So good, Nicholas, and also a subject very near and dear to my heart because I am medically disabled and what many of the right wing would consider to be a useless eater. That fact has always nagged me deep within my heart, but now considering the people who are currently running roughshod over our lives and our country, the threat is made so much more real with every passing day. I fear that with my medical issues, I may not survive another Trump presidency, especially if we wander helplessly into another pandemic unsupported. 😟
This is why this is one of those issues that can make me emotionally triggered like few other subjects. Denying someone life saving treatment because they can't afford it, in the richest country on earth, should be criminal as far as I'm concerned. If a person steals food to ward off starvation, which is the bigger crime, the theft, or being left to starve? I can already hear the retort: what if someone else starves because of the theft? Then obviously the system of distribution is unfair, neither of them should starve in a country of abundance. Medical treatment is the same. People should not have to set up a gofundme for that stuff. It's mind boggling that any such thing is imagined to be ok. I refuse to believe it a lack of basic morality though, the eternal optimist in me has to put it down to something else, like not thinking it through. The alternative is perilously close to believing in the principles of eugenics.
From my perspective, a lot of it stems from the American mythology that has been injected into every American citizen's veins from the moment of their birth. Rugged individualism. American exceptionalism. The idea that all you need to prosper is the tenacity to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, (something that is quite literally impossible) in the face of all available evidence to the contrary. The notion sold to us in media, pop culture and public discourse that anyone suffering from poverty is at their very core, personally responsible not only for their conundrum but is alone responsible for pulling themselves out of it. The endless propagandizing against taxation in any form, painting it as theft rather than a contribution to the public good, has played it's own evil part in this. Add into all of these stated reasons, the fact that America is deeply deeply racist at it's very foundations and that we are taught in ways, both subtle and implicit that imply that the current hierarchies and power structures are not only good; but that they are supremely wise and necessary for the survival of our people, and you begun to see the basis for the stinking rotten melange of what keeps Americans pulling that lever for politicians who wouldn't even spit on them if they were on fire. Phew. Essay over I guess. Lol
As far as I can tell, slavery is still illegal here in Australia, and I'm fairly sure it is illegal everywhere else in the world that has Universal Health Care, so... no one is to be enslaved :)
So good, Nicholas, and also a subject very near and dear to my heart because I am medically disabled and what many of the right wing would consider to be a useless eater. That fact has always nagged me deep within my heart, but now considering the people who are currently running roughshod over our lives and our country, the threat is made so much more real with every passing day. I fear that with my medical issues, I may not survive another Trump presidency, especially if we wander helplessly into another pandemic unsupported. 😟
This is why this is one of those issues that can make me emotionally triggered like few other subjects. Denying someone life saving treatment because they can't afford it, in the richest country on earth, should be criminal as far as I'm concerned. If a person steals food to ward off starvation, which is the bigger crime, the theft, or being left to starve? I can already hear the retort: what if someone else starves because of the theft? Then obviously the system of distribution is unfair, neither of them should starve in a country of abundance. Medical treatment is the same. People should not have to set up a gofundme for that stuff. It's mind boggling that any such thing is imagined to be ok. I refuse to believe it a lack of basic morality though, the eternal optimist in me has to put it down to something else, like not thinking it through. The alternative is perilously close to believing in the principles of eugenics.
From my perspective, a lot of it stems from the American mythology that has been injected into every American citizen's veins from the moment of their birth. Rugged individualism. American exceptionalism. The idea that all you need to prosper is the tenacity to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, (something that is quite literally impossible) in the face of all available evidence to the contrary. The notion sold to us in media, pop culture and public discourse that anyone suffering from poverty is at their very core, personally responsible not only for their conundrum but is alone responsible for pulling themselves out of it. The endless propagandizing against taxation in any form, painting it as theft rather than a contribution to the public good, has played it's own evil part in this. Add into all of these stated reasons, the fact that America is deeply deeply racist at it's very foundations and that we are taught in ways, both subtle and implicit that imply that the current hierarchies and power structures are not only good; but that they are supremely wise and necessary for the survival of our people, and you begun to see the basis for the stinking rotten melange of what keeps Americans pulling that lever for politicians who wouldn't even spit on them if they were on fire. Phew. Essay over I guess. Lol
Who is to be enslaved in order to fulfill this inflation of right. With every right comes a corresponding obligation.
As far as I can tell, slavery is still illegal here in Australia, and I'm fairly sure it is illegal everywhere else in the world that has Universal Health Care, so... no one is to be enslaved :)