Aug
12
To the Blindingly Stupid American
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
Much of the time, I try to convince myself you’re not out there. That you’re only misguided, and with a little bit more education and understanding you would come to your senses. But really, I can only abide such willful, intentionally stubborn ignorance for so long.
- Michelle Malkin, your assertion that getting health insurance coverage is merely about “priorities” is ridiculously insulting. I will tell you about MY priorities. In prioritizing my mental health, I can not afford to pay for the care of possibly serious physical ailments. Those of your ilk have told me that if it were really so important, I’d get a second job….. Possibly aggravating said physical ailment further in order to PAY FOR TREATMENT.
- “Well, you shouldn’t be at the doctor so much” – Another ridiculously ignorant, flippant statement made by people who have health insurance and don’t want to see the system change…. Obviously you’ve never met numerous coworkers of mine who have serious physical ailments that require biweekly doctors visits and costly tests. “Priorities” will also get them nowhere, as insurance agencies refuse to cover them. Getting second jobs in their condition is NOT POSSIBLE.
- “Personal responsibility” doesn’t make a WHIT OF DIFFERENCE IF YOU SIMPLY CAN’T AFFORD TO PAY!!!
- Justifying the care you get and its quality based on your “worth to society” in terms of how much you make, and justifying others NOT receiving the quality care they need because they don’t make enough – you are scum.
- Your beloved “liberal media” is out there smearing the Canadian system and the idea of single payer health care because it has a vested, CORPORATE interest in the status quo. THIS IS NOT ABOUT LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE. It’s about seven corporations owning our news outlets, looking out for CORPORATE INTERESTS.
- I consider myself to be, at the very least, a SOCIALIST. Yes, I said a super scary word that Americans will forever live in fear of without educating themselves about what it TRULY IS. So while you spout your misinformed propaganda about the US “turning into Russia or China” please understand that systems like Canada’s are NOT SOCIALIST.
- While I advocate a system like Canada’s, I do believe 100% that the US government WILL fuck up this health care reform because the system is too compromised by lobbyists – insurance and pharmaceuticals who don’t give a shit about the human factor, and will count every profit making penny despite the person on the other end who needs medical care. As much as I’d like to think this will ease a huge burden for me in the future, I HIGHLY DOUBT IT.
- For a “Christian Nation”, as many of your ilk like to claim, the current system is certainly the embodiment of Jesus’ principles! But Socialism, and making sure people’s needs are met is godless….. quite a switch.
- For once, the advice to “get out if you don’t like it” sounds like a GREAT idea. It would be nice to go to a place that’s informed by policy and citizens that CARE ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS AND NOT ABOUT PROFITS.
I know it’s difficult to believe that the world is not always so neat and tidy, that it doesn’t fit into a view that uses buzzwords like “priorities” and “personal responsibility.” I am tired of the blinding stupidity and ignorance, the mulish refusal to think critically. I am also tired of the selfishness and the “fuck you, I’ve got mine” mentality that permeates America like rot. Fuck terrorists – we’re doing an amazing job of destroying this country on our own.
MYTHBUSTING CANADIAN HEALTHCARE
Nov
27
I’m burned out after months of nonstop reading blogs/news/nonfiction books/etc and need a break. No mystery that this also comes with the last bit of warm weather, bringing on perpetual crankiness, an understanding of animals that hibernate, and no desire to censor myself at the moment. I can’t resist a few parting shots with the things I’ve been kicking around before the blog goes silent for a bit. So I guess this is kind of messy and unpolished, but whatever. And who knows, maybe tomorrow I will be miraculously motivated again.
I feel remiss that I did not acknowledge the historical significance of Obama’s presidency at all, despite having a number of fundamental problems with him.
I am bitterly amused that continued outrage is being leveled towards Michael Vick for his torture of dogs, yet we continuously honor men who are rapists and abusers. If I had a dime for every time someone blew off a man’s abuse of a woman to wax poetic about him I’d be rich. (And no, I don’t condone what he did, I think it’s abhorrent. I just wish there was some parity here.)
The conversations going on around me about the auto industry all have to do with those “greedy” auto workers who get paid “too much” for such an “easy” job and how unions need to be weakened. It strikes me as incredibly odd that our remaining factory workers, lionized as models of class mobility and the American Dream, are now bearing the brunt of the blame for reaping the benefits that make those things possible. I feel more like an alien than I thought I could.
In light of that, I liked this post at Socialist Resistance >> America Changing for Real?? and particularly this portion of it:
The ongoing fight over auto is not about saving jobs and communities, or converting the industry to sustainable mass transit. It’s about whether the bankruptcy of the Big Three would be one of those moments of “creative destruction” so dearly beloved by free-market ideologues, whose own lives of course aren’t at stake. It’s about whether the companies will go bankrupt anyway – so why postpone the inevitable? – or whether the impact of their precipitous collapse on the system as a whole is too enormous to risk.
I am frustrated and disgusted at a culture of learned callousness. Going into the city and seeing homeless, the performances they need to put on to solicit people’s kindness, the way people ignore them anyway. If the victim isn’t perfect we knee jerk and withdraw our support. I see this in my own thought patterns when I give them money and hear their stories.
The “it’s my paycheck” bullshit. I abhor this. Your paycheck is earned on the backs of others. You are not a monolith, a person all by yourself that you earn your paycheck in a vacuum, that it is not linked to a local and global community of people. And I do believe that this is one of America’s greatest failings – this teaching of such extreme individualism that so many couldn’t care less about others outside of “their circle”, having no understanding of community and the way one’s actions ripple outward.
I did not drop from the womb with a desire to wear makeup. As someone who was born with a vagina it is not a biological imperative that I put on lipstick. This is not intended to shame women who do so, it is directed towards people who seem to think they can tell me I should do this because I am a woman.
I just finished Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks and well, damn if she isn’t brilliant when it comes to discussions of the way power works.
I have finally put an actual name to that ethereal thing I’ve wanted to study for years and this makes me kind of excited. (Sounds much better than “I am interested in economic tyranny and the way development is a vehicle for neocolonialism.” – which is NEVER this concise when I get asked to describe my primary interest. I feel a little dense that it took me this long to actually find a discipline that has the potential to explore this.)
And a link I meant to quote but never did. I thought there were more, but oh well:
The Sanctuary >> Hate Doesn’t Happen in a Vacuum – A post that details the rhetoric and the hate crimes towards immigrants that have been occurring in the Long Island area. I’m shocked that it’s this extensive in my area and had no idea. I like the way the post emphasizes the importance of the way we speak about issues and how this can create an environment where these things occur – too often we devalue language and its impact.
Nov
22
Thanksgiving and Other Fine Mythologies
Filed Under General | 2 Comments
So the typical argument between looking at our country’s history full in the face and denying it by clinging to a couple of comforting mythologies has begun. The idea that this nation’s foundation is built on genocide, the deaths of up to 30 million people and the lawful decimation of their culture is a rather problematic thing to consider for most people. The idea that this country’s early economic success can in large part be attributed to slaves is something many would rather forget. And built on this foundation, the idea that our nation’s lifestyle has continued to be preserved over the past century through the blood and suffering of others, literally on their backs, is unthinkable.
It never ceases to fascinate me that we Americans live in a culture that seems to work on a few unassailable myths. We have been brought up in a society that is in theory democratic, a meritocracy that anyone can succeed in if only they work hard enough. Free speech is enshrined and we live under a government that in theory would never punish us for exercising that right. In light of this, it’s incredibly difficult to believe that your government would be involved in events the world over that have and continue to cause the incredible suffering of others. It’s incredibly difficult to face up to the idea that our lifestyle, just by virtue of living it, causes us to have an obscene amount of blood on our hands.
The American Dream is another one of these myths. The idea that if you work hard enough, if you really pull yourself up by your boot straps you can get anywhere. Again, that the United States is a meritocracy and that individual backgrounds have no impact on one’s success. This seems to reinforce, above all, the peace of mind of those of us who have been born in a privileged position. We never have to go beyond the idea of “if only they worked hard enough” to understand the complexities that face groups of people who have to work damn harder than we probably ever will and are still only barely keeping their heads above water.
The myth of “choice.” This one has been near and dear to my heart lately. Say you’re facing sexual harassment/racism/homophobia (pick your poison) at your place of work. But hell, you need that job to feed your kids. No one is KEEPING you there… you still have the <i>choice</i> to leave.
- This is a work in progress.
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