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[–]emorej 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

My takeaways from the interview:

  • Many of Smith's comments and clap-backs would probably be said by Max Blumenthal, who of course would sharpen them and would prioritize highlighting the pattern of ongoing Israeli expulsion pressure on Palestinians (Are my eyes deceiving me, or is our moment taking on ever broader "horse-shoe" coalition potential?);
  • Smith is impressive across the board, & both participants have good civility-preservation skills;
  • A substantive interview is always too short, resulting in much omitted follow-up, not least on RFK Jr.'s last-moment reference to Syria as "another vassal state" of Iran;
  • RFK Jr., despite being overly wedded to many historical assertions and (somewhat repetitive time-wasting) rhetorical devices (and a few evasions) of much Israeli propaganda, still comes across as much more impressive, in intellectual coherence, than Trump or Biden (even if they were each 30 years younger);

I suspect that this interview could encourage many Libertarians to see RFK Jr. as a lesser-evil candidate than Biden or Trump. That is obviously a higher priority for RFK Jr. at present than delivering similar encouragement to Max Blumenthal's viewer base. It remains unclear (probably not least in the mind of RFK Jr.) whether:

  • mentions of RFK Jr. seeking the Libertarian Party's ballot line serve mainly to flatter Libertarian-sympathetic voters; or
  • flattery of Libertarian-sympathetic voters serves mainly to enable RFK Jr. to seek the Libertarian Pary's ballot line.