Expertise

[texaslawchick]

My first job was filing charts in my dad's office when I was twelve or thirteen. I'd go to work with him a few days a week and help his secretary with lite office work. When I was sixteen, I worked a summer for an oncologist doing more or less the same thing. I also worked for a rhumatologist answering phones and helping out the rest of the very

Comments

[lovelypoet]

And while I think they have a total right to be a pain in the ass at public events, they're wrong. Factually, wrong. And that bothers me.

I think the version of this that I said to my father last night was "If they want to have bad opinions, fine. That's their deal. But, oh my god, have bad opinions about things that are at least based in reality!"

I've reached my limit for being able to deal with people who can manage to be willfully ignorant of the facts that are staring them straight in the face. Or, even better, just take the scare tactic claims from someone else as cold, hard fact without so much as looking for another source.

And I cannot even begin to deal with the people who act as though private insurance never denies people treatment or weighs the potential benefits against costs.

Mostly, though, watching the shout downs at town-hall meetings makes me scared. It's one thing to go in angry and wanting answers. But to go in with absolutely no intention of letting anyone answer or get a word in edgewise or to allow for any actual debate or conversation... it's just disruption for disruption's sake. And that's maybe what bothers me the most. The fact that they're not just ignoring and refusing to look at facts themselves. They are willfully working to keep other people from becoming informed.