In other words, “I was indifferent-to-enthusiastic about hurting other people and families until it affected me personally”

  • InvalidName2@lemmy.zip
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    6 days ago

    Your “in other words” hits hard.

    I have family in a nearby rural county where the local hospital is at high risk of closing once the medicaid changes (aka cuts) take affect next year. I mentioned it to my family members, who are Trump voters, and they weren’t even aware. Despite that, they did have an opinion on the matter, of course! At one point someone said something along the lines of “we can’t afford to go to the hospital if something happens anyway”. Which that’s just a tangled mess of cognitive dissonance considering they’ve all been in that hospital, some multiple times, over the past 5-ish years AND they’re the ones who use the emergency room as free healthcare because they know the emergency room can’t turn you away if you can’t pay.

    The thing is, the next closest hospital takes around 30 minutes longer to drive to and these are unhealthy older people. If their local hospital closes, their next emergency may be their final emergency as a result. And I know they’ll care then.