• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

WaPo - Miss USA says health care is a ‘privilege,’ not a right

Hari Seldon

Member
it's a shit sentiment regardless of skin color, and it's that sentiment getting the majority of the pushback here. So, what exactly are you trying to conjure up?

This is a fairly innocuous view from pre-hyper politics era that could be found in the mildest of political discourse. The amount of rage this is generating seems disproportionate.
 

Somnid

Member
Most natural born citizens would fail the citizenship test, is this a problem with the test, how we teach Civics 101, or simplifying what we mean by "Civics"?

The issue is a lack of empathy and a strong anti-intellectual culture. Your issue trying to compartmentalize something as abstract as an ideology into organizational mission statements and "branding".

The issue is people, not the terms.

I agree on both points, people do lack empathy or at least are ignorant enough to not understand why empathy is needed in these situations and anti-intellectualism has cult followings. But understand why anti-intellectualism is so powerfully persuasive, it is in fact branding, Trump is a brand, Republicans are a brand, people want to be a part of the group even when is goes against their own values and they'll do mental backflips to reason it out. The right capitalizes with simple talking points that sounds plausible, in fact this is super common anywhere you see religious zealotry, as it is when Apple introduces buzzwords to describe why their product is better. They are assuming people are stupid and will pick up easy to remember things that work at least on face value. Now real life is not quite so easy to reason about but it's important that your assumption is the person is not intelligent, well read or has any clue what's going on, you start with something simple and agreeable and work up. This is usually distasteful to people who are of a certainly intelligence level because they understand it as part of the bullshit machine because to some degree you almost have to trick people into it, it lacks nuance, but it's powerful when leveraged.
 

Beartruck

Member
Hold on here folks. You mean a person holding a title based on her physical beauty and nothing else might say some stupid shit? This is totally unprecidented in the history of Miss USA!
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Well, it IS pretty much a privilege in the US, no...? She's not necessarily saying it SHOULD be. But maybe I'm being way too generous reading that into her answer.
 
Well, it IS pretty much a privilege in the US, no...? She's not necessarily saying it SHOULD be. But maybe I'm being way too generous reading that into her answer.

I agree that the question is poorly worded, but pageants don't ask the contestants questions designed to elicit answers for which there is a definite answer. The answers are supposed to be an articulated opinion on policy, which is up to debate.
 
Didn't a lot of people lose their healthcare recently? Might have something to do with that.

No. Despite television talking heads and internet freakouts, health care legislation has not been passed. For something to become law, it has to be passed by the House, the Senate, usually re-passed by the House as the senate modifies a bill, until it goes to the president to be signed into law. The Republican-led health care plan passed by the house has only, barely, passed that first hurdle, and it's a bill that's considered dead on arrival at the senate. The senate will likely have to craft a new bill, which conservatives in the House will not approve.
 
So about that "scientist" thing...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...s-a-super-serious-job/?utm_term=.480a7a744a62

A spokeswoman at the NRC explained what McCullough does as an “emergency preparedness specialist” in the agency’s Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response: Basically, she reviews emergency plans for nuclear power plants to determine if they meet regulators’ muster (glittery gowns and bikinis are obviously not part of the dress code). A radiochemist by education who has worked for the agency for four years, she is also on a team that would rush to the agency’s operations center if something were to go south at a nuclear facility.

Clearly she has a science degree, I'm not going to dispute that, and it's a great accomplishment that few of her peers could likely have asserted. But calling herself a "scientist" seems to be a bit of a stretch. She's doing administrative regulatory work.
 
No. Despite television talking heads and internet freakouts, health care legislation has not been passed. For something to become law, it has to be passed by the House, the Senate, usually re-passed by the House as the senate modifies a bill, until it goes to the president to be signed into law. The Republican-led health care plan passed by the house has only, barely, passed that first hurdle, and it's a bill that's considered dead on arrival at the senate. The senate will likely have to craft a new bill, which conservatives in the House will not approve.

The Trump admin learned how to make enough of the house reps fall in line and vote for a bill they didn't even read. Who's to say the GOP senators don't do the same, just so they can get a win? and then mitch goes nuclear again, not caring about the filibuster and boom. it's passed.
 

Aurongel

Member
Someone whose opinion is only being heard because of how she looks attempts to educate others about privilege.

That's cute.
 
She walked it back:

"I am privileged to have health care and I do believe that it should be a right," McCullough, 25, said today on "Good Morning America." "I hope and pray moving forward that health care is a right for all worldwide."

She continued, "I just want people to see where I was coming from. Having a job, I have to look at health care like it is a privilege."
 

shandy706

Member
Does anyone else change the channel during the questionnaire part of these things?

It's like none of the "contestants" can actually answer a question intelligently. I cringe so much I can't take it.
 

kirblar

Member
What is the link between jobs and healthcare? It literally screams capitalism and makes absolutely no sense from a logic perspective.

Reeks of damage control considering she was clearly asked ”Do you think affordable health care for all U.S. citizens is a right or a privilege, and why?"
The link between work and healthcare exists because of WWII wage caps and is a complete accident.

During WWII wages skyrocketed because we drafted so many men. This led to Rosie the Riveter, but also led to legislation to cap wages. (These sorts of caps are near universally terrible.) This legislation also did not cap benefit. So instead of increasing wages, companies started throwing in all sorts of other shit to attract talent, and health care was one of those bonuses.

When soldiers came home, the health care/job association had become normalized by people who didn't want to give it up, and so it ended up sticking and getting ingrained in the culture, even though it's an absolutely terrible system that no economist or policymaker, liberal OR conservative, would actually design.
 

Not

Banned
Maybe we shouldn't get Tumblr-level angry at a woman of color over the Internet for snippets of longer comments

The equalism thing:

latest
 
Top Bottom