The weekend begins in the usual fashion:

How would having a fire department prevent fires from burning down people's homes? What's a fire gonna say to its buddies, don't mess with that guy because there's a fire department? How dumb!

Yeah, how dumb.

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First: people disagree with me all of the time. I don't lock them out. Because -- and stick with me here -- they're not assholes about it. They're also generally more literate. This idea that I'm required to entertain every random jackass who comes along amuses me.

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Second, and to the point here: There is NO moral or logical reason why every American should not have full health care during normal times.

None.

No logical or moral reason whatsoever.

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But even now, in a time of plague when the BEST we can hope for is 250,000 dead, conservatives like this are still determined to argue AGAINST everyone having healthcare.

They can see those without the ability to pay being turned away, infecting others before they die...

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...they can literally see this, but they turn a blind eye to it because their horrible selfish religion and their horrible selfish political ideology tells them poverty is some sort of ungodly moral failing -- even when they themselves are impoverished and without.

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Because the wealthy and the powerful, those WITH UNLIMITED ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE THEMSELVES, have convinced these booger-eaters to give up their very lives and the lives of their own families and countrymen, so that billionaires can buy another yacht.

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They can't seem to wrap their heads around the idea that if we had universal healthcare, then people can been seen when the symptoms of illness FIRST appear...

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... when disease (this one or any other such as, oh, CANCER) might be managed, treated, cured for minimal cost and use of resources -- instead of waiting, because the afflicted can't pay, until it's too late.

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If nothing else, with an infectious disease, you want people to seek treatment and testing immediately, right away, so they can be stopped from infecting others.

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But in America, here for example in my part of the impoverished South, people without the means to pay don't go to the doctor, they wait, hoping maybe it's a cold, the flu, that they'll just get over it, and they keep going to work because they can't afford NOT to.

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By the time they figure out they have the damn plague, and go to the emergency room, it's too late.

And they've infected countless others.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum.

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Look here: Fire departments don't prevent fires.

Except maybe they do. Because having a fire department isn't just about putting out fires, it's also about EDUCATION.

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It's part of a larger system that is about building codes and regulations (every wonder why we make kids clothes from fire retardant material?) and smoke alarms and inspection of public places and a fireman showing up at school to teach your kids fire safety and PREVENTION.

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UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE IS THE SAME GODDAMNED THING.

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It's about more than just fighting the disease AFTER everybody is infected. It's a whole system of education and prevention and good practices.

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We shouldn't be learning about what to do in a plague now, when there's a PLAGUE. We should have ALREADY KNOWN as part of our normal medical education just as nearly any American child can tell you stop, drop, and roll if they're on fire.

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You can't prevent new diseases from emerging, just as you can't prevent fires from happening. But just as with fire, you CAN reduce the severity, you can prepare people in advance, and you can put systems in place that will save lives when it happens.

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If you think that's "dumb," then maybe you should stop and ask yourself WHO it is telling you so and why. Because it just might be the same rich assholes who argued against installing fire sprinklers in your apartment building because YOUR safety might cost THEM money.

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