Thursday, June 29, 2017

Do They Really Need a Wheelchair?

Fox News Commentator speculated that a lot of the excessive healthcare costs comes from unnecessary costs. The commentator then said about some patients 'do they really need a wheelchair?' Speaking as the son of someone whose wheelchair collapsed after two yrs, and was then denied coverage for a new wheelchair b/c it was an excessive and unnecessary cost, I think our healthcare system has gone from Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' to 'Mad Max: Thunderdome.' Trumpcare will take us into "Human Centipede" territory so that the Koch Brothers can watch the livefeed of poor ppl dying on the ER waiting room floor surrounded by medical bills and bankruptcy notices. Despite this horror, i think that over half of these dying, bankrupted, diseased patriots would continue to vote Republican b/c they don't want Mexicans to get free vaccines or are worried about black women having access to pap smears. Fox and the alt-right media train people in how to de-empathize. One of the most successful ways of getting people to de-empathize is to rile them up into a constant state of rage against an 'other.' That rage disconnects the wiring of the human conscience: the link between other people's suffering and our own. It's the reason why there are so many Trump voters who are surprised to find out that they would be harmed by immigration deportation, Trumpcare, allowing the EPA to loosen regulations. These are people incapable of seeing a society unless it involves their direct and immediate interests. They think 'fuck ppl in wheelchairs' until they themselves are in a wheelchair. They think 'fuck clean air' until they are inhaling dirty coal. This media, this party, and this movement is a bootcamp for sociopaths. If I react with my own rage then I am disconnecting my own wiring to empathy and -ultimately- the foundation to my conscience. Responding with clear and concise arguments grounded in compassion is the only way. And that is -despite their many flaws- I appreciate people like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden for their empathy...and humanity. They would never ask the question 'do they really need a wheelchair?' Instead I think they would ask 'how can I help?'

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