Whichever phrase I use, I will try to say it politely. Have you noticed there isn’t much flaming on Facebook? Enemies, or the merely tedious, are eliminated much the way the feeble are culled from a herd of wildebeest. The annoying and the toxic as well, get Blocked. Booted off, or out. It seems honest opinions are what you scroll through, consort with. How civilized.
The hot topic today is the historic passage of the US health care reform bill. Many fellow Canadians can’t understand why Americans—the majority of Americans according to the Republican party—wouldn’t want universal health care. I was an expatriate residing in the U.S. for many years, understand it and Americans better but still don’t get it either. Is it Canadian or Utopian to expect a civilized, affluent society to be ready, willing and able to care for its sick and, or elderly? Are we not human? Or are we wildebeest?
Born of revolution, many Americans possess a streak of individualism that borders on libertarianism, self-determination to the point of Darwinism, where only the middle class survive and the rich thrive. The United States has instituted Social Security and Medicare and pride themselves on providing their military with only the best health care. Why is it so difficult to ratchet it up another notch and provide insurance to the estimated 32 million other Americans without coverage? Because that constitutes socialism! Unlike Canadians, who—rightly or wrongly, strongly or weakly—depend on their governments to provide not only health care but infrastructure, education and a guaranteed income, many Americans equate universal health care with socialism, which equates with communism so many years after the Cold War. Perhaps it all comes down to semantics.
Oh and apparently the University of Ottawa, and most Canadians, according to its Vice-President Francois Houle don’t want to hear American and professional talking head Ann Coulter’s opinion unless she’s not only honest, but also polite. He sent her a message basically warning her to watch her mouth. Bad move, which only backfired. Why recognize such a hate-mongering pundit for now she’s threatening to sue-milk it for all it’s worth-but of course that’s a whole other can o’ worms, or rather, words.
“Buffalo” sounds better than “Wildebeest”, although the latter is a lot more fun.
Heather, I think you hit the nail on the head regarding both my compatriots’ paranoid conflation of socialism and communism and the whole “rugged individualism” nutbaggery.
Saw your comment on S.A.’s facebook so came over here for a read. I think Republicans see universal health care as a “wealthness” issue (as in the undeserving poor are going to grab some of MINE) rather than a wellness issue. And I don’t get it either.
The demise of the ‘Hummer’, a symbol of American rugged individualism demonstrates where that type of thinking will eventually end up. Its so bad that this Brand, a love child of American machismo, has to beg and plead to a Communist Regime to preserve its legacy. GM, unable to sell the brand, has quietly admitted that Hummer is in ‘wind down’ mode.
So why are there people who feel that not helping 30 Million of their neighbours, is a justifiable argument? Well, I presume their thinking is similar to the owner of the last remaining Hummers. You know, the one who is still hanging on to stale-dated petrochemical fantasies. There is the false safety of their thinking; the ruggedness of their vehicle matches their hardened mindset.
However, we do know they’d grovel to a communist in a pinch. Thus there will likely come a point in time that they will need help from caring, collective-individualists. Best not to refer to the activity as socialist, you’ll want to ease them into it as they have fragile egos.
jp