A clip of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. telling comedian Theo Von that he "used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats" ripped across social media Thursday afternoon, racking up more than 2 million views in three hours.

The usual suspects pounced. The context, as usual, told a different story.

As reported by Newsweek, Kennedy made the remarks on Von's podcast, This Past Weekend w/Theo Von, while discussing his recovery from addiction.

"I'm not scared of a germ, I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats. I know this disease will kill me. If I don't treat it, which for me means going to meetings every day, it's just bad for my life."

That's a man describing the daily discipline required to maintain more than four decades of sobriety. It's raw, self-aware, and brutally honest — the kind of thing recovery communities hear every day, and the rest of the country apparently can't handle hearing from a Cabinet secretary.

The context nobody wanted to share

Kennedy wasn't bragging. He was testifying — in the way anyone who's been through a 12-step program understands. He and Von have a relationship that predates politics. Kennedy described meeting the comedian at early-morning recovery meetings before the COVID-19 pandemic. "We've been in recovery together for years."

Kennedy's history with addiction is not new information. He has publicly detailed a substance addiction that began in his youth and extended into adulthood, including heroin use, which he says lasted about 14 years. In 1983, he was convicted of a felony for heroin possession in Rapid City, South Dakota. He entered a treatment program, attended rehabilitation sessions as part of his probation, and that marked the end of his active addiction.

Since then, more than 40 years. Daily meetings. Sustained sobriety. Kennedy described his commitment on the podcast plainly:

"I said this when we came in and I said 'I don't care what happens, I'm going to a meeting every day.'"

None of this was hidden. None of it was leaked. He sat in front of a microphone and said it the same way he's apparently been saying it in recovery rooms for decades.

The reaction tells you more than the clip

The responses split along predictable lines. Conservative podcaster Eric Daugherty laughed it off:

"LMFAO! Health Sec. Bobby Kennedy is HILARIOUS! Omg"

Then came the critics who found the clip far more useful without its context. Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action — an organization that recruits doctors and scientists for political office — offered this:

"But…RFK Jr. doesn't believe in germ theory?"

Andrew Bates, a former Biden White House senior deputy press secretary, went for the layup:

"The winner of this century's 'Friend of Measles' award has more good advice to share."

And Dr. Neil Stone, an infectious-disease doctor, posted simply:

"The man in charge of US health policy."

Notice the pattern. Not one of these responses engaged with the substance of what Kennedy actually said — a man describing his ongoing battle with addiction and the daily work required to stay alive. They stripped the quote for parts, grabbed the cocaine line, and welded it to their pre-existing objections to Kennedy's health policies. The addiction, the recovery, the 40 years — none of it made the cut.

What the outrage reveals

There is something deeply clarifying about watching the same political class that spent years demanding empathy for addiction — that championed harm reduction, needle exchanges, destigmatization campaigns — suddenly discover that a recovering addict's candor is disqualifying when he holds the wrong job in the wrong administration.

The left has built an entire rhetorical infrastructure around the idea that addiction is a disease, not a moral failing. That people in recovery deserve dignity, not judgment. That sharing your story publicly is brave. Until the person sharing it runs HHS under a Republican president. Then the cocaine line becomes a punchline, and four decades of sobriety become invisible.

This isn't a contradiction they're unaware of. It's one they don't care about. The goal was never a consistent principle. The goal was a viral clip that makes Kennedy look unfit, and context is an obstacle to that project.

The actual story

A man who spent 14 years in the grip of heroin addiction — who hit bottom hard enough to catch a felony — clawed his way back. He's maintained sobriety for over 40 years through daily, unglamorous commitment to recovery. He went on a podcast hosted by a friend he met in those same rooms and spoke about it with the kind of unvarnished honesty that recovery demands.

The internet saw a man saying "cocaine off of toilet seats" and reached for the quote-tweet button. The recovery community saw something else entirely — a man still showing up, still doing the work, still refusing to sanitize the ugliest parts of his past because pretending they didn't happen is how people relapse.

Two million views in three hours. And almost none of them saw the whole picture.