RFK Jr and Trofim Lysenko: Genocidal maniacs of their day

Lysenko has been called the scientist responsible for more deaths than any other. Kennedy's actions and proposals promise to beat that record.

You may know of Soviet agriculturist Trofim Lysenko from Skeptoid #472. In short, he’s the one most responsible for the anti-scientific farming techniques that contributed to so much famine in the USSR, killing millions; and once his planting techniques were made into law by Mao for his Great Leap Forward, killed tens of millions of Chinese.

This story on The Atlantic opens with the ominous sentence “Although it’s impossible to say for sure, Trofim Lysenko probably killed more human beings than any individual scientist in history.”

RFK Jr seems determined to beat that record. As one who notoriously bears a wide spectrum of anti-scientific views, particularly when it comes to health and healthcare (most notably vaccine denial), he became the darling of a similarly anti-scientific US President and was — almost unbelievably — placed in charge of US healthcare. In a close parallel, Lysenko famously denied the existence of genes, DNA, natural selection, and more; and yet, when he attracted the adoration of Joseph Stalin, he was — incredibly — appointed Director of Genetics for the Academy of Sciences in 1940.

Tens of millions starved to death as a result.

In Lysenko’s case, state repression of dissent left Soviet scientists and farmers with few options. Real geneticists were branded as anti-Stalinist enemies of the state. At least half a dozen were executed for refusing to denounce basic science facts; many more were sent to die in the Gulags. Although Kennedy’s tools are less dramatic, his proposal to create a state-run medical journal and ban all government scientists from publishing anywhere else show that he’s following the same playbook: Make dissent from pseudoscience illegal.

Here’s a list of more (frankly, astonishing) parallels, which combine to form an ominous prediction that widespread death and disease are likely to darken our horizons:

• Both men held views far outside the scientific establishment and had long been proven wrong, yet both came to power through impressing authoritarian leaders with personal loyalty.

• Both favor censorship of real science and the centralization of research. Lysenko had textbooks banned that taught genetics; Kennedy is proposing that only his state-run journals will be allowed to guide US health policy.

• Both men promoted alternative “science” that was derived from ideology: Lysenko’s cultivation techniques were at odds with agiculturists, yet they iconified the “new Soviet man.” Kennedy paints doctors and scientists as “elites” and their rejection as a brave maverick act that can empower every average person.

• Both men frame mainstream science as corrupt or ideologically compromised to justify their positions.

• Both men have used the legal system to silence scientists and personal enemies. Lysenko personally orchestrated the arrests and executions of geneticists, with Stalin’s backing. Kennedy has done the following:

  • During his 2023 Presidential campaign, he said he would have Anthony Fauci prosecuted.

  • His Children’s Health Defense anti-vaccine organization has filed lawsuits against vaccine scientist Peter Hotez.

  • Once he became HHS Secretary, Kennedy had Fauci’s wife fired and assigned Fauci’s successor to an outpost in Alaska (the closest thing he could find to a Gulag).

Undoubtedly, Kennedy’s campaigns against Fauci, Hotez, and other health advocates reveal a systematic effort to replace evidence-based science with ideological narratives. These actions mirror Lysenko’s suppression of genetics in the USSR.

No good is going to come of this.