When Agendas Destroy All Logic
Writing about web page http://lornakismet.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/how-house-bill-runs-over-grandma-%E2%80%9Cits-time-for-you-to-die-granny-%E2%80%9D/
I’ve just read a right wing American blog in which the author says:
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.
Pesky Emotional Repubican
I really hate the stereotype of Americans as being stupid or moronic because the ones I’ve met, both in Europe and in a month long jaunt in Chicago seemed intelligent, if occasionally a little ill-informed about things from outside their area (which could be anything from their home state to the boundaries of the USA, or even North America and Mexico). All the ones I met were open minded and able to grasp the basic concept of fact checking.
But that quote above, that one single sentence has made me despair. It’s one person’s opinion, but it’s so staggeringly, breathtakingly, mindblowingly stupid on every single imaginable level that it has crippled my ability to be objective. I mean, the rest of the blog piece is pretty stupid too (failure to understand what NICE does, general lies about the NHS) but really if you’re going to claim the NHS causes the deaths of disabled people because it doesn’t care about them then try not to talk about a man who has lived his entire life (decades beyond his original life expectancy) within the NHS system is the worst rhetorical device of all time.
Stephen Hawking = well clever.
Pesky Emotional Republican = monumentally stupid.
We need to get Dr Hawking an English accented talking voice box.
12 Aug 2009 00:26
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Tags: Politics And Other Things No One Cares About
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Chris
Haha that link has been removed from the Pesky Emotional Republican’s blog. Smooth… but thankfully not before forums across the internet registered it’s existence. You can’t hide it that easily!
12 Aug 2009, 12:06
I did wonder how long it would last once people pointed out the epic fail contained therein.
Fortunately, like an elephany, Google cache never forgets: http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:x5hxzt5Z9RYJ:lornakismet.wordpress.com/tag/government-run-health-care/+pesky+emotional+republican+hawking&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a
12 Aug 2009, 12:09
Chris
<3 Google
12 Aug 2009, 12:19
Becca R
Wow, strangely though Pesky Emotional Republican has actually helped me to finally understand in part why they’re so scared of a govt funded healthcare system, providing for those who can’t afford insurance; because they think that the govt with it’s “deep pockets” will squeeze out private healthcare provisions, forcing people into the govt system. Which as we all know from the mad NHS stories will basically end up being some kind of distopian-socialist nightmare akin to Logan’s Run/1984/Solent Green (possibly without the eating people).
Of course one of the major flaws in this thinking (apart from all the NHS lies) is that the govt will inevitably attempt to maximise profits and cut costs by cutting corners and cutting people out of the healthcare system, leaving them to die all alone and helpless out there in the harsh cold world (or possibly by making them into tasty nyoms). The irony being that, as I understand it, this is already the case for millions of Americans who can’t afford health insurance, and certainly can’t afford to pay for healthcare themselves. That one of the reasons a public healthcare system is better than a private one is because the money is there primarily to provide the most cost effective treatment, and provide the best quality of life for the most people; not to attempt to do so whilst simultaneously (and I suspect sometimes more importantly) maximising profits for a companies’ shareholders. A public healthcare system isn’t there to make money where a private healthcare company is. It is there to make as many people as healthy as can be on the money that it is given.
Funnily enough the reverse of Pesky Emotional Republican’s issue is the reason I’m not too taken with private healthcare companies in this country; because I worry that they run the risk of undermining the NHS. Suggesting to the govt that people would rather pay a bit of money if it means they don’t have to wait as long, or get a supposedly better doctor etc. Ultimately I fear this creates a two tier system consisting of those who can afford the good expensive healthcare, and those who can’t, leading us down a slippery slope to the very situation America is in at the moment, where rich people’s lives are apparently worth more than those of the poor.
13 Aug 2009, 00:50
Rhys
Solent Green would be awesome. The food is people! People from the Isle of Wight.
15 Aug 2009, 22:50
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