in particular, is setting health and medicine back a century, allowing diseases which have been under control for decades to return, making pronouncements and policies on health and treatment based upon zero research and with no backing by health care professionals whose job it has been to research and study diseases. Even more disastrous is the defunding and closure of world-leading agencies like NIH. It will require decades to recover from this, if, in fact, recovery is even possible.
On 01/19/2025 it was plausible that there would be incremental medical advances that might maybe perhaps possibly enable me to live another thirty years….and maybe even a bluesky breakthrough that might add an additional five to ten years to that. Because of RFK, DJT, etc., I anticipate that my maximum number of remaining years is probably more like twenty….and maybe less. At the risk of understatement, I am displeased.
I find it quite funny that while RFK claims to believe in miasma theory, he clearly doesn’t even know what miasma theory is. He can’t even get the right flavour of pre-scientific bullshit.
Aachen on the Plains @7 Orac post on SBM nearly every Monday in addition to on RI.
Aw c’mon – did Trofim Denisovich Lysenko ever eat road kill or play with his grandchildren in sewage plant effluent?
http://isthistomorrow.com/?comic=stick-your-neck-out
deadguykai, perfection.
Mindless authoritarians like Trump and the Russian leaders hate real scientists and science because they deal in reality. Lysenko and RFK essentially tell such leaders that anything they want they can have. As a result science and medicine are essentially destroyed in their countries.
“Mindless authoritarians like Trump and the Russian leaders” get to run entire countries at their whim for many years. Fact.
We have a chance to change all that at the midterms – assuming Trump doesn’t follow the authoritarian playbook and rig the elections in his favor.
Given that elections are handled at the county and state level it is hard to rig a US general election. Trump, et al, are obviously going to try (the redistricting, changing the postmark procedure, etc.). Which is a lot like saying it is going to rain. What we need to do is everything we can to render their efforts ineffective, or too obvious for their numerical claims to be accepted as legitimate by the populace at large. Umbrellas, galoshes, rain-suits, hats – everything!!!!!
seversky, you always had that.
Thing is, historically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_United_States_presidential_elections
At least 1/3 of the electorate doesn’t even bother to vote.
So, elections can be won via turnout blocks such as the Evangelicals etc. Vote en Mass.
Let’s not forget that Sakharov’s criticism of Lysenko put him in the KGB’s bad books and they started collecting kopromat on him. This was over a decade after Lysenkoism had demonstrable failed in its predictions and killed millions of people in the process.