Alex Knepper goes to a town-hall meeting, tallies the Nazi references made by angry protesters, witnesses a woman in tears because she’s so certain that Obama’s health reforms will mean her “thrashed” kidney will be the death of her, and concludes:
All in all, I’d have to say that I learned something today: what we need is not health care reform. What we really need is education reform.
Indeed. It’s still stunning to me that people actually believe these things, and are only willing to enter debate in this very crude, visceral way – “ready-to-roll” as Knepper describes it. Like this woman with the kidney:
After the town hall ended, an obese women in a plain white t-shirt attracted the attention of about a dozen reporters. Practically in hysterics, she explained that her liver was thrashed and that under Obama’s plan, she’d be killed off as an unproductive member of society. The woman was bawling her eyes out, the reporters taking in every tear. Nobody wanted to talk about the issues. They wanted their narrative. And they got it.
How did we get to this place? Or have we always been here, only now we have various misinformation super-highways?
Charming dispatch. I especially liked the part about “overfed hicks.”Report
True – it was a bit on the stuck-up side. Then again, he makes some good points. We’ve lost any real dialogue and we’re dealing in a war of misinformation now. It’s just a shame that it should be like this.Report
The woman with the bad kidney, certain she will be euthanized by Obama’s reform, is a reminder that intentionally and cynically exploiting people’s fears to score political points is an extremely cruel and immoral act. Based on this account, here’s someone suffering very real emotional trauma over a make-believe issue.Report
Practically in hysterics, she explained that her liver was thrashed and that under Obama’s plan, she’d be killed off as an unproductive member of society.
Its not her liver, her simple lack of brains gives me resason to think that she is an unproductive member of society and should be killed off. [/snark]Report