Wonkette’s First 2022 Live Chat Has Already Forgotten Former Acquaintances
We live in the moment.
Happy New Year! It’s 2022, which is also the year that the film Soylent Green takes place. Last I checked, we’re not actually eating people so human society is slightly better off than predicted in a classic Chuck Heston movie. (I call him “Chuck” because despite all the NRA stuff, I thought he was cool.)
My personal "Twilight Zone" marathon continues through January because now that I have a kid, I rarely have time to binge watch 48 episodes or so of a TV show in one sitting. I have to spread them out through the end of the month.
Robyn and I will kick off the new year with a potent discussion of 2021’s brutal final week. The fun starts at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET. See you then or you can watch later. Remember to like, subscribe, share and make sure all your checks bear the correct date.
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As I watch my bodily autonomy being put further down the priority list every year, I’ve started to think of things in terms of the greater benefits of lessening our load. What does it cost us when we don’t, versus what it costs to get it fixed? And that includes political capital in addition to actual cost.
There are major resource sucks that perpetually get used as ‘wedge issues’. Logic would dictate that removing those burdens from the pile would make it much easier to then put our resources towards the non-wedge issues that most people have some attachment to. That simply doesn’t happen. Instead it’s rinse and repeat, and something similar to the use it or lose it mindset. They say to take the insufficient token of support and use it up before thinking to want more in order to actually fully fix something. Then things slowly backslide from only ever getting bandaid fixes.
I understand why some people are frustrated with cooperation. Many are in demographics that receive the perpetual devaluation once the immediate benefit of their participation is received. Bodily autonomy is in that group. But there is no other option for receiving any progress at all but to compromise in this way, short of absolute boycott, which never happens. And, while that feels insulting, it doesn’t change the fact that it’ll take more than the pressure of any single demographic to enact bigger changes. In the case of bodily autonomy, it’s doubly frustrating because people who can become pregnant are not a minority number of people, but are treated as though they are. We are told government has got to focus on helping the majority, until this particular issue arises. Then it’s just a ‘wedge issue’. Thing is, it has no financial cost to codify our freedom. So it’s got to be the political capital that concerns them.
I just checked the stats, and less than 10% of the adult populace are vets. It seems a very small group, one that would potentially yield high political and financial capital to actually help. And the investments in the VA would go further than just the immediate. It’s not as though we are going to stop creating veterans. Again, it’s confounding how none of our legislators have decided to focus on this. I guess they are able to gain that political capital by only saying they do, and are not tasked to follow through?
It brings to mind how they treated the 9/11 first responders who have medical complications. Until a celebrity made it their business to put a spotlight on it, it was only ever empty promises. And even after a couple high-profile moments when they agreed to fix it, they still didn’t follow through in full. They just looked good for agreeing to.
I know, it dates back to when technology developed sharp tools