the healthcare debate
Aug. 14th, 2009 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizziebelleI've been reading a lot of articles and posts about the national healthcare debate with interest. I don't think anyone can honestly say that our system doesn't need to be changed, but the ferocity of the opposition has surprised even me.
It hit me the other day, when the Steeleye Span song "You Will Burn" came up on iTunes, that these folks are just like the ignorant religious fanatics of a few hundred years ago who tortured and burned people for witchcraft, just because, in most cases, they were different from themselves. Go read the lyrics. They are chilling. These people actually thought they were doing the right thing. They believed the rhetoric of a few folks in power who had their own agenda. They never bothered to think for themselves. It was hysteria, mob rule.
The same thing is happening now with the neocons. They are deliberately spreading misinformation in order to panic the folks who can't (or won't) think for themselves. All it takes is a few choice words from Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh, and people are storming meetings and shouting down any hope of informed debate. It sickens me.
Here's an article that lays out how some of this came about.
If people would actually read the plan, there would be no need for panic. But that would make sense! It's much easier to listen to lies than it is to seek out the truth. They don't like what they're hearing from their representatives, but instead of offering alternatives, they just want to burn them at the stake.
It hit me the other day, when the Steeleye Span song "You Will Burn" came up on iTunes, that these folks are just like the ignorant religious fanatics of a few hundred years ago who tortured and burned people for witchcraft, just because, in most cases, they were different from themselves. Go read the lyrics. They are chilling. These people actually thought they were doing the right thing. They believed the rhetoric of a few folks in power who had their own agenda. They never bothered to think for themselves. It was hysteria, mob rule.
The same thing is happening now with the neocons. They are deliberately spreading misinformation in order to panic the folks who can't (or won't) think for themselves. All it takes is a few choice words from Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh, and people are storming meetings and shouting down any hope of informed debate. It sickens me.
Here's an article that lays out how some of this came about.
If people would actually read the plan, there would be no need for panic. But that would make sense! It's much easier to listen to lies than it is to seek out the truth. They don't like what they're hearing from their representatives, but instead of offering alternatives, they just want to burn them at the stake.
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Date: 2009-08-14 07:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-08-15 09:47 am (UTC)Not being USAian - and being British, and thus covered by the NHS - I find it rather sickening that people who can afford health insurance would deny good health to those that can't - I beleive the proportion of those not covered by health insurance is a sixth of the population, some 50 million people. That is a lot.
On the other hand, some of Sarah Palin's comments as they have been reported over here have had me in fits of laughter!
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