Friday, October 4, 2013

A Friday Night Rant...

(A rant for a Friday evening...)

I'd like to give a shout out to everyone who is actively posting on their timeline about the Affordable Care Act. Specifically, those who are taking delight in the technical difficulties they are obviously experiencing. Its one thing to differ on political issues, but really, when it comes to laughing about the health exchanges website being down, you're in a different place.

There are thousands, maybe more, of your fellow Americans trying desperately to obtain health insurance. In many cases, these folks haven't had affordable access to health care for some time. Some are trying to manage a chronic illness for themselves or a family member. Which is damn hard to do effectively without health insurance. Some have conditions they need treatment for, but can't afford it. Some are coping with OTC medications when something stronger is called for, but out of reach. Some just live with daily and chronic pain because they have no choice. Not good enough for the greatest country in the world, is it?

To take pleasure in, even indirectly, someone else's pain, is screwed up. You can giggle all you want, toss terms around like Communism and Socialism and Marxism, but mostly what that does is show the rest of us two things.

#1) You're not too educated
#2) You're a bit of an asshole

You've probably had the definitions explained to you a hundred times, yet you still persist in calling the ACA something that its not. Something that no serious person with a high school diploma would call it. No matter, you're a man on a mission, and no amount of facts or definitions is going to slow you down, right?

Words matter.

I get it, though. You belong to a club of sorts that takes turns entertaining each other with who can bash the President or the ACA the best. That doesn't take brains. It doesn't take understanding. It damn sure doesn't take compassion or empathy for your fellow Americans.

You have no ideas on how to make things better. You have lots of ideas on how to hold people down. Which may be the real issue, eh? These minorities, these gays, these people who preach to the wrong God, etc. are getting more and more powerful as we speak and that sends chills down your spine, doesn't it? The world doesn't look like it used to and that bothers you.

Just wait...

You LOVE to quote the Constitution and post pithy founding father quotes, yet when it comes to actually walking the Constitutional walk, you're crawling on all fours. (Equal protection under the law doesn't REALLY mean EQUAL protection, does it?)

You howl about keeping government out of our health care, yet when it comes to "certain" procedures, you have no problem introducing any number of highly invasive measures that too often literally insert "government" into places where it has no damn business being inserted. Quite the double standard.

You're a mean little bunch that takes cheap shots all day long and gets pleasure out of it. Something is terribly amiss in your world and you feel better spreading lies and falsehoods behind the anonymity of the internet. You've turned advanced education into something to be ridiculed. You mock the very hand that feeds you and yours. How long exactly before this style of thinking bites you and us in the ass?

How long do you really think you can frighten people into choosing the right path? Fear is not exactly liberating. Knowledge, on the other hand, is. Anti-Intellectualism has reared its ugly head in each of the last six centuries, causing a great drag on our advancement as a species. The good news is that every time an anti-intellectual movement takes root, a more powerful and promising period of enlightenment arises and moves forward.



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