So as you presumably have all heard by now, the Republicans were able to get their Obamacare repeal bill through the House. Which means we need to 1) make sure they don’t get an equivalent bill through the Senate 2) make sure that all the Republicans who voted for this bill lose their jobs as soon as possible.
I’ve been filling up my Twitter with reactions to this shit, so, hey, why not open up a thread for you to share your reactions as well?
They passed the bill. Now let's make sure they lose their jobs.
— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) May 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/nsilverberg/status/860200105751625728
USE YOUR VOICE AND SHOW UP TO A TOWN HALL MEETING NEXT WEEK. Find your town hall here: https://t.co/Fy2dVIS3lK #trumpcare
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) May 4, 2017
Here's a coordinated, national donation campaign raising money for opponents of GOP reps voting for Trumpcare: https://t.co/gQEr744pzQ
— Robert McNees (@mcnees) May 4, 2017
There's something strange about this group that just decided RAPE was a pre-existing condition… pic.twitter.com/xDtQT4fNeX
— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) May 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/whittyhutton/status/860220544989442049
Nate Silver’s Numbers Suggest That Voting For Trumpcare May Cost Republicans The House https://t.co/CkoASSKFhg
— #TheResistance (@SocialPowerOne1) May 4, 2017
Throw them all out. #RESIST! #PERSIST! #BePISSED!
And maybe, if you like this sort of thing, watch a video of Dr. Pimple Popper squeezing out a #CYST! (I dunno, I find these videos sort of relaxing.)
Every day since the election, my respect for the United States of America as a country has grown less and less. “Greatest Country in the World”, my fucking rectum. The citizens of Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, etc. ought to be kissing the soil right now.
Psychod787, please note that most if not all of the problems currently facing the UK’s NHS are directly due to the fact that politicians (including the tory Minister for Health ffs who literally, I kid you not, wrote a book about exactly this) are consciously, deliberately and (imo) with malice aforethought trying to run it into the ground in order to have excuses to ramp up their privatisation plans and sell it off piecemeal to US corporations (and if you want to bet that this will be in exchange for kickbacks in the form of lucrative directorships five minutes after leaving office, I will not bet against you).
They starve it of funds, and they force extra costs on it; they refuse to invest in training (and actively discourage young people from entering nursing, for example, by making it massively more expensive for them to study) and the resulting staff shortages force NHS trusts to get in agency staff and locums who cost three times more because of course profit has to go to the private agency. And I am sorry to say that this and previous governments including a labour one also put the NHS into hock for its infrastructure by inviting private “investment” (sharks investing their teeth into it, more like).
The NHS is godsdamn amazing, for all its imperfections, and our current government are working to destroy it.
With apologies for the derail.
@ Newt Thanks for answering me. This has been great having discussions with people from all walks of life and places! I read your link. Those were some of the problems that were presented. We in America also have a quickly aging population and people who use the E.R. as a PCP. Those would be two, but my other main problem with universal health care in america, is the cost!
The health care industry in america is broken! Unless we fix the problems that start at the very core of the way we practice western medicine and in some ways business, it will never be an good way to have health care.
Thanks
opposablethumbs
No problems with the derail! lol I actually work in what we call in america, Managed care. I am a nurse, also have been back in school for health care administration. I know what can happen when things are privatized. There is also a push by hospitals in america to have less staff on floors. They have been able to push through changes with the help of a corrupt government. I also know what you are talking about as far as agency nursing and health care in Britain. I once eyeballed a nice paying job for an agency in London! I still believe at the core of all of the trouble with universal health care in America is we need to cut the cost of the medical care itself! As long as the current systems are in place, Universal Healthcare in America will fail!
Thanks again!
@Psychod787
Just as long as rethuglicans are not allowed to change the current systems.
The incels have a take on this of course.
* usual warnings for incel stuff*
https://www.reddit.com/r/Incels/comments/69a82k/today_a_battle_against_the_female_race_has_been/
Hi Psychod.
The question you ask is a fair one: given that most people are basically good, and that people want the same things, why can’t they get along? However, this question is misleading, because those things aren’t given at all.
Firstly, people being basically good. There’s been a broad academic consensus for a long time now (here’s a link to a good overview paper from 1995) that it’s actually the other way around: aggression, selfishness and dominance are the norm for children, and we have to be taught to be good. If this teaching doesn’t occur – or if it occurs in incomplete ways – then people will still be as aggressive, selfish and dominant as they were when they were children.
For example, many White people aren’t socialised to behave well around ethnic minorities; as a result when they meet them as adults they either see them as exotic, or be afraid of them and attempt to control them. Ask literally any Asian woman you know about the first one and literally any Black man you know about the second.
Secondly, people wanting the same things. Again, this isn’t true at all: people generally want what they’re socialised to want. For example, where I live (the UK) it’s common for working-class men to avoid using cycle helmets because they’re taught that doing so makes them look weak and dorky. This is much less true for middle-class people, who are taught that not using safety equipment makes them look like working-class people. Both groups are human, but we prioritise different things and so act in different ways.
Therefore, let’s rephrase your question:
Given that people want different things, and are happy to behave like assholes towards one another in order to get it, isn’t it a miracle that we manage to get along as well as we do?
Yes. Yes it is.
Now, on to the topic of people wanting equality. Let’s do this by example. Here’s a picture of Jimmy Brock, a motel owner, pouring undiluted hydrochloric acid into his swimming pool while people were swimming in it.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jgxv3Q24VnE/U2vO9FnJkNI/AAAAAAAAJCI/wJOEDo85s7g/s1600/Motel+manager+pouring+acid+in+the+water+when+black+people+swam+in+his+pool,+1964+2.jpg
The reason why Brock did this is because he had a “no Blacks” policy for his swimming pool. On June 18 1964, a group of liberal White people booked out the hotel and then invited Black friends to come and swim with them. Rather than allow this to happen, Brock tried to poison his pool. Fortunately he wasn’t a chemist, and didn’t realise that even the strongest acids would be diluted into harmlessness by that much water. One of the swimmers, who understood chemistry, demonstrated that the pool was harmless by drinking from it.
Brock was widely regarded by his fellow White hoteliers as being the victim in this incident, preyed on by meany-pants protestors. He declined interviews, but it’s commonly thought that he didn’t act out of hate but out of fear: Brock was afraid that if his swimming pool became known as a place where Black people swam, then White people wouldn’t want to come there.
He was right, too, because that’s exactly what happened. White people saw it as “contaminated”, and his business dropped off. Brock even started getting hate mail from ultraconservative White people who saw him as a pinko and a sellout.
All those White people who decided to go elsewhere rather than swim in a pool that had Black people in it? They didn’t want equality. What they wanted was special things that only they were allowed. It’s not like they were a small hate group either: this was the mainstream of White culture in the region at the time.
If humans aren’t taught to be nice to one another then we aren’t. It really isn’t much more complicated than that. Civilisation takes effort.
abars01
I have to agree. I believe all countries have their set of problems, but in America, its not soo much the people, as the government. I have noticed that people can be just plain ignorant about things. They let the politicians brain wash them into believing anything they say. I think America has the potential to be a great country, but people need to open their eyes and stop the hate and the fighting among-st themselves. I was told earlier that I must a golden idea of things, but I believe that if people just sat down and talked, they might find they have more in common than not. Now that said, there are some people you can not reach. They are just soo filled with hatred and venom that they can see nothing else! Just like not every feminist wants to cut a mans balls off, that not every person who identifies with the MRA’s want to put a woman in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant. We get the extremes on both sides!
Makroth – wild west firecracker window-smashing soap-averse unionized cowboy Jacobin from Hell
Democrat, Republican, they are not much different in my eyes. Different side of the same coin IMHO!
Thanks for the responses!
@abars01
I’ll hold off on kissing the soil until I see how OUR next election goes. Having nicely convinced people that the EU was somehow the biggest problem facing a country that was being run into the ground by homegrown politicians with an austerity agenda, the election is now being pitched as all about Brussels, and not about the NHS, schools, employment, environment, or any of the other things that really matter.
The papers over the last couple of days have been a case in point. The EU is held up as a big bogeyman; Theresa May as the ‘only politician who can stand up to it’. People will vote for that, and then the Tories will got on with their real concern, which is destroying state institutions and promoting big business. And when people start to realise that they are paying more than they can afford, or are losing their services, or their rights as workers, or their rights as humans, then there will always be immigrants or ‘elites’ to blame.
I can’t even be delighted to see that Ukip lost every seat they held in local council elections, even in fucking Lincolnshire, because they lost them to the conservatives, which are just Ukip with a longer heritage and more money.
EJ (Marxist Jazz Weasel)
Thanks for the information. I grew up in a small town that was 95% white. I was raised in a Conservative, republican household. I was taught many things by people in my community that were just plain wrong. When I left the area, I had no idea what the world was about. I still might not. It was not until I sat down and talked to people that I thought were just that much different than me, that I woke up. I found out that people are not really soo different! Unfortunately not everyone is will or able to get out of what I call their comfort zones. Society can be very cruel and it is hard to watch on a daily basis. I will just keep the idea, that humanity can come to some middle ground. Yes.. Civilization does take effort!
DanHolme, you said it. That is exactly the situation in a godsdamned nut(tall)shell.
Psychod787
Please name a prominent feminist-identifying person who has made such a suggestion. (Bonus points if it wasn’t 50 years ago.)
Then please name a prominent MRA-identifying person whose position doesn’t boil down to “women have too many rights these days, they should be put in their place”. The WHTM archives are at your disposal, search bar to the right.
I’m offering the following bets:
Andrea Dworkin – 4:1
Leandra Medine – 1:10
Valerie Solanos – Evens
@Psychodod787
I think you may have your scales miscalibrated, in terms of extremism. “Feminism” is a very broad umbrella, and encompasses many, many viewpoints. On the other hand, people who “identify with the MRAs” are the kind of assholes who are paraded here daily for our mockery.
There are people who actually work towards correcting unfair treatment of men in the eyes of the law, with respect to being the victims of domestic violence, custody of children, and who provide much-needed services for men, such as suicide helplines and shelters.
Thing is, none of them will call themselves an “MRA”. Because the term “MRA” has been co-opted and tainted by awful entitled bitter assholes, trolls and other agents provocateurs and reactionaries.
In fact, many of the people working to solve these “men’s rights” problems will call themselves…feminists! Because such unequal treatment is the result of archaic stereotypes about the role of a man and a woman, which is precisely what feminists are seeking to upend and reform. And there’s the “humanism” that you advocate. It was always there.
In short, the opposite of “feminist” is not “MRA”, just like the opposite of ice cream is not boiling-hot tar.
Am I alone in thinking that Psychod is a troll pretending to want an education?
Nobody reads this site for a long time and comes away with the impression that there are a few extremist MRA but that the “movement” itself is not inherently misogynistic. Unless they agree with the misogyny and just want to derail.
Also, we have people in this thread who worry about dying or going broke if they lose their coverage and we’re discussing how being a rape victim would be a preexisting condition, which would prevent people from reporting. It’s fucking reprehensible to suggest that universal coverage isn’t a good idea. Who would do that? Only a total asshole.
And suggesting that all people are good if you just sit down and talk to them when Trump supporters celebrated their victory by committing hate crimes and harassing women, Muslims and POC? No. Just no. Republicans gleefully celebrate people’s pain. They are absolutely not just like me.
SFHC,
We haven’t heard back from you. I hope you’re okay. I know you would join me in the fuck off chorus.
thanks for all the responses! Ariblester I truly loved your response! This is one of the reasons I posted here. Your answer was amazing! Maybe I was just misunderstanding some things or not using the correct terms. I am just that I can share ideas with a diverse group of people and keep learning. I think I will stick with humanism. I still go back to something. While people fight over things, the government steadily take away our right to be happy. I guess I just have that first world make privilege, but I believe we all have the same rights in America for self actualization! Why should I have to have the right to marry who I want? Serve in the military? Be guaranteed the same civil rights as everyone? We should not have to. People will just keep fighting over small things and let the puppet masters take all their power!
Newt
I can’t! I can say this, I have heard it said by several women who identify as an extreme feminist! As I said, not everyone can be lumped together is my point. I work in what over time has been considered a woman dominated field. I will use one example of the hate spew I have endured. I had a teacher, I was the only male student in the class btw, start out a our first day of class telling everyone she hated men! I was ridiculed at every chance she was given. I was even pulled into her office and told I would not pass the class if she had anything to do with it. I overheard her tell several of my fellow classmates that all men should be castrated! I just kept up as best I could. I studied and gave her zero chance to fail me. Should I hate this person? I did for a while, until I woke up and realized. I pity her. Well folks, last comment I will make for a while, but I will definitely keep reading this blog!
@OpposableThumbs
Cheers.
I’m dreading this general election, to be honest, and the council elections are not making me feel any better.
I’m trying to focus on the local – I live in one of the most marginal seats in the country – there were forty votes between the Tories and Labour in 2015, to Labour’s disadvantage. There’s a chance here, to claw back a bit of ground from conservatism. Not that I am exactly in love with Labour after the Blair years, but for me it’s about denying the Tories a seat.
For me, one of the few positives about last year’s referendum was how angry many of my older students are – 15 and 16 year olds whose future my generation was doing its best to destroy. I was pleased to think that the next time a General Election came round, in 2020, they’d be able to channel some of that anger into a progressive vote. Well, the government possibly saw the same thing coming, and found a way around it. Gutted.
…Why does “last comment I will make for a while..” seem so darn familiar…It’s like I’ve read it before, from someone..somewhere…
And *snorks* at everyone having the same “…rights in America for self actualization.” That is like the Republicans saying that their healthcare bill will provide “access to healthcare”. I mean sure, people will have ‘access’, but what good is that when you aren’t able to get a company to offer you insurance you can afford to *use*.
ETA: In addition to a whole mess of other problems that their bill presents for poor, elderly, and disabled people.
Thank you.
@Psychod787
I assume you went to the education provider in question with a detailed log of the harassment you endured, and filed some sort of formal complaint? I presume that some form of arbitration was offered to see if this could be resolved, or possibly a change of tutor? I expect statements were collected from yourself, your tutor and your classmates, so that the school, college or university could make a balanced judgement and successfully find a way to deal with the issues raised?
Or – sorry to be blunt here – did none of that happen, because you just made all that shit up?
I have just done a lunchtime patrol and am therefore no longer prepared to be charitable to people who are ‘economical with the truth’.
You could be writing about the Quebec government and what it’s doing to the health system.
Uh, guys? English is not my first language, could anyone explain me what does “preexisting condition” means? From what I could understand, “Rape, postpartum depression, Cesarean sections, and surviving domestic violence” are considered ‘normal’ for women, therefore it shouldn’t be included in free health care and stuff?
Also, lol at that Incel thread that Alan Robertshaw has posted. “Female race” made me lose it. Reading their comments about how women “fail to realize how Chads are abusive and yet they don’t want to leave them” reminded of a discussion I had with a MGTOW yesterday. Yet, when we talk about how women are seeking help to get out of their toxic relationships, they all get hysterical and start saying “what about false rape accusations!?!?!?!?!?!?”
I’m Canadian. I’m polite to a fault. And yet, I want to kick every one of these piss-drinking Repugs in the nuts. Is that so wrong?
@Andy: pre-existing conditions is a way for insurance companies to weasle out of giving help to someone who will cost them more money than they will make off of them.
So the conditions you mentioned affect people conservatives consider to be women disproportionately, which means they are all for not paying for them. Insurance companies like to make money, so they are happy to be able to avoid paying.
Basically, it’s shitty. It’s why i bought (and maintain) extra blue cross insurance while i an still young enough not to need it. I’ve seen that sometimes you will need it when you are older, and god only knows how you will get it then. Also government health doesn’t cover eyes or dental, two things you need.
And i’m angry that i need to. And i’m angry that not everyone can afford it, it isn’t cheap. And my heart breaks for all the Americans who have to deal with their broken systen getting even worse, when it was starting to get better.
@wwth: thank you thank you.