ickplantMar 18

CHOOO CHOOOOO MOTHERFUCKERS

https://lemmy.world/post/44425210

Show threadJhexMar 18

I understand all this of course, but I find it curious Americans seem to think everyone else who has gone on a protest, riot or participate in an actual revolution in history were all comfortable, with a large nest egg and able to stop working for as long as the revolution lasted.

The notion that they may have to actually sacrifice some comfort is completely unreasonable it seems and yet, that is exactly what they constantly accept every single time a politician (usually a Republican but by no means only by Republicans) erodes another right, liberty or opportunity

Show threadickplantMar 18

It’s not about “sacrificing comfort.” It’s about literal survival for a lot of people.

PERSONAL STORIES:

Example #1: My nephew needed a heart transplant within days of being born. He is on very expensive drugs for the rest of his life. The only reason his family can afford it is because his dad’s work pays for really good insurance. His dad is basically a prisoner at work.

Example #2: I have bipolar disorder. My one medicine is $1,500 a month without insurance. I get suicidal without it. The only reason we can afford to pay is because of my husband’s job and related insurance. He is basically a prisoner at work.

OTHER STORIES - JUST INSULIN:

  • Alec Smith (Age 26, Minnesota, 2017): After turning 26, Alec aged out of his mother’s insurance plan. His monthly insulin costs were estimated at $1,300, prompting him to ration his medication. He was found dead in his apartment from diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) shortly after.

  • Josh Wilkerson (Age 27, Virginia, 2019): After aging out of his stepfather’s insurance, Josh could not afford the $1,200/month cost for his prescription insulin. He switched to a cheaper over-the-counter version, which was less effective and led to fatal complications.

  • Jesse Sheerer-Radcliffe (Age 21, Minnesota, 2019): Jesse died after rationing his insulin due to the high cost, a case his father highlighted as a “ridiculous”, preventable loss.

  • Antavia Lee Worsham (Age 22, Ohio, 2017): Antavia struggled to afford her $1,000/month insulin costs and supplies after turning 18 and losing state coverage, resulting in her death from DKA.

  • Shane Patrick Boyle (Age 48, Arkansas, 2017): A comic book writer who struggled with costs, Shane was $50 short on a GoFundMe campaign for his insulin and died from DKA just days after his mother passed away.

  • Monique Gabriel Moses (Age 26, 2017): After losing her job and insurance, Monique rationed her insulin to make it last, resulting in her death.

  • Jesse Lutgen (Age 32, 2018): After losing his full-time job and insurance, Jesse rationed his insulin, which was later determined to be from a “black market” supply of left-over insulin from a deceased friend.

Source: rightcarealliance.org/activities/insulin/

High insulin costs are killing Americans - Right Care Alliance

Right Care Alliance
Show threadJhexMar 18
Ok so you’ll just hang on to that scrap until they inevitably come for you later on… good plan
Show threaderinMar 18
It’s so easy to say things like this when you aren’t living the situation. What would you have them do? Die for no reason? There isn’t some organized revolution to go join.
Show threadJhexMar 18

I have already explained myself plenty… a few hours a week organizing is more than any of them do

But sure, jump to the absolute extreme of “dying for no reason” so your victim complex is scratched a bit

Show threaderinMar 18

Do you know that none of them organize? Have you considered that the slightest mention of union or strike in many places leads to immediate termination, especially in at-will employment states? Loss of a job means loss of healthcare which means death. I’m not trying to play the victim. I am fortunate to be able to organize with local leftist organizations and my healthcare is secure. Most Americans are not so lucky. It’s not some absolute extreme, it happens to people we know and love.

It’s so easy to make the assertions you do. I’d like to see you choose those actions over your child’s medication. We don’t get a social safety net. If we’re fired, it could mean we go into lifelong debt, homelessness, or simply die. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Those who can should organize. Those who cannot should care for their family and immediate community.

Show threadJhex

Do you know that none of them organize?

I do know… hence my bitching

Have you considered that the slightest mention of union or strike in many places leads to immediate termination, especially in at-will employment states? Loss of a job means loss of healthcare which means death.

Already covered… they should not have accepted those conditions but they did… just as they accepting these new, lower conditions. As time goes by it will only get harder.

Case in point, 11 million of their fellow Americans lost access to health care a few months ago… so yes I understand they must risk something, but they will lose everything anyway if they just sit and wait.

So, exaggerating as everyone is doing here, if you are kidnapped and the kidnapper assures you there is zero chance he will let you live. Do you fight back? or wait in case the kidnapper changes his mind?

It’s so easy to make the assertions you do…

Again, you are just waiting for your turn to slaughter

Mar 18 at 6:01pmWeb
Show threaderinMar 18
Ah. You’re a troll. “Should not have accepted those terms,” lol, lmao even.
Show threadJhexMar 18
you are the one living in a hellhole and refusing to even recognize it… I wouldn’t laugh so much but I commend you for your humour
Show threaderinMar 19

You… think I don’t recognize it? What? I’m a leftist queer woman living in a declining dystopia. I’m laughing at the fact that you think we can just say no to terms that every job has in many areas, especially hourly ones. They keep you working 39.5 hours a week and never let you go “full time” so they don’t have to give benefits, or classify you as a contractor, and your only option is paying a portion of your salary for the opportunity to have healthcare you could otherwise never afford. I was forced to stay in a hellhole job for years because I was broke, had nowhere else to go, no better opportunities, had every job application denied because they’re mostly fake postings to make the facade of growth hold in our failing economy, all because if I didn’t stay in my job I would no longer be able to afford health insurance for a life changing surgery I would otherwise never afford. I couldn’t just tell them “no, I won’t accept those unfair terms,” BECAUSE THEY’RE THE ONLY OPTION. We don’t have comprehensive labor laws! Most of us live in wage slavery! Any talk of union or strike would mean the immediate loss of employment, and yet I still organized behind their backs.

I laugh because someone is looking at a victim of an oppressive regime and saying “not good enough.” I laugh because otherwise I’d cry. Recognize your fucking privilege and leave the cynicism at the door. I’m doing everything I can, just like most of us. Even the complacent ones are victims of oligarch controlled media brainwashing, and a culture of exceptionalism and nationalism that keeps us trapped in a bucket of boiling water and thanking the cook for the opportunity.

I’m scared, I’m angry, and I’m frustrated looking at a culture that thinks a “blue wave” in the midterms will change everything, when our system is irreparably broken. I want to see a general strike. Any attempts to organize one will fail and have failed, because people cannot afford unemployment. All I can do is organize and educate and hope we get some change around healthcare and labor laws before it gets too much for me and I leave.

Show threadJhexMar 20
so your way out is doing nothing? waiting until they come for you?
Show threaderinMar 20

I don’t know how you read that entire thing and decided I’m doing nothing. Leave me alone if all you have to offer is cynicism and critique. I am organizing with local leftists organizations. I am not walking out of my job and losing healthcare and employment in the current job market out of pure principle. If there was a nationwide movement that had real momentum I would join it. I am a part of organizations that are trying to organize such things.

Again, we are not doing nothing. I am doing more than most, but organizing with community, supporting each other, staying politically active, pushing for reform and change at the local, state, and national level, and protesting is not nothing. You cannot actively look at someone who is escaping a burning building with their family and say “well why aren’t you in there pulling more people out? You should do more.” Surviving and supporting each other is the most many people can do. Strike and active resistance would mean houselessness or lack of healthcare for most people. It simply isn’t bad enough to have the support of the general populace yet, they’re too brainwashed, and I am not going to throw my life away for an ideal.

I am doing all I can. Fuck anyone who sits in comfort while a system I was born into and actively detest destroys my life and the lives of people I love and says “not good enough.” Do you look at refugees from state violence and say “why didn’t you stay and resist? You should have fought back. There are more of you than there are of them.” We care for ourselves, our family, and our communities first. We work with the hand we were dealt.

Your idealism is callous and unrealistic. I do not believe that you would act any differently were you in my shoes. Can you honestly say that you would choose to forego health and/or home in a pointless gesture of resistance against a machine that will not notice or care for your “sacrifice?” Such an action would be selfish and self-serving. I will not deprive my family and loved ones for a meaningless gesture because some people on the Internet think that EVERYTHING listed above is “doing nothing.” I have tried to explain, but you clearly have a vested interest in victim blaming over listening.