"It's Not, But It Can Be."
ERMAGHERD U GUISE.
Vast quantities of people are wrong on the internet today, and it is sapping my will to live.
You may have heard of a little thing called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which today was held up as constitutional by the US Supreme Court.
I start this by acknowledging that I am a liberal, and a Democrat, and that overall I am a pretty big fan of Obama. I don't think he's perfect, I don't think he's a saint, and he really could be doing a whole lot better on the whole 'protecting our civil liberties' front, but by and large, he represents a huge step in the right direction.
Now, I am a liberal who grew up in a conservative area, went to an even more conservative college, and then chose to live in a different yet also conservative part of the country. I am used to disagreeing with friends, family, and neighbors about many, many things. Today was bad. Mostly on Facebook, which is the only part of the internet where I tend to collide with their opinions in such a blatant, inflammatory way. I have decided I'm not going back there for a few days, because it's not worth what it's doing to my blood pressure. I caved twice and remarked on posts; my general policy is to scroll past, because I don't actually believe my arguments will change their positions. I think only you can change your mind. I put the things I believe on my facebook, and then if you choose to look at them and think about them, and maybe do a little bit of independent research, then yay. Otherwise, I don't play in your yard. I broke that twice today, once to chastise someone for an Osama/Obama joke (because trying to provide decent healthcare for millions of Americans =/= being a terrorist) and once for someone who posted something that said the government would take your house away and garnish your wages if you didn't get insurance, because that is actually NOT TRUE. From KaiserPermanente: "For individuals, the penalty would start at $95 a year, or up to 1 percent of income, whichever is greater, and rise to $695, or 2.5 percent of income, by 2016. For families the penalty would be $2,085 or 2.5 percent of household income, whichever is greater by 2016 and beyond. The requirement to have coverage can be waived for several reasons, including financial hardship or religious beliefs."
If you'd like to learn more about what the PPACA really does, there is a great post on reddit here. With like, citations from the actual bill, and a link to Kaiser that says all the same things. It's really kind of beautiful. And it helped me craft my new rebuttal to anyone who brings this up to me from this point on: "You don't like this? Fantastic! You can get out of it, it's no problem. You only have to do one simple thing. Come up with a better plan. Any state that can provide a plan that gives as much value to its citizens can opt out. So go for it."
In the meantime, I've decided to stick to the parts of the internet that are filled with British boy bands and kittens. So that is where I'll be if you need me.
This entry was originally posted at http://vixalicious.dreamwidth.org/508085.html. That entry currently has
comments.
Vast quantities of people are wrong on the internet today, and it is sapping my will to live.
You may have heard of a little thing called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which today was held up as constitutional by the US Supreme Court.
I start this by acknowledging that I am a liberal, and a Democrat, and that overall I am a pretty big fan of Obama. I don't think he's perfect, I don't think he's a saint, and he really could be doing a whole lot better on the whole 'protecting our civil liberties' front, but by and large, he represents a huge step in the right direction.
Now, I am a liberal who grew up in a conservative area, went to an even more conservative college, and then chose to live in a different yet also conservative part of the country. I am used to disagreeing with friends, family, and neighbors about many, many things. Today was bad. Mostly on Facebook, which is the only part of the internet where I tend to collide with their opinions in such a blatant, inflammatory way. I have decided I'm not going back there for a few days, because it's not worth what it's doing to my blood pressure. I caved twice and remarked on posts; my general policy is to scroll past, because I don't actually believe my arguments will change their positions. I think only you can change your mind. I put the things I believe on my facebook, and then if you choose to look at them and think about them, and maybe do a little bit of independent research, then yay. Otherwise, I don't play in your yard. I broke that twice today, once to chastise someone for an Osama/Obama joke (because trying to provide decent healthcare for millions of Americans =/= being a terrorist) and once for someone who posted something that said the government would take your house away and garnish your wages if you didn't get insurance, because that is actually NOT TRUE. From KaiserPermanente: "For individuals, the penalty would start at $95 a year, or up to 1 percent of income, whichever is greater, and rise to $695, or 2.5 percent of income, by 2016. For families the penalty would be $2,085 or 2.5 percent of household income, whichever is greater by 2016 and beyond. The requirement to have coverage can be waived for several reasons, including financial hardship or religious beliefs."
If you'd like to learn more about what the PPACA really does, there is a great post on reddit here. With like, citations from the actual bill, and a link to Kaiser that says all the same things. It's really kind of beautiful. And it helped me craft my new rebuttal to anyone who brings this up to me from this point on: "You don't like this? Fantastic! You can get out of it, it's no problem. You only have to do one simple thing. Come up with a better plan. Any state that can provide a plan that gives as much value to its citizens can opt out. So go for it."
In the meantime, I've decided to stick to the parts of the internet that are filled with British boy bands and kittens. So that is where I'll be if you need me.
This entry was originally posted at http://vixalicious.dreamwidth.org/508085.html. That entry currently has
comments.