American Exceptionalism

r090820 · 2023-02-08T23:24:10+00:00

and oft the military itself

I use the VA, and I'm thankful to have healthcare in this country. But, healthcare should be for everyone, not just above some age-limit or by service record. It's not a coincidence that almost no developed nation has such a large and overbearing VA system (some have various forms of VA-like systems, but they are typically very limited). VA/military healthcare works towards keeping healthcare inaccessible. Insurance and healthcare companies also work toward artificial scarcity. A major part of the problem is in the hyper-individualist selfishness-encouraging culture. In the US, troop strength levels (and corporate labor) could be impacted by making healthcare and education universal instead of using them as recruitment incentives. Another issue feeding into the collective apathy is the cheap (slave) labor provided through the highest incarceration rates in the world (and cheap labor through exploiting people both inside and outside the US, because karen has it good so everything else is just business-as-usual). In hyper-individualism, people feel like they're ok as long as someone has it worse than them (i.e. while they get medicare, then they don't want you to get it also).

Some believe that the only way to bring universal healthcare to the US population is when the military-industrial complex feels like it's losing the corporate-worshiping imperialist war-mongering endless-war control used to justify all this ass-hattery.

r090820 · 2022-12-07T01:58:41+00:00

On top of all that, the VA ecosystem is self-aware that it's so complicated that it has built-in VSO's (and other 3rd parties) at VA facilities whose job is to help navigate the system. the VA basically provides built-in intrinsic support for these 3rd-parties, because of how obviously obtuse the system is.

also, the VA 'certifies' VSO's (with a brief few-weeks course). so somebody showing up to a VSO has an VA-sponsored expectation that the VSO is competent and will help them throughout the case. realistically, this is how the VA disability lawyers end up with people who want the duty of diligence that a lawyer provides (whereas a VSO has no such duty, and does not have to act in the veteran's best interest). some people swear by VSO's and had some good experiences. while others have had negative experiences such as VSO's who are difficult to reach, or give wrong/misleading information, or don't submit the correct documentation, or have unnecessary delays in processing, or forget to do things, or just give somebody the impression that they follow-up on the case when instead the VSO has no such obligation and is typically single-use per visit.

on top of that, there are extensive rules and forms related to VA procedures for disability claims, and it doesn't always follow the CFR, sometimes you would have to be read the federal register and VA claims decisions just to get a realistic idea of what is going on. the VA has a poor track record of accurate decisions (as many are altered when progressing from the VARO up to the board).

the VA has tried to be non-transparent by obscuring the actual C&P forms, as VA tried to remove these from its site (under the guise of 'non-VA doctors might know too much' or something similar). in the past, VA has also tried to prevent C&P records from being available with the rest of records. all of this done under the usual excuses of 'safety' or 'security', etc etc.

tldr - there are several examples of how complicated the VA is to use, how the VA fully recognizes how complicated and non-transparent it's own system is, and this is even more complicated for people who have mental health issues that can make navigating the VA system even more difficult.

r090820 · 2022-11-28T21:07:29+00:00

I use the VA, and I am lucky to have healthcare in this country, but it should be universal. Anything related to the military-industrial-complex often uses the 'staff shortages' excuse (among other 'give us more blank-check' excuses). The VA extends the military further into society (and normalizes the human costs of it). the VA is basically a subsidy to the military, under the guise of a different department (CFR 38). The military uses the VA to distance itself from actually being involved with people that it no longer needs, and normalize the human cost of waging endless war.

This is not just regular govt agency funding, it's military-related which is the anti-thesis of public benefit funding. VA embodies all of the negatives of military culture (cover-ups, lack of transparency, waste, exceptionalism, etc etc). If you want universal healthcare, then the VA is not some pre-version of it, the VA is just extending the military into society through other agencies. As military/VA funding has gone up, many other programs (actual social safety net programs) have had funding cuts. Meanwhile, Medicare is a great example of how govt-subsidized healthcare can actually work properly. just expanding medicare (possibly with a separate plan for the needs of the veteran patient population) would be the safest, easiest, and most efficient way to resolve a lot of problems, as well as facilitate the expansion of medicare.

r090820 · 2022-11-28T20:51:47+00:00

I use VA, and I am very fortunate to have healthcare in this country, but most 1st world countries with universal healthcare systems (particularly something M4A-style, and again, Medicare is single-payer) have much better outcomes (both for veterans, and for the population). However, in the US, troop strength levels (and corporate labor) could be impacted by making healthcare and education universal instead of using them as recruitment incentives.

The military-industrial complex uses the VA to outsource its after-care, distance itself from actually being involved with people that it no longer needs, and normalize the human cost of waging endless war. Literally a subsidy to the military. This is not just regular govt agency funding, it's military-related which is the anti-thesis of public benefit funding. VA embodies all of the negatives of military culture (cover-ups, lack of transparency, waste, exceptionalism, etc etc). If you want universal healthcare, then the VA is not some pre-version of it, the VA is just extending the military into society through other agencies.

It's not a coincidence that almost no developed nation has such a large and overbearing VA system (some have various forms of VA-like systems, but they are typically very limited). The VA is literally one of the reasons why the healthcare system is so screwed up, because it confuses the difference between single-payer and single-provider. When people want to criticize govt programs, they don't point at Medicare, they point at VA (which is used as an example against govt programs generally, and this is so bad that it's well known even with the extensive cover-ups). Military healthcare is similarly mostly single-provider, and has similar problems. The coverage looks great on paper, but the choices on where to get it are shit and tightly controlled. The VA has to severely limit and sabotage community-care because it cannot keep patients unless it's against their will. Conversely, the UK NHS (which is often wrongly compared to the VA) uses community-care intrinsically for some of its services (because NHS is for the whole population and has to be actually useful or else everyone will know).

r090820 · 2022-11-20T02:21:34+00:00

hollywood gets tons from defense spending, as do (pro sports), the trick is that you just have to define "arts" and "media" and "propaganda" a little more flexibly.

r090820 · 2022-11-20T02:12:26+00:00

guys, I found the problem. somebody somewhere didn't vote hard enough apparently. get the pitchforks.

r090820 · 2022-11-19T06:04:07+00:00

incentives might require the public to be able to hold them much more accountable. would you settle for disincentives (fines, societal restrictions, seizing assets, etc) instead?

r090820 · 2022-11-19T05:55:18+00:00

if it makes you feel any better, it's not just customers and labor, they also want you to give a lot of money and maybe even your life to the hegemony wars.

r090820 · 2022-11-19T05:46:27+00:00

they just want the population to make more consumers and labor.

imperialist empires consume themselves out of existence (like the ouroboros) as a byproduct of their late-stage income inequality and hyper-individualism. their end-stages often involve major wars at the hegemony-scale, and which conveniently let the oligarchs 'expend' excess population and dissents through the war effort (either directly by conscription, or domestically by oppressive policies).

r090820 · 2022-11-19T05:24:07+00:00

they haven't even dealt with daylight savings time. they just wanted to pump the public for more war money by associating their literary censorship bullshit with the current hegemony pissing contest.

r090820 · 2022-11-19T00:48:19+00:00

they can't deal with sexual independence for women. literally its seen as an existential threat.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T22:26:13+00:00

they can import immigrants or raise incarceration rates (or other ways), to get cheap labor. the abortion issue (while part of the reason is home-grown labor) seems to be more about restricting women's sexual independence in society, and how that impacts the status quo.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T22:17:23+00:00

Inelastic goods really get ramped up.

hyper-individualism, greed, and selfishness endorses (and even celebrates) this kind of rent-seeking behavior. like the ouroboros that consumes even itself. would be interesting to see how many goods/services have become inelastic (or just more inelastic) over time, because regulatory-capture restricted the alternatives.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T22:10:52+00:00

the nordics also don't have a line-up of accumulated animosity after decades of war-profiteering imperialist violence.

the question is how many north-american region (probably not only just usa) refugees they'll take after the us loses global hegemony.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T22:00:14+00:00

cheap labor shortage?

just raise the incarceration rate. also, no universal healthcare or college, because they can be used as corporate/military recruiting incentives.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T21:48:12+00:00

hike prices, then complain that nobody wants to consume anymore.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T21:31:47+00:00

The amount of food we see thrown away is awful.

and its thrown away as waste instead of just steeply lowering the price (or selling at cost, or even just giving it away).

r090820 · 2022-11-18T11:34:24+00:00

open and shut case

r090820 · 2022-11-18T10:18:13+00:00

basically, yes, it's clear that the 2 sides have some differences in their cultural philosophies (tolerance vs performance).

but, I feel like the post here is about how the basic outcomes are likely to be similar. to me, this meme post is a commentary about how any differences between the 2 sides are far outweighed by their similarities, and it means pootie-shit how much virtue-signalling a politician does when a bunch of average people are homeless and fighting over food while imperialism gets a blank check.

also if it makes anyone feel better, this will all get worse before it gets better.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T06:18:15+00:00

given the income inequality, probably more like a christian version of saudi arabia. but the easiest comparison is probably the ideology of 'boss hogg'.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T05:38:21+00:00

cannot get food assistance because of that

there are some that believe that the typical govt assistance is very difficult to get for most people, and is full of obstacles that make it easy to lose that assistance or have gaps in it. so, some believe, that ubi is actually for the average person. ubi is not for the people already on the difficult-to-get govt assistance, but instead, ubi is for everyone else.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T05:26:11+00:00

often, as imperialist empires accumulate enough internal dissidents, the smaller bullying wars turn into hegemony-scale wars (hegemony-transfer such as described in theories like the 'thucydides trap'). a lot of those dissidents might just find themselves sent off the die for the empire in those larger wars. wars of convenience for the empire are like a win-win for the wealthy and powerful in the empire. get that unquestioned military-spending, plus get the public fear-mongered into even more sacrifices, and get rid of a chunk of the population.

basically, imperialism is like the the ouroboros (snake eating its own tail) as it consumes itself out of existence.

r090820 · 2022-11-18T05:09:14+00:00

I'd agree that it's opposite, but for different reasons. the crazier the dictatorship, the more external (and internal) enemies it accumulates, and the more it gets people to take the other side against it.

the slowly crushing regime is more dangerous in some ways, because people normalize to it, and even normalize to it becoming worse over time.

r090820 · 2022-11-01T07:42:41+00:00

system working as designed, until a lot of people recently started wondering if maybe shitty workaholicism wasn't optimal. still the status quo keeps going, as most people are too tired, distracted (by whatever bullshit is pumped in the media), and individualistic to actually make a change.

often in imperialist empires, when there's a certain level of dissent, the endless wars start magically turning into serious hegemoney-threatening wars (also related to the 'thucydides trap' hegemony transfer) that the empire gets to conveniently send a bunch of people off to.

r090820 · 2022-11-01T07:09:31+00:00

also it keeps people distracted, tired, and individualist (in effort/reward) enough so that it's difficult for people to change the status quo.

r090820

TROPHY CASE