The two major narratives I see on Lemmy about healthcare in the US.
The medical companies are profit driven and untrustworthy
People who don’t trust the medical companies are frustratingly ignorant.
Of course the issues are complicated and woven with details and nuance, though I have to wonder if there isn’t a reason why this happening beyond “They’re brainwashed”
On some level, yes. Most of the experiments were performed on socially vulnerable populations (racial minorities, the mentally ill, prisoners, etc). But for the average (white) citizen, this is a history lesson, not something that informs current behaviors. Additionally, much of that is tied to organizations like the military, which is usually seen as a different part of the government.
The FDA actually had a very good run of being relatively citizen-focused and making things safer. It’s only somewhat recently they’ve fully pivoted to the “businesses are clients” model, so a lot of people haven’t adapted.
Also, to your original point, my perception is that the lack of trust in the profit driven medical world is not that they can’t help, but that they’ll deny help if it costs too much. A common sentiment I hear is that the US has “the best healthcare in the world,” and then complaints about how the insurance process bars access to it because of money.
Yes, there are people who believe things like “they’ve cured cancer but keep the cure hidden to make money off the treatments,” but that’s not the norm.
Someone with a Master’s degree told me just the other day, “I feel like GP1s were just made to fix an illness they gave us” without acknowledging that the private processed food industry gave us that illness, not the medical community, which is who she was referencing. This belief is more and more common, that it’s all a grand conspiracy to keep us sick so they can sell us more treatments, even folks in healthcare say that shit. It’s depressing as hell.
The idea that goal was to get us sick is a canard. The likely reality is that its just that politically motivated subsidies and cultural shifts, with a healthy dose of capitalism, is what’s the culprit.
Saying it’s like a grand conspiracy would be kinda like saying early Americans’ obsession with drinking whiskey was some sort of diabolical machination. Nah: people like getting fucked up. People like doritos. It’s just dialing in what makes money on the short term.
But 10,000x yes: people can’t discern who the “them” really is. They’re not working together as much as you’d think. We’re just all living under every evil motherfucker pulling in a similar direction.
The two major narratives I see on Lemmy about healthcare in the US.
The medical companies are profit driven and untrustworthy
People who don’t trust the medical companies are frustratingly ignorant.
Of course the issues are complicated and woven with details and nuance, though I have to wonder if there isn’t a reason why this happening beyond “They’re brainwashed”
You don’t trust the companies. We’re supposed to be able to trust the FDA and CDC
I know I’m the outsider here, but isn’t there a long history of abuse even in the government health organisations?
Like full on medical experiments on US citizens without their knowledge?
On some level, yes. Most of the experiments were performed on socially vulnerable populations (racial minorities, the mentally ill, prisoners, etc). But for the average (white) citizen, this is a history lesson, not something that informs current behaviors. Additionally, much of that is tied to organizations like the military, which is usually seen as a different part of the government.
The FDA actually had a very good run of being relatively citizen-focused and making things safer. It’s only somewhat recently they’ve fully pivoted to the “businesses are clients” model, so a lot of people haven’t adapted.
Also, to your original point, my perception is that the lack of trust in the profit driven medical world is not that they can’t help, but that they’ll deny help if it costs too much. A common sentiment I hear is that the US has “the best healthcare in the world,” and then complaints about how the insurance process bars access to it because of money.
Yes, there are people who believe things like “they’ve cured cancer but keep the cure hidden to make money off the treatments,” but that’s not the norm.
Someone with a Master’s degree told me just the other day, “I feel like GP1s were just made to fix an illness they gave us” without acknowledging that the private processed food industry gave us that illness, not the medical community, which is who she was referencing. This belief is more and more common, that it’s all a grand conspiracy to keep us sick so they can sell us more treatments, even folks in healthcare say that shit. It’s depressing as hell.
The idea that goal was to get us sick is a canard. The likely reality is that its just that politically motivated subsidies and cultural shifts, with a healthy dose of capitalism, is what’s the culprit.
Saying it’s like a grand conspiracy would be kinda like saying early Americans’ obsession with drinking whiskey was some sort of diabolical machination. Nah: people like getting fucked up. People like doritos. It’s just dialing in what makes money on the short term.
But 10,000x yes: people can’t discern who the “them” really is. They’re not working together as much as you’d think. We’re just all living under every evil motherfucker pulling in a similar direction.