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  • gayhobbes [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Yeah but Winnipeg... Socialized healthcare makes it easier to do that.

    • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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      4 years ago

      The Winnipeg General Strike was before canadians fought to create Universal Health Care ;)

      The general strike was in 1919, it wasn't until 1966 that all provinces in Canada had universal health care :) the universalization of health care was a long, gradual process that took ~40 years, and frankly still continues. Next goals include universal pharmacare, dental, and getting racism out of the system.

      • gayhobbes [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Ah fuck me. Although the whole health insurance thing wasn't as much a factor then, in general strikes seemed to be easier then before the creation of insanely expensive medical care.

        • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Ya I think people also just have changing standards. Like, life in the 1920's was nasty, brutish, and short hahaha they didn't have the health care to lose in the first place. Access to health care today is totally definitely a factor in calls for general strikes today, I don't wanna minimize that. But, it's not necessarily a hard limit on what's possible, either, imo :)

          • gayhobbes [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            It's one of the paradoxes with making material conditions better for the populace, because it creates something of a gilded cage from them to escape from, and it becomes all the more difficult the better those conditions become.

            • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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              4 years ago

              There’s a sweet spot maybe haha; living in complete deprivation can beat the spirit out of you, until you have no will to fight back. But also, maybe having no material concerns makes you less likely to develop concern around inequities.

              Probably the best position for inducing inaction is when you do have a fair bit, but your hold on it is extremely tenuous and insecure; it makes you unwilling to challenge anything. This is maybe the case with the american health care ‘system’, where most people do have insurance, but they could lose it at the drop of a hat and be completely screwed

              • gayhobbes [he/him]
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                4 years ago

                We're being edged hard, and not only that but white supremacy is helping keep revolutionary will at bay.

                • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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                  4 years ago

                  Ya, I won’t lie, its easy to want to put revolution off for a while when the chuds have ten times as many people, and are ten times as organized haha

                  It’s not so much about generating rev rn imo, as it is generating the pre-conditions for rev. Which, like you pointed out, means things like universal health care etc., which give people a sturdier position from which to beging questioning and challenging capitalism

                  • gayhobbes [he/him]
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                    4 years ago

                    That's probably the biggest reason to fear universal healthcare in the US because it would absolutely be a massively galvanizing moment.

                    • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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                      4 years ago

                      That's a good point I hadn't thought of. I usually just think of opposition to health care as evil, and impossible to understand, but that makes a lot of sense. Imagine american leftists winning such a big ask as universal health care, in 2020 no less. Shit would get reeeal wild, reaaal fast.

                      • gayhobbes [he/him]
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                        4 years ago

                        My big skeleton key to unlocking all the incomprehensible shit in the world has been to ask who benefits. The drug war? Cartels, ATF, political excuses to persecute opponents. And then a Nixon administration official admitted that's what they did it for. No health care? Hospitals, health insurance companies, both Democrats and Republicans, capitalism.

                        • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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                          4 years ago

                          Yup. Housing, wages, it all becomes incredibly transparent when you just let yourself see the very obvious power dynamics.

                          To me it’s wild that, even when you have insurance in the u.s., doctors and hospitals are still operating on the profit motive. Like, I would never trust a doctor who’s operating on the profit motive haha I don’t even trust, like, someone selling sunglasses who’s operating on the profit motive. I really can’t believe that people believe in that shit, frankly. It’s incredibly naive.

                          • gayhobbes [he/him]
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                            4 years ago

                            You want to know something funny? Doctors absolutely operate on profit motive but they HATE when you treat them like a consumer product. I asked for a refund one time and they got really upset, and I told them they'd made me wait too long and I needed to go somewhere else. Infuriated them to no end. Reported another to their board for bad bedside manner and ruined his fucking month. I wish more of us did that, if we did they'd push for universal healthcare a lot faster.

                            • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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                              4 years ago

                              Hahaha that's hilarious. A 'consumer rights movement' for 'conumers of health care' would be hilarious, and based. That's really funny hahaha

                              • gayhobbes [he/him]
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                                4 years ago

                                Oh and it absolutely pisses them off. There was already a bill passed where hospitals have to publish a schedule of charges and they're loath to do so because that means they essentially have to admit they have no standardized billing.

                                • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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                                  4 years ago

                                  God, that's so scummy. I picture a used car salesperson just eyeing up the next mark, tryin' to figure how much they can squeeze out of them.

                                  Except they're eyeing up how desperate you are to have functioning organs haha damn. Never have I been more in favour of incrementalism than on this, tbh. Every shitty little reform that protects my american comrade's even a little more is just fine with me

                                  • gayhobbes [he/him]
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                                    4 years ago

                                    100%. And the worst of it is you really can't price shop because, y'know, you need fucking healthcare.

                                    • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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                                      4 years ago

                                      You should know I constantly advocate that Canada should abolish health cards, and we should supply health care to any comrade who happens to be here. If I could lend you my health card for medical purposes without doxing myself, I would o7

                                      Excuse me doc, I know I will bleed out in two hours, but I really just need your rate so I can run across town and compare :angery:

                                      • gayhobbes [he/him]
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                                        4 years ago

                                        Literally just had this talk with my husband this morning--if he or I get sick, we are crossing the border because even without the health card we can afford your ridiculously cheap healthcare more than we ever could in America.

                                        • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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                                          4 years ago

                                          Hahaha I forgot about that part altogether; even if you just buy healthcare here, it’s cheaper. Gotta love that single-payer negotiation with unions!

                                          I understand that american health care is the most expensive in the world, and also doesn’t provide quite as good health outcomes as the rest of the ‘developed’ world.

                                          Take it from me: you are both more than welcome to visit, any time, to buy cheap health care.

                                          Did you know that Canada is Cuba’s biggest export partner? And guess what one of the main things we buy from them is. Yep, medicine haha :heart-sickle:

                                          • gayhobbes [he/him]
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                                            4 years ago

                                            If we lived closer to Cuba we'd certainly just go there. I remember my friend broke his leg hiking in Canada and ended up paying $75 for all his healthcare. It would have been $15,000 in the US, and I am not kidding.

                                            • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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                                              4 years ago

                                              That price difference is just too much for me. It’s fucking baffling, and infuriating. That was an early part of my pilling from straight anarchist to non-denominational communist, was seeing Sicko. And the americans go to Cuba and get a 60 dollar puffer for 60 cents, and all this free care from the doctors.

                                              Socialism is, just, so obviously superior aha it’s inarguable. $15,000 dollars for a 75$ procedure. 0.5% the price here for the same thing like ten feet over the border. Death to america, long live americans :heart-sickle: