Fox Gives In to Terror
Last week I went to see the Michael Moore movie Sicko which is playing in Waterville at Railroad Square. As far as I know, that was the only theater in central Maine playing the film. Moore's primary thesis is that the US form of healthcare financing through private insurance companies whose purpose is to maximize profits compares poorly to socialized medicine in other countries such as Canada, England, France, and even Cuba.
Naturally this film is causing a stir, or more like an undertow, in the US political realm. Conservatives in the US oppose socializing healthcare. Moore makes England's and France's public healthcare systems look so good that conservatives are now finding the need to attack those systems.
To support this argument Fox News has chosen the "doctor terrorists" who tried to bomb London using black Mercedes and who ran a loaded Jeep wagon into the front of an airline terminal in Scotland causing a fire that terrorized the entire free world. Fox is claiming that it was England's socialized medicine system that caused the doctor shortages that resulted in these radical Islamists being hired as doctors in England.
TPM has put together a video of clips from Fox News that shows this argument quite clearly.
It dawned on me that if these doctors were al Qaeda as Fox seems to be claiming, then al Qaeda itself was attacking England's socialized healthcare system. Al Qaeda must have known that using Muslim doctors employed in England as terrorists would harm the reputation of England's healthcare system. Reactionary politics is a given. Terrorism works because of reactionary politics.
So it dawned on me last night that what Fox News is suggesting is that the British give in to the terrorists. In fact, Fox's main target is the US, so they are suggesting that the US give in to al Qaeda terrorism and oppose socialized medicine.
Conservative politics makes very little sense but this little argument, that socialized medicine makes countries vulnerable to terrorism makes no sense at all unless what Fox is doing is to suggest that we start giving in to al Qaeda and base our politics on our irrational reaction to terrorist attacks.
Naturally this film is causing a stir, or more like an undertow, in the US political realm. Conservatives in the US oppose socializing healthcare. Moore makes England's and France's public healthcare systems look so good that conservatives are now finding the need to attack those systems.
To support this argument Fox News has chosen the "doctor terrorists" who tried to bomb London using black Mercedes and who ran a loaded Jeep wagon into the front of an airline terminal in Scotland causing a fire that terrorized the entire free world. Fox is claiming that it was England's socialized medicine system that caused the doctor shortages that resulted in these radical Islamists being hired as doctors in England.
TPM has put together a video of clips from Fox News that shows this argument quite clearly.
It dawned on me that if these doctors were al Qaeda as Fox seems to be claiming, then al Qaeda itself was attacking England's socialized healthcare system. Al Qaeda must have known that using Muslim doctors employed in England as terrorists would harm the reputation of England's healthcare system. Reactionary politics is a given. Terrorism works because of reactionary politics.
So it dawned on me last night that what Fox News is suggesting is that the British give in to the terrorists. In fact, Fox's main target is the US, so they are suggesting that the US give in to al Qaeda terrorism and oppose socialized medicine.
Conservative politics makes very little sense but this little argument, that socialized medicine makes countries vulnerable to terrorism makes no sense at all unless what Fox is doing is to suggest that we start giving in to al Qaeda and base our politics on our irrational reaction to terrorist attacks.
posted by Bill | 8:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home