I saw a weirdo speaker at a Trump rally last week who mentioned something about Donald Trump “protecting the consumption of raw milk” in America, and I thought, “Is this some sort of bizarre QAnon thing?” Then, over the weekend, Marjorie Taylor Greene referenced raw milk again.
Is the far right pushing raw milk now? Isn’t raw milk some hippie nonsense? Yes, yes it is! Or it was, but this is one of those areas where the far-left and far-right overlap. In that overlapping space—filled with antivaxxers, Ivermectin fans, and the like, you’ll find Bobby Kennedy, Jr.
Some of these individuals, who previously occupied space on the far left, have crossed over to the right and have joined some in the Fox News cult. They fundamentally distrust experts, so people like J.D. Vance can score points by dismissing expertise. To them, “experts” and “facts” belong to oppressive liberals who support public health protocols and believe economists when they say a 10% tariff on everything would harm the economy.
The far right doesn’t trust experts or regulations — especially those backed by experts. In their minds, the FDA is full of “loser experts” who claim raw milk contains bacteria and viruses like E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella that can cause life-threatening diseases. They conveniently ignore history, where milk-borne bacteria killed 8,000 infants a year before pasteurization was implemented because rules are bad. Rules infringe on freedom, which is why several Republican-led states like Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Alaska, Georgia, and Wyoming have legalized raw milk sales. Screw the experts!
Honestly, this is just another consequence of Trump and the pandemic. Trump dismisses experts and facts because they don’t work in his favor, so he’s sought to erode our trust in not just the media but also in science. Now, the far right has more in common with the tree-hugging fruitcakes in California wine country who rely on raw honey for joint pain and pursue homeopathic remedies for cancer (no offense to all my tree-hugging fruitcake friends in California wine country!)
Raw milk has essentially become a symbol to these folks. They believe it’s a healthier alternative to pasteurized milk and that government warnings against it are part of a plot to control them. Ironically, they think the FDA discourages raw milk from controlling public health and stifling natural foods — weren’t we the natural food people? Didn’t we used to pay a premium for organic products?
Both political parties have undergone realignment over the past decade, but I don’t care for this one. Democrats were better at sidelining our nutty fringe; Republicans are mainstreaming theirs. But if they want to drink raw milk, they’re welcome to it! As for Marjorie Taylor Greene, the rawer, the better.