redraw of this from a few years ago for fun and because enough time has passed that i find my own shitposts funny again
My uncle is a diabetic with heart problems. His heart works at around 30% capacity. Last time he was at the hospital, his haemoglobin levels were at around 3.5. His skin was close to transparent. He was dying. This doctor (a general surgeon I think), who is also a member of our parlaiment, saw my mother beg him to take him in, only for this man to turn his back to chat with a nurse. His surname, which I'm not going to drop here for obvious reasons, is really ironic, as its etymological root is the word "dobro", which means "good".
And this idea of goodness and the medical field is something I want to dissect here. When I see people glorify medical professionals or associate them with kindness, I get furious, on a deeply personal level, as well as a cognitive one. There is nothing inherently kind about working in the medical field or healing. A construction worker creates housing and a baker creates food, but we don't glorify these professions for their "kindness" for creating goods that are seen as necessities, do we?
That is because, in a capitalist society, when a baker makes bread, they operate on the premise that not everyone will be able to afford the bread. They may be the working class, but they get their wage for both creating the good and making sure that the good of the capitalist that employs them makes profit. All professions that provide similar services function like this.
A medical professional is no different, regardless of whether they work in private or public healthcare. They provide healthcare on the premise that either you're going to pay them, or that you are on some form of health insurance/healthcare program or whatever system is in place. If you don't have money to pay for the service or you are not insured/on a healthcare program or not in the system, well. You might as well die. I have experienced this as an immigrant in Slovenia, as I don't have a right to insurance (I only have one from my country that covers emergencies), and I needed medication to stop menstrual bleeding which lasted for almost two months, after I ran out of the staah I brought from home. Instead of getting the medicine (which costs 1.5 euros in MNE, with no perscription), I got a 20min lecture on how those are hOrmOnEs and shit, and because I was not in the system or had a perscription from a doctor, I could not get it (something I wasn't aware of as the situation is very different back home, and also up to the fact that up until recently my gynecologist didn't take me seriously and refused to perscribe me medication for PCOS or even diagnose it). It was during the summer, and were it up to her, I could have bled out to death.
The medical field is awful in this regard, because of the prestige the profession gets. A medical professional is typically paid very well (while the working class is typically poor and exploited). They are providing a service just like any other employed person in a capitalist society. They are not saving lives out of the goodness of their hearts (and more often than not they're not saving anyone really), but for a wage. They are not volunteers. They have a significant amount of power, as they have a certain amount of "control" over whether a person in their care lives or dies. And if it never crossed your mind that having such power is open to all kinds of abuse, then you are painfully naive. Doctors, depending on whether they are in a country with privatised healthcare or public healthcare, are either capitalists or agents of the state.
You guys know how to travel in a car with your canes, right? You know where to put them so they don’t kill you in an accident? You’re not just holding them on your lap?
For the record they go under your feet or under the seat. That’s the safest place for them except the trunk. Pls don’t let your mobility aid kill you in a freak accident
I’ve been driving with my cane wrong the entire time 😃
If this post saves even just one (1) person from ending up with a broken jaw/face/windshield I will be happy tbh
Nobody deserves to have to deal with maxillofacial surgeons or worse…. auto glass repair shops
It occurs to me that there are people who weren’t on this website in 2012 and therefore never saw the magical gif that you can actually hear:
It’s been over five years and that still impresses the hell out of me.