myrmepropagandist

Medbeds are just a way for conservatives to fantasize about universal healthcare without being called "socialist."

It's a permission structure, an outlet for that unspeakable desire to see a world where the reaction to a person being sick is the very obvious thing: help them, help them get better, do it now.

Sep 30 at 11:04amWeb
Show threadmyrmepropagandistSep 30

It's like when someone makes up a convoluted story about how they are the last person on earth and the only other person is their crush... and they are choking and need CPR and ... and.. and...

Come to the left and you wouldn't need to hide it anymore!

Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Sep 30

@futurebird the sad thing is
 if someone invented a machine that could solve all illnesses immediately, they would probably want to share that with everyone.

i find it difficult to believe someone would pursue such a project and not make it accessible to anyone who needs it.

Show threadanyGouldSep 30
@ariadne @futurebird Just picture a drug company inventing it. :/
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Sep 30
@anyGould @futurebird drug companies don’t want cures, they want management
Show threadeconadsSep 30
@ariadne @futurebird and then we have pharma companies
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Sep 30
@econads @futurebird as stated elsewhere, pharma companies don’t care about cures but instead management
Show threadeconadsSep 30
@ariadne @futurebird yeah I read that after posting. I bet if it did exist they'd try to buy the rights to it though.
Show threadeiriasSep 30
@futurebird oof, this stopped me in my tracks this morning.
Show threadaxel.Sep 30
@futurebird @hypebot That is the best take I have read in a while. It is the technofascism version of idealism.
Show threadSharony BaloneySep 30
@axeln @futurebird Technofascism is a new word to me but it seems really apt. This angle helps me understand the #medbeds better, too, because it is both a normal caring response (help sick people), a permission structure (not socialism I swear!) and a fascist othering (THEY won’t let you access this care).
Show thread42netSep 30
@futurebird It's strange. Conservatives are mainly christian. I seem to recall jesus being all about selflessly helping the sick. Funny how christians never seem to follow their own rules!
Show threadDmian đŸ‡ȘđŸ‡șSep 30
@Nobodyknows789 @futurebird It seems to me, as a European Atheist, that what certain groups in the US (specially Evangelicals) call “Christianism” has nothing to do with the religion, it’s just a frame of reference to validate their bigotry. None of their beliefs fit inside Christian principles, but they feel validated calling themselves “Christians”. They’re quite simply bigots, racists and white supremacists. But that’s just my opinion. I may be wrong.
Show thread42netSep 30
@dmian @futurebird No, you are correct! In the US south, there's a popular response to someone accused of committing a horrible crime..."Oh, he's a good man, a good christian" or "He's the salt of the earth". I'm non-religious from new england. If I hear that description, I know they're guilty! It never fails.
Show threadMatt HallSep 30

@dmian @Nobodyknows789 @futurebird

You're not wrong.

Show threadCySep 30
There are Christians with principles, who all, without exception, claim that the Bad Christians are not Real Christians, but there are no Christian principles. The bible is wildly self contradictory. Yes Evangelicals are Christian, and their beliefs very carefully follow the Christian bible.

And yes, Good Christians are covering for them, and enabling them, while ineffectually condemning their actions. That's why they're Evangelicals. You fools. (shakes fist at progressive churches)

Admittedly, a more nuanced look into the fascism in the USA might note that the non-Christian Mormon mafia are the biggest driver of Christian Nationalism.

CC: @[email protected] @[email protected]
Show threadMichael BuschSep 30

@dmian @Nobodyknows789 @futurebird

Being an American atheist:

Do not make the mistake of equating "Christian" with "good". Christians who behave badly are just as Christian as those who do not.

And American Christians who have constructed their versions of Christianity as vehicles for white-supremacist racism, sexism, and other bigotry exploit the conflation of "Christian" with "good" to evade responsibility for the harm they do.

Show threadeconadsSep 30

@dmian
To be fair, the church in Europe also did some pretty horrendous stuff in the name of god. I don't think it's an American thing I think it's a people who like power thing.

@Nobodyknows789 @futurebird

Show thread42netSep 30
@econads @dmian @futurebird Yes. I do seem recall that people have used/abused religion to gain power😋 👍 Nothing new under the sun
Show threadStrfnurfnSep 30

@Nobodyknows789 @futurebird You have to understand that evangelicals are told CONSTANTLY that all your non-believer loved ones will burn in hell for eternity, and it's your fault if you don't save (convert) them. Suffering is a great opportunity for salvation - rock bottom is where you turn to God! A little cancer is nothing compared to an eternity of endless suffering. We may offer care to draw in converts, but if the state provides healthcare, how many souls will be lost??

*not my views*

Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ⭕​Sep 30

@futurebird #TIL about the #Medbads #ConspiracyTheory madness.

Wikipedia has an article for the similarly unenlightened / unencumbered / blissfully unaware:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medbed

Medbed - Wikipedia

Show threadǝʌɐpSep 30
@dredmorbius @futurebird I consider myself a bit of a conspiracy theory connoisseur, and yet this one's new to me. Marvelous.
Show threadjoshbuddySep 30
@futurebird It made me think of Elysium, like someone watched that and had a fever dream about beautiful healthcare provided by a private/public partnership
Show threadEvan ProdromouSep 30
@joshbuddy @futurebird Me too!
Show threadFaraiweSep 30

@futurebird it's a fantastic myth of getting a service for nothing, after SOMEONE ELSE pays for an initial investment in hardware, so you can have free healthcare.

It removes the human element which needs to be educated, trained, then paid and cared for, to provide you with healthcare.

Jack-off TEA party/libertarian fantasies, no less.

Show threadDianeSep 30

@faraiwe @futurebird

I was thinking an another advantage for the maga types is a med bed isn't going to be an educated human who will judge them.

Show threadfraggleSep 30

@futurebird a medbed features in the film "Prometheus" (prequel to the alien films) and there's a scene where the main character (a woman) can't get the healthcare she needs from it because it's been programmed specifically for a billionaire white guy who came with them on the ship

So even though it's a fantasy, scifi already showed us why it's not necessarily a good one

Show threadFediThing Sep 30

@futurebird It's weird how these conspiracy theories are recycled from sci fi, wasn't a robotic medical bed that could cure everything a plot point in the film Prometheus? That was released in 2012, and these medbed conspiracy theories appeared a few years afterwards?

See also the "people in charge are secretly lizards" conspiracy theory which appeared after the 1980s TV series V, about an invasion by alien lizards who disguise themselves as humans.

Show threadDr Neenah Estrella-LunaSep 30

@futurebird It was also the primary plot point in the movie Elysium.

Maybe these people were watching those movies while high or sick and somehow thought that they were documentaries.

Show threadChuckSep 30
@starluna @futurebird I am particularly struck by how many right wingers clearly saw some dystopian sci-fi at some point and said, "Ohhhh, I want that!"
Show threadmyrmepropagandistSep 30

@ChuckMcManis @starluna

I mean I think the motorbikes from mad max are really cute but that’s about as far as that goes. (would like to drive the apocalypse bike around the not apocalyptic nyc please)🙏

Show threadPaul BarnfatherSep 30
Like all good conspiracy theories, it's also self-perpetuating. Anyone who tries to explain that "medbeds aren't real" is automatically classified as part of the conspiracy.
"See, it MUST be true because everyone is telling me that it isn't!!" đŸ« 
Show threadMichael BuschSep 30

@futurebird

The "medbed" conspiracists also present a fantasy of healthcare without healthcare workers who have their own needs and rights.

And now I am thinking about all of the bigotry (classism, racism, sexism, etc.) underlying that.

Show threadRavindra KanodiaSep 30
@futurebird also it means that they are allowed to oppose anything that would improve the state of healthcare in the here and now, because "actually it's a waste of time and money to train doctors and nurses to treat patients, or hire researchers to discover new treatments, when all we have to do is get our hands on the medbeds and make them available to the public"
Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)Sep 30

@futurebird

Medbeds are just a way for conservatives to fantasize about universal healthcare without being called "socialist."

I'm fairly new to this conspiracy theory, so please forgive me if I'm misunderstanding it, but I think it's more of a conservative fantasy. If I understand it, MedBeds are perfect health care that has limited access to an in-group. The key part is that you get perfect health care if you are part of the in group, but people who are not part of it are denied healthcare.

In the ideal conservative world where these things exist, you completely dismantle the healthcare system, get rid of all of those pesky workers, and only members of the in group get any healthcare.

Show threadJonathanSep 30

@futurebird

I learned long ago never to say "well, things can't get any crazier"

Show threadsmittenSep 30
@futurebird So true, I think there's an element of not needing to rely on anyone also. It gives a solution that satisfies people's desire to help, but it doesn't admit a need for healthcare workers (who are happy and rested and paid), and it especially doesn't rely on scientists and technicians (who have legitimate understanding of the world that might be in conflict with other authorities). "All our problems will be solved and no one will be able to disagree with us." It has that false individualism and it miraculously allows us to reject scholarship without any consequences.
Show threadmyrmepropagandistOct 1

@smitten_

In a way it gives me a sliver of hope because it means that a lot of people can't really tolerate what Ben Shapiro suggested in an interview once "good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people"

At some point this conservative philosophy ask you to look at people who are suffering and think "well they probably deserve it" ... that's maybe possible if it's people you don't know. (but still bad)

When it's your friends and family? Not so much.

Show threadmyrmepropagandistOct 1

@smitten_

"Public Health" is meddling, in this world view with the natural order.

At private grade schools with tuition of more than 30k a year a doctor comes to each school in the fall several times so everyone can get vaccinated. It's always been like this. Because the most rich and powerful people in the world don't want their kids to die. This will happen if similar support is done by the government for "everyone else" or not.

Show threadZimmieSep 30

@futurebird For some people, absolutely.

For other people, it’s more an excuse to just keep messing things up, much like “we’ll solve climate change with carbon capture!”

Show threadJennifer Kayla | Theogrin 🩊Sep 30

@futurebird

I'm reminded of an anthropological story -- not sure how apocryphal it is, but it's been cited many a time -- about finding ancient evidence of a once-broken femur which was healed. That doesn't frequently happen without a community around which is willing to provide aid, be it for altruistic reasons or otherwise -- so it was considered as proof of at least the ability to form a community. (I wouldn't call it proof of sophonce, of course. Animals form communities, that's hardly a point of argument.)

Not sure why it leaps to mind. Possibly because conservatives have always been wont to eliminate the very common desire to provide care to those who need it, so that they're 'normal'.

Show threadKlaus Baldermann 📜Oct 3

@theogrin @futurebird

usually (probably wrongly) attributed to Margaret Mead

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/margaret-mead-healed-femur/

in Wikiquote under "Disputed": https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead#Disputed

Did Anthropologist Margaret Mead Say the 'First Sign of Civilization' Is a Healed Femur?

The dubious anecdote has proliferated on the internet and in books for decades.

Snopes