MM

ETA, 12-10-24: I would've posted this days ago (and gotten to comments sooner) but I've been tied up working, then got sick (poisoned myself): turns out the right - and the right alone, as nowhere else on the internet will you see this - not only has thoughts for "trans" and "looks like a woman" alone, but even wound these very thoughts into yet another conspiracy theory in which there's a "trans mass shooter epidemic", because of course there is.

Also forgot to mention all the Breitbart commenters saying "false flag" because of course false flag, but as we all know he's since been apprehended, is, as far as anyone can tell, a man, allegedly did the shooting for about the reasons anyone normal might've suspected, and despite the internet's massive crush (they've been swooning over him) is not my cuppa - while his smile is fucking killer (no pun intended!) most of his politics and leanings, which to me are just as important as looks, maybe not so much.

Wasn't going to send him fan mail anyhow, nor do I think what he did was right, but if the only silver lining in this is the conversations he's started over the sorry state of US health care hopefully that spurs us on to finding real solutions (*cough* single-payer *cough* - so stupid-easy if they'd just do it). Considering the upcoming regime change we might have to wait at least 2-4 more years on that though, regardless.

Ah, well.

No political party's a monolith - so most of us might eventually run into a few folks who say, "I voted for him, but", their words tinged with more regret than adequately conveyable in any typical convo.

As to people jumping ship - with or without leaving the party they supposedly belong to - you might look no further than the Joe Manchins, Krysten Sinemas and John *screams* Fettermans of the world. Or take Tulsi Gabbard, Russia's golden girl. Christ, while I'm not sure why, we used to claim Elmo. And Zuck!

Either way, outliers like them, and people who get burned in MAGA world, presumably, can and will happen, but I wouldn't take that as a sign that for every one of them there's x amount of MAGA(ts) you haven't heard from who feel the same. If I were betting (and oooooh me and bets) I'd say don't count on it.

What inspires me to share this is yesterday's news of a UnitedHealthcare CEO rudely gunned down on the streets of NYC. Turns out each bullet used was marked with a single word such as "delay", "deny", or "depose". This is thought to possibly tie the words marked on them into a currently ongoing lawsuit against the company.

Historically speaking, UnitedHealthcare is the one insurance company most likely to deny people's claims - with 32% routinely rejected - and is currently using AI to reject over 90% of claims so as several headlines have blared you're looking at oh, just 80 million suspects.

On presumably mainstream to left-adjacent media the reaction's been about what you might expect: everything from icy cold sarcasm to anger to rage. On the right?

The only touchpoints over 2300+ commenters to this Breitbart article* have been reacting to are: 1) the shooter "looks trans", "looks like a woman", "is two different people" based on a few blurry, low-quality photos turned over by the police, with tons of OT threads weirdly going on about Ketanji Brown Jackson having the nerve to be a Black woman even while sitting on the Supreme Court.

Not quite what you'd expect?

I've seen some rare comments pointing not to the idea that health "care" companies are fleecing us, but that Mexican cartels and Kenyans are fleecing health care companies (there might be some truth to this, though that's hardly the only thing you'd think they'd get up in arms about, so to speak).

If you were expecting a large, rage-y, sarcastic sit-in on right-wing media to match the energy of...everyone else today, forget it. Beyond raging over the shooter's allegedly trans looks, it's not happening (and I've been following along since 700+ comments just to see if it did).

Breitbart, for right-wing media, is I'm guessing pretty middle of the road, as heavily slanted as it is, so you might figure the income level it attracts naturally pulls in lower to upper middle class people who might have...health insurance, or am I flying too close to the sun to assume it's so?

Are these right-leaning, health insurance-owning people expressing even one bit of bitterness over anyone they know or themselves going without needed healthcare over the denials these companies issue as routinely as most people wipe their asses? Nope, not one bit.

I've had no choice then but to conclude they must support our health "care" system's one, singular goal: to get the rich richer off of their own backs, even from the backs of their own hearses - getting the healthcare you need and getting to live be damned.

What matters, the real meat of the whole thing - and I can't emphasize it enough because neither can they - is the shooter "looks trans". It's almost like they can't think of anything else to say!

I wish I was making all of this up.

I know what a lot of you might be thinking as I've valiantly hoped against hope for this, myself: that MAGA(ts) will regret it when: a) America sinks into national emergency/martial law starting on or soon after Jan 20th (no, they'll LOVE it - are you even kidding me?).

That they'll regret it when they lose their: b) Medicare, c) Medicaid, d) SNAP and/or all related forms of cash or non-cash assistance, e) Social Security and f) all other walls against danger, want and need such as the DOE, EPA, FDA, FDOT, FEMA, OSHA, FTC, FCC, etc. - all programs and agencies that Project 2025, Agenda 47, The American First Policy Institute (Stephen Miller's baby), Elmo & Co. and many congressional Rs have their sights on.

You can see the writing on the wall in observing Breitbart's comment section on a superficially non-Trumped-up topic such as the high cost of - and low ROI on - so-called health "care".

For them it's worth paying through the nose to get increasingly little in return - all so they can call any possibly non-gender-conforming person "trans", make fun of Black people and blame their problems on women, non-gender-conforming people, any other special interest group that annoys them and all people of various non-white shades and non-white religions, not to mention Demoncrats, libruls and progressives.

You're like, "Wait, this can't be all they signed up for, right? Hatred?"

It's exactly what they signed up for, Bertha.

They're fully prepared - excited, even - to start paying $20 for 12 10 eggs ("50% more eggs than in our last cartons!"), $10 for a gallon of gas and die in the streets once they can no longer afford their sky-high rents and mortgages in return for what Dear Leader's offering them.

That's the free-dum to yell hate slurs at the top of their ever-hatin' lungs anywhere they want and to blame everything going wrong on all the groups they can't stand, anyhow, from now 'til the end of time!

That's it. That's their one weird trick.

I just - I don't want anyone to eventually regret losing sleep at night hoping the other side will regret any of this. Everything they - and we - lose will be carefully orchestrated by heavily Russian-tinged media to be the fault of Dems, Biden, Hunter, Obama, Blacks, POC, "illegal aliens", a woman, a non-white man, and so on until you're nauseous from hearing it.

Dear Leader's freed them to say what they want and to do anything they want about it - whatever *it* might be. And for that? They'll gladly lose money, jobs, homes, a limb and their own lives to shitty or no health insurance, that's my feeling.

You can say, "Oh but see, that's what fascism is - where the Powers That Be raid everything from government coffers to our own wallets while distracting us with endless culture wars and political blame games in hopes no one will notice or care how they're bankrupting us", and you wouldn't be wrong.

The part I can't wrap my mind around is how roughly half the population can't wait for it to happen.

*Not linking to their comment section, found under their Disqus comments button.