Like I get that ivermectin can be harmful and isn’t meant for COVID w/e.
But I also know a lot of houseless people and uninsured that have relied on animal medication when human medication was inaccessible to them due to the cost. Is it safe or advised? No. But it’s nice to not have to choose between medication and eating when you’re sick and poor.
This whole “lol they take horse meds they’re dumb” is a bad way to angle your argument IMO as it can be leveraged to punch down. And we need to be thinking critically about what kind of laws can come from encouraging takes like this. I don’t want to limit anyone’s access to affordable medicine even if some people abuse that access to get diarrhea.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be attacking the problem on some intrinsic “human taking animal meds bad” but more on the reasons people do it? Because all of this links back to the bigger problem that America doesn’t have adequate healthcare for its people. And, I would argue, that leveraging the discussion from that logic would add more weight to our cause and help more people see the inherent evils that are contributing to this. (Namely American healthcare interest groups)
Thoughts?
This whole pattern is pretty common. A culture war issue is made out of something that doesn’t materially effect the vast majority of people. The people who actually are effected by or involved in the issue are either the people most entrenched in that culture war or bystanders who are absolutely baffled and probably offended at people doing this weird politicization of an aspect of their life. It feels dehumanizing because it is. You’re being used as a prop in a distraction.
But there’s legitimately no way to not take sides on this. People who try to be above it or try to be meta about the narrative will just be perceived as taking a side implicitly. And given the current discourse there’s no way we can have a proper discussion about the broader group of people who have taken animal medication without addressing the ivermectin chuds. It would be ignoring important context and leaves it up to interpretation by the lens of the culture war.
I think if you’d come in saying “all this discussion about people taking animal medicine is fucked up and completely ignoring those of us who have had to resort to animal medicine” you could have gotten a lot more support here. But the idea that this forum in particular needs to change their behavior is almost always going to be met with pushback for better or for worse. If there’s anything in particular here that’s been upsetting to you, like if people here have made fun of people who are taking animal meds in general, that’s probably worth addressing. Otherwise, you’ve landed in a weird spot in between a general cultural commentary and a plea for change in behavior that will not be interpreted well
When smarter people than me answer a question I was asked but actually competently.
Thanks! :solidarity: