MetaChat - Nearly Lost My Shit Today, But Made The News In A Positive Way!

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17 July 2009

Nearly Lost My Shit Today, But Made The News In A Positive Way! →[More:]

Okay, this is a RANT! thread in disguise, to be honest.

I just spent two hours in a surreal scrum with anti-public health protestors. They were uniformly demonstrating this behavior:

1. Racism - always willing to tie immigration into health care, they shouted epithets at our Field Director all day. He is from Trinidad, and also an American citizen.

That is, when they're not enthusiastically holding up OBAMA = HITLER signs. Or chanting this.

2. Extreme Solipsism: One woman diffidently got in my face with this remark, "Why should I have to pay for the five people I have at the house who do my hair and my lawn and my clothes?"

3. I Got Mine Already-ism: The loud n' cranky retirees on Medicare who indignantly chirp about how they don't want to pay for anyone else's health.

4. Economic Tone-deafness: Good thing that Freeper slogans are simple, because "GET A JOB ASSHOLE/SHITHEAD/LOSER/HIPPIE" are fun and easy to say!

Anyway, some good came of it. The local media was there, and the campaign let me speak for us (again). So I got some fantastic altruistic and impartial quotes about our cause in the press that will make anything the Freeps get quoted on as being nasty and self-centered.

Yeah, I chose the high road, you stupid, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, home-schooled nutbar fucks.

Just not here on Metachat.

post by: Lipstick Thespian at: 14:46 | 18 comments

Give 'em heck, LT!

Also: I think it's high time we had a rhyming post theme day on MetaChat.

posted by Atom Eyes 17 July | 15:28

Oh I know how you feel, LT! And now this is part of your job - kudos for keeping your shit together. I find that it's so hard to de-stress after being in a situation where people are screaming at you in a really hateful and violent manner.

posted by muddgirl 17 July | 15:31

I really admire you, LT. I'm afraid my Irish genes would have come rocketing out of my mouth in the form of tangible, pointy chunks of profanity.

posted by BoringPostcards 17 July | 15:45

Tell me about it, man. I've never mixed it up with the opposition live and in-person like that. This one woman, a soccer mom in shades called me a "fucking shithead asshole."

When I told her that we were both simply protesting and there wasn't any need for talk like that, she said, "I don't fucking care! I DO THINK YOU'RE A SHITHEAD ASSHOLE." And then she laughed at me.

So I removed myself from the situation, and this crazy woman was screaming at me about being a "pussy" and a "little whiner" because I no longer wanted to talk.

It makes me wonder if at the opposition's strategy sessions for events like this, if they do the opposite of what we do at ours.

Something like, "Now patriots, when you meet those fucking jobless socialist Godless fucks, use as many bad words as you can to make your points. Nothing says "I know what I'm talking about" like calling a grown man a pussy in front of other people.

Okay, Hank? you're doing press. Let's go!"

posted by Lipstick Thespian 17 July | 16:00

Seriously you guys. It was hellishly scary. Close as I've ever come to being in the middle of a mob that suddenly names you its target. I'm going to go outside now and maybe get Meeks to take me to an SPCA for some petting time with gentler animals.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 17 July | 16:02

I dealt with some crazies when I was canvasing for Obama last year but that was one at a time, confronting a mob of them would be scary. When I ran into them I just wished them a nice day and walked away, I don't know if I could deal with a crowd of them in my face.

I'm really blown away that people can be against public health care. I mean I can understand why paid insurance company lobbyist are against it but why are regular folks so upset? Are they really happy with the situation now? I'm getting 100% free insurance from my new employer and I'm healthy and haven't been in a hospital in forty years and I'm scared shit-less that something could happen and I'd go broke paying off the medical bills.

posted by octothorpe 17 July | 16:27

I Got Mine Already-ism: The loud n' cranky retirees on Medicare who indignantly chirp about how they don't want to pay for anyone else's health

Oh man, I got this from my mom yesterday -- except with an added bonus round of "Obama is going to pay for his new socialized-fascist medicine plan by taking away MY ~~socialized-fascist medicine~~ Medicare so that YOU KNOW WHO can have coverage."

I am assuming that YOU KNOW WHO means some combination of the unemployed, immigrants of varying legal status, and/or people with darker skin than hers. I wouldn't know for sure, though, because I just looked at the sky and counted the seconds it took for a flock of birds to fly overhead while she was ranting, after which I cheerfully replied, "So! How are the dogs?"

Hilariously, of course, my own family didn't have medical insurance for many years.

posted by scody 17 July | 16:36

LT, they're not organized, they're hypnotized. Good on you for keeping your shit together.

posted by lysdexic 17 July | 17:00

That sounds frightening and maddening, LT. Good for you for taking the high road.

I cannot believe the people that got in your face screaming insults. People are so angry and fearful. All I can say is that it would be nice if they got a life. Worry about something else that matters until the "dreaded universal healthcare" is a reality I say.

posted by LoriFLA 17 July | 17:44

Forthwith I quote a comment I made in the blue, which seems apropos:

I ran into one of my right-wing co-workers at a local big box store. He was there for bullets, and hoping he was not too late.

Apparently, the bullets arrive every Tuesday, and sell out before the end of the day.

I asked him (I get along with him fine) if there is any objective evidence that Obama is going to come for his guns any time soon, and he said, no, not really. But he got his bullets, none-the-less.

Multiply this by thousands, and, yeah, it's gotten bad weird.

posted by danf 17 July | 17:53

I had a weird and bad time recently with racist canvassers about a local political thing. It was nowhere near as bad and weird as what you experienced, but just having had a taste sends my empathy receptors to 11.

And in case it would make you feel at all better to know, I had a super lovely canvasser come by yesterday about healthcare reform and it gave me a little hope that maybe if good people like you two keep doing the work you're doing I may someday be able to let the boyfriend up on a ladder without fearing the possibility of his uninsurable self having to go the ER. Because I basically live in daily fear of just that.

posted by birdie 17 July | 18:01

Tangentially, but sort of related, I saw a poster today telling me to "Support antifascists!", and there was a black-and-white drawing of a guy with dreadlocks giving a big "NO"/"talk to the hand!" gesture to a skinhead-type guy in bleached jeans wearing suspenders and big boots.

Glad you're OK, LT.

*channels whuffles transatlantically*

posted by mdonley 17 July | 18:20

It really is sad how much anger and fear those people seemed to have. Bravo to you, LT, for sticking with it ad taking the high road. You're a better man than I. Also, cool that you got to be the media guy again. I bet you've got a natural talent for it.

posted by MonkeyButter 17 July | 18:24

Most of these jokers are unwitting street theater. I know this because I have stood beside them at protests in the past.

Now I try to stay home.

posted by bunnyfire 17 July | 19:30

For a country made up of immigrants, we sure are intolerant, aren't we?

I had the displeasure of seeing Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church at my undergrad and grad school graduations.

It's hard not to get into a confrontation with such hateful and ridiculous people, but that is what they want you to do.

Big up to you for turning it into a positive experience.

posted by reenum 17 July | 20:29

Here's the media coverage from one paper about this event

Compare my quote to theirs...

posted by Lipstick Thespian 18 July | 09:59

Not to argue with you, LT, as I do agree with you in theory, but the biggest obstacle toward universal healthcare is reality. We don't have the doctors, nurses and admin staffs, nor the hospitals and clinics. While the latter can be built over a couple of years, getting such highly trained personnel takes years. Also, many current doctors-in-training eschew the general practitioner route and choose instead to specialize.

The situation is much like the problem we currently experience in getting enough public defenders into the courts system.

posted by Ardiril 18 July | 15:25

I agree Ardiril, but that doesn't make this any less of an issue to stand up for.

It's not like doing nothing is going to make this problem easier/more affordable/less tied-in to employer's choice/more available.

This is a 60-year old conundrum. And we don't even have another 10 years of handling health care costs in their current state.

Keeping everyone healthy in this country has to start somewhere, and when I get up in the morning, it starts with me.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 18 July | 16:46

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