Kennedy Is Popular on Social Media – Even This Is Now Supposedly Bad News

The Kennedy Beacon

According to WIRED magazine, the Internet has become RFK Jr.’s official “campaign headquarters” – and his popularity on social media is somehow a bad thing. 

Makena Kelly, a senior writer at WIRED, wonders Why RFK Jr. Is Suddenly Everywhere Online and laments that Kennedy has experienced a surge in online presence as he campaigns for the presidency, despite being marginalized by mainstream media. She notes that Kennedy has engaged with various influencers, celebrities, and podcast hosts, expanding his reach significantly. Recently, he was featured on podcasts with America’s Got Talent judge Howie Mandel and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

Kennedy shares clips of his interactions on platforms like TikTok, where he has garnered 9 million likes. Despite a previous ban from Instagram for spreading COVID-19 vaccine “misinformation” (according to the platform), Kennedy was reinstated in June 2023 and has since doubled his followers, to 1.7 million. On X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), he has over 2.7 million followers. Kennedy actively collaborates with celebrities and Silicon Valley figures, employing an assertive strategy of engagement with content creators who provide access to a wide electoral outreach.

Kelly quotes Mike Rothschild, “an author who writes about conspiracy theories,” who calls Kennedy “the podcast candidate,” saying that “Vivek Ramaswamy was someone in the GOP who had some of that, but RFK Jr. is the podcast, Substack, terminally online candidate.” 

The article goes on to say that Kennedy’s campaign, because he dares to demand accountability from vaccine manufacturers, has gained influencer support across Hollywood and social media, which may inspire voters in the 2024 elections – and again, that’s a bad thing according to Kelly.

Although Kelly admits that “Kennedy originally built a career as a top environmental lawyer who played an outsize role in cleaning New York’s Hudson River” – and, presumably, she is happy he helped get mercury out of the fish we eat – she criticizes his efforts to get mercury out of children’s vaccines. 

Kelly claims that because Kennedy was shunned by traditional media, he became a “digital martyr” and that is why he achieved popularity in alternative media, on social media, through podcasts, and on Substack. The article neglects to explore the real reasons behind Kennedy’s online popularity. Kelly overlooks the fact that public trust in the government has steadily declined since 2001 – a significant factor contributing to the support garnered by anti-establishment candidates like Kennedy.

When Joe Biden took office in 2020, public trust in the US government was surprisingly high at 24 percent. In 2023, it went down to 16 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. In 2019, when Trump was in office, the percentage was 17. 

A study published in 2022 examining “results from May and October 2020 surveys fielded through the RAND American Life Panel” assessed public trust in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the pandemic. On a scale of 1 to 10, trust in the CDC was at 7.6 in May 2020. By October – less than six months – it had gone down to 7.0.

Neither Biden nor Trump has addressed these issues, and their handling of the pandemic response may be the main reason people don’t trust the CDC and the public health system.

Kennedy, who has positioned himself as an anti-establishment and anti-corruption candidate, attracts people from all spheres precisely for this reason. His strategic use of social media is evident, as his online presence appeals to a diverse audience, including supporters on both the left and the right. He positions himself as a “censored” figure, resonating with those disillusioned by mainstream politics, much as Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang did in the 2020 Democratic primary election.

After the Super Bowl and the airing of an American Values 2024 Kennedy ad at halftime, the traditional media’s reaction was overwhelmingly negative, while on social media and in the comments sections the responses were largely positive. 

WIRED also took part in this on X, sharing the article with the comment “We said that RFK Jr. is suddenly everywhere online. Now he’s even got a commercial at the #SuperBowl complete with a campaign jingle full of Kennedy family history.”

Online searches for Kennedy skyrocketed after the ad, and he gained thousands of new followers on X, which suggests that the ad succeeded in reaching people who are now interested in hearing what Kennedy has to say.

Kelly did note that social media’s influence on elections and politics is undeniable while implying that Kennedy’s engagement with the public through new media is somehow shameful.

Despite all the security concerns his own administration has brought up, President Biden himself joined TikTok on Super Bowl day, in an attempt to reach the younger generation. Embracing the popular so-called “Dark Brandon” meme, the official Biden-Harris HQ TikTok features Biden with laser eyes as the profile picture.