Now That You Mention It, Chemotherapy, Insulin and other Life-Saving Measures SHOULD Be Free!
There is currently a right-wing meme going around even stupider than the usual Conservative propaganda. In it, one of those control-obsessed Nazis who want people to wear masks, get vaccinated and practice social distancing, implores a freedom-loving, free-thinking American patriot to get vaccinated for the sake of their health, the health of their neighbors and the health of the nation because it’s free
The patriot responds by asking the mask-lover why insulin and chemotherapy aren’t also free if they’re so important and life-saving. This of course flummoxes the vaccine freak to the point of rage-choked speechlessness, as no one in their right mind mind could possibly suggest that Cancer treatments be free, even someone on the left of the political spectrum.
This deeply stupid idea is expressed various ways. Sometimes it’s a cartoon. Sometimes it’s a meme of a smiling little girl getting a shot accompanied by the words “If giving free shots is for the health of the nation why aren’t they giving away free insulin and chemo?” and sometimes it’s a Conservative doofus like Kevin Sorbo tweeting, “If the shots were given away for free because they’re life-saving, why isn’t insulin free? Chemotherapy? Epipens?”
The half-wits who post these sentiments online seem to be of the mindset that Democrats and Progressives are in favor of free COVID-19 vaccines for the purpose of controlling and enslaving the masses but draw a hard line there and don’t think anything else should be free.
In actuality people on the left are in favor of socialized medicine. For folks like me the answer to, “If the shots were given away for free because they’re life-saving, why isn’t insulin free? Chemotherapy? Epipens?” is a forehead-snappingly obvious “Insulin and Chemotherapy and Epipens SHOULD be free! People shouldn’t risk bankruptcy or homelessness because they got sick! Let’s stop punishing people for being poor and provide literally life-saving assistance to people who need it.
The other answer is of course that vaccines are free because COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease that has already killed nearly a million people whereas Cancer and Diabetes are not infectious so we don’t have to worry about people catching it.
If you have Diabetes and you go to a motorcycle rally, you’re not going to give your Diabetes to 14 strangers. That’s not necessarily true of Covid 19.
A weirdly popular and ubiquitous variation on this false equivalency can be found in a cartoon that opens with one of those left-wing mask Nazis telling a free-thinker that they better wear a mask, get vaccinated and practice social distancing for the safety for the sake of others as well as themselves.
Only this time, instead of enraging the Fauci worshipper by asking them if chemotherapy for children with Cancer should be free they instead respond, “You mean like carrying a gun?”
This is a response so devastating that there is no comeback for it, no response that doesn’t look ridiculous because of course encouraging people to wear masks and get vaccinated is exactly like everyone having a gun.
The only minor difference is that guns kill people and masks and vaccinations save lives. Also, if you have a gun and you put it in the wrong place there’s a chance that your child will find it and shoot someone in the face with it, whereas if you put your mask in the wrong place you might lose it or it might take you a few minutes to look for it.
The disingenuous right-wingers who pose these memes must realize how faulty their underlying logic is but in the big game of Conservative shit-posting, it’s not about being right but about being ubiquitous and baiting the right people, namely everyone on the left.
The Joy of Trash, the Happy Place’s first non-"Weird Al” Yankovic-themed book is out and it is magnificent!
Buy The Joy of Trash, The Weird Accordion to Al and the The Weird Accordion to Al in both paperback and hardcover and The Weird A-Coloring to Al and The Weird A-Coloring to Al: Colored-In Special Edition signed from me personally (recommended) over at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop
Or you can buy The Joy of Trash here and The Weird A-Coloring to Al here and The Weird Accordion to Al here
Help ensure a future for the Happy Place during an uncertain era AND get sweet merch by pledging to the site’s Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace We just added a bunch of new tiers and merchandise AND a second daily blog just for patrons!
Alternately you can buy The Weird Accordion to Al, signed, for just 19.50, tax and shipping included, at the https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop or for more, unsigned, from Amazon here.
I make my living exclusively through book sales and Patreon so please support independent media and one man’s dream and kick in a shekel or two!