Author: marcythewerewolf

lady-feral:

fullten:

withasmoothroundstone:

robstmartin:

titleknown:

Blogging this tweet because this explains SO MUCH about the mindset of pretty much all the folks I’ve known who’re against single-payer, it’s not even funny…

This….

This never occurred to me. Not once. That Americans are against Health Care because they think it actually costs tens of thousands of dollars for a broken arm, hundreds of thousands for a complicated birth, millions for cancer treatment.

Because they’ve never known anything different. The idea that a broken arm is only a couple hundred bucks; a complicated birth a couple thousand; cancer treatment only tens of thousands; all easily covered by existing tax structures.

This explains a lot.  And it’s a good example of what I was talking about in my post on scarcity being used to prop up ableism – always question the idea that a resource is genuinely scarce.  Even if it seems obvious that it is, quite often that’s the result of careful manipulation and misconceptions that you’re not even aware of.  

And never think you’re too smart to be fooled by that kind of thing, it doesn’t work like that.  Similarly, don’t think people who are fooled by something are stupid.  Nobody can have all the information about everything, and nobody has the time and energy to investigate and put together conscious conclusions about every piece of information they’re given.  It doesn’t take being stupid, or even just gullible, to believe something like this.

America also spends the most on administrative costs, which spikes up the bill

https://www.singlecare.com/blog/30-medical-bills-go-administrative-costs/

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/11/news/economy/healthcare-administrative-costs-us-obamacare/index.html

People also don’t seem to realize that insurance companies artificially inflate the cost of healthcare and then offer “discounts” to get health care providers to accept or suggest their insurance brand.

Healthcare should not be a for-profit industry, but instead a universal right, and insurance companies are predatory con artists making billions of dollars off of human suffering and death.

This is not hyperbole.

Peru reveals face of ancient female ruler

archaeologicalnews:

She died in her 20s about 1700 years ago and is believed to have ruled over a desert valley in ancient Peru, where her elaborately tattooed body was buried with weapons and gold objects.

But a glimpse of the former priestess, the Lady of Cao, can now be seen in a replica of her face, which was unveiled in Lima on Monday.

Using 3D imaging technology and forensics archaeology, the replica was based on the mummified remains of the Lady of Cao’s skull and ethnographic research, and took 10 months to create, Peru’s culture ministry says.

Culture Minister Salvador del Solar says the goal was to bring the world closer to one of Peru’s best archaeological finds and remind Peruvians of their rich cultural heritage. Read more.

[Scene: a nervous-looking older man meets with a millennial in a darkened alley.]

Millennial: what’s the target?
Man: I don’t know if I want to do this.
Millennial: people don’t come to us until they’ve made up their minds.
Man: Alright. Styrofoam cups.
Millennial: Six months and they’re gone.
Man: Can millennials really kill styrofoam cups?
Millennial: we can kill anything, but not cheaply.
Man: I can pay. I work for a plasti-
Millennial: I don’t need to know and frankly I don’t care. One of us will deliver a routing number to a Zurich account. Two billion euros, then we start.
Man: Al..alright.
Millennial: It will be your last chance to reconsider. Once the money is processed you’ll have no contact with us again.
Man: I understand. It has to be done.
Millennial: Then it’s sealed. The cups will join chain restaurants and diamonds in the void.
Man: Thank..thank you.
Millennial: We don’t require thanks. Participation is its own trophy.

Happy freedom season for America

obsoletepolitics:

We got:

  • A literal fucking empire, let’s elaborate
  • 25% of the world’s prisoners, but only 5% of the world’s population, many of whom are in for nonviolent offenses and paid cents on the hour for their labor
  • Some prisoners getting paid nothing at all for their labor, in instances of literal slavery
  • Drones bombing people halfway around the world on a routine basis
  • An occupation in Afghanistan that’s been going on since fucking 2001
  • An airport security routine that routinely violates privacy rights and is basically authoritarian theatre
  • Poor people paying about 20% in taxes, with real wages unchanged since the 19 fucking 70s, while most of the real income gains have gone to the 1% richest people in our society
  • Income inequality the worst it’s been since the Great Depression
  • Minorities, mentally ill, and/or homeless people getting brutalized and shot routinely by the police
  • No left-wing party worth speaking of, just diet right, classic right, and zero-calorie right (now with 3.27% of the popular vote)
  • About half our food being wasted while people starve
  • The NRA advertising authoritarian, us vs. them rhetoric straight out of old-timey propaganda films
  • A president who is on the record as having endorsed and committed sexual assault, has committed fraud, and isn’t even good at the thing he was supposed to be good at
  • His opponent during the election, who used literal slave labor and has endorsed bombing people halfway around the world on a routine basis, as detailed above
  • Gerrymandering so thick that we’ve got states that aren’t even classified as democracies anymore
  • A mainstream media that acts, unconditionally, as a willing accomplice to the state
  • Our politicians trying to slash programs and agencies whose aims a majority of our population like and want
  • People having to call and beg our politicians to not cut the things that we like and want
  • Our politicians doing fuck nothing that’s any good for anyone, even though a single party controls the whole government right now
  • A holiday full of drinking and fireworks so we can forget about the fact that we live in a dystopia