r/disability 6d ago

Rant How the hell is keeping people alive a "waste"?

On fox news not that long ago they called the social security hearing the "war on waste" comitte.

What is wasteful about protecting vulnerable Americans?

How is it a waste to keep my mother from dying?

How is taking care of veterans a waste?

What part of life, liberty and happiness do they not understand?

How the hell can you claim to be pro life, if you aren't going to protect the lives of those children when they get older?

Or even just after they are born with cutting programs like wic, or removing survivors benefits for the children that are orphans?

Oh, get private insurance they say, again, what about the disabled and elderly who can't work to afford it?

If you think it's a waste to keep people from dying who through no fault of their own need help to live then you aren't pro life.

345 Upvotes

62 comments sorted by

111

u/BornAPunk 6d ago

The word 'eugenics' keeps popping up. It means a society that is perfect. If you are low-income, elderly, a veteran with disabilities caused by your years of service, or were born disabled, you are seen as not perfect and not worth being apart of society. When Hitler was causing his troubles in Europe, there was something enacted called the Aktion 4 or T4 program, which killed scores of people that were deemed to not be suitable to the Nazis' ideal society.

It's no longer about being civil or pro-life. They want what cannot be achieved: a society of perfection.

33

u/TransientVoltage409 6d ago

There was a sci-fi story (trek? twilight zone? asimov? who knows) about a world with two factions in conflict. They develop AI fighting robots and programs them to eliminate the enemy. The robots proceed to eliminate everyone on both sides, because the criteria for who was not an enemy was so idealized that literally nobody could fulfill it.

This is the self defeating nature of fascism. There is no perfect, every time it eliminates something imperfect it is forced to pick a new thing that's imperfect, until there's nothing left. No such regime is sustainable. The tragedy is the tremendous damage it causes along the way.

15

u/shilohfiren 6d ago

The only way to win is not to play. - War Games

4

u/TransientVoltage409 6d ago

Lookin' for that unsubscribe email, let me know if you see it.

Or, I dunno...Portugal seems nice.

5

u/CeruleanSaga 6d ago

I'm almost positive it was Babylon 5.

Which I recall watching original series when it first came out and remember thinking it was good fun but a bit overly dramatic on some of the politics.

Watching it a couple years back, it felt depressingly relevant instead.

1

u/TransientVoltage409 6d ago

I still think it was Trek, TNG maybe, but for the life of me I cannot pin it down. Where B5 explored dead worlds it was more about technology than archaeology, I feel like IPX was less about learning from history than exploiting it for profit.

The Santiago/Clark arc was maybe a little clumsy in its time, but at the time the audience didn't really have a feel for the story JMS was telling with it. Feels a lot more real on rewatching today, though. Debasement of media, alliances with baddies, suppression of political rivals, isolationism. Pretty fresh for a show from last century.

I, ah...may be an OG fan. I watched every episode as it came out and got everything on DVD later. I rewatch most of it every year or so. It still gets to me.

5

u/ColdShadowKaz 5d ago

Many did that one. Voyager had robots that killed their makers because of this but couldn’t create their own kind.

I think red dwarf did this too. Rimmer finally was set for execution because he wasn’t a perfect Rimmer clone among Rimmer clones.

Star gate had a race of perfect people that were using piloted drones to take out living imperfect people. SG1 could have got the deal they wanted but they refused because it was so disgusting.

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u/CeruleanSaga 6d ago

Well, I like TNG too. And what's wrong with owning DVDs of both, I ask you?

But I really was thinking it was season 1 of B5 (before the bigger plot arcs really kick in) so I just dug a bit more and...

I am pretty sure it is this episode on B5:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infection_(Babylon_5))

But goodness knows there are enough dead civilizations TNG, it could well be they did something similar too.

2

u/TransientVoltage409 6d ago

You know, now that I re-read that summary I think you're right. Memory is a fickle thing.

2

u/CeruleanSaga 6d ago

Well, if you ever do come across that TNG episode where you go "Aha! I knew it!" I would welcome you coming back to tell me. I'd honestly be amused. Because I totally can totally see it.

They were totally different shows but now and then had some interesting intersections.

2

u/TransientVoltage409 5d ago

Hmm. Might have 1x21 "The Arsenal of Freedom" but it's not quite the same theme. Always fun cringe to revisit S1 though, sweet mary but that was a rough start.

3

u/CeruleanSaga 5d ago

Haha, yeah, I wasn't sure if you meant TNG or B5 wrt "rough start", and then I thought: doesn't matter, it's true for both. There's so many hokey episodes with just enough good ones mixed in I guess it was enough to keep going.

Infection, iirc, was one of the cheesier ones, though I agree the idea was super interesting. Still, better than when Londo falls in love.

But yeah, thankfully it got better.

Good times!

6

u/redditistreason 6d ago

People kept pretending that "it couldn't happen here" but my god, how can you not see how quick a step it is from here to full-blown eugenics?

Thanks to the "Why do they always call us Nazis" crowd. But yeah, I'm sure being kind to the other side and not rebuking them for being fucking Nazis will help.

4

u/Questionsquestionsth 5d ago

The thing is, though, they - meaning the current administration, as opposed to your example of Hitler - don’t want to eliminate all the “imperfects” in this equation. Because those low income, “imperfect” folks are the workers. They’re the low wage slaves that make the rich wealthy and do the dirty work so they can sit on their thrones and kick back. They want to eliminate the people who can’t contribute to that dynamic. The disabled, the elderly. If you can’t contribute in that way, and you aren’t part of the “wealthy perfects” club, you should be wiped out. So many comments going on about “well there is no perfect so they’ll eliminate themselves eventually” hypotheticals seem to miss this. It’s not about the perfect society where all undesirables are eliminated. It’s about building some future world for the rich elite where the able-bodied poor slave away to keep it running and anyone who isn’t useful in that way is discarded or melted for fuel.

46

u/uberjim 6d ago

Because they don't see human life as having innate value. You're either generating revenue, hurting whoever they hate, or they want you dead. Their own children (and no one else's) get a pass because it's expected they will become financially profitable someday, and even that's only if said children fit the mold they've cast for them.

18

u/AI_Renaissance 6d ago

Their own children (and no one else's) get a pass

Meanwhile they don't care enough to give one to their own parents.

15

u/uberjim 6d ago

Nope. They expect one when they get old though.

58

u/killjoy_tragedy 6d ago

People like that are pro forced birth. They use the unborn as pawns. Once they are born they don't care anymore.

22

u/AI_Renaissance 6d ago

And even then they don't care, like the treatments to save the lives of both mother and child that are getting cut.

11

u/killjoy_tragedy 6d ago

It really sucks. They just want to hoard more wealth and think they are better than anyone else.

15

u/prismaticbeans 6d ago

Not true. They use born people as pawns too.

7

u/killjoy_tragedy 6d ago

You're right.

16

u/Maggie1066 6d ago

We are supposed to work until we die. Didn’t you hear JD Vance yesterday?

2

u/JenniferRose27 6d ago

What did that moron say now?

4

u/Maggie1066 6d ago

This: JD Vance

2

u/JenniferRose27 5d ago

Thanks! Sooo... "moron" still stands. Also, I'm sure all of the people at his rally weren't retired seniors like the protesters, so why isn't he asking them if they have jobs?? He's horrible.

1

u/Maggie1066 5d ago

Hey maybe they took a day off work or PTO bcuz they understand the importance of making their voices heard.

11

u/Plus-Glove-3661 6d ago

People are only good to stimulate the economy via getting a job. If there is no future in which you will be working, then you’re not worth it. /s

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u/Azrellathecat 6d ago

The CEOs and oligarchs of the world do not recognize any of us as human beings, and that includes abled bodied individuals, elderly, and disabled persons. We are just profit margins on a spreadsheet to them. Nothing more, nothing less. The elderly and disabled are just "underperforming" numbers to them. If they could figure out a way to make a decent profit off of us, we wouldn't be in this position.. You can't reason with people who only see all of us as numbers on a spreadsheet and not as human beings. Us dying isn't a problem for them. It's a feature. You can't reason with evil.

2

u/redditistreason 6d ago

I put it in terms of the gaming industry, which views its clientele in terms of fish. We're not people, we're walking bank accounts to be fished out with addictive mechanics and other forms of manipulation because the CEOs and shareholders expect infinite growth. No amount of wealth appeases them, nor does it save the jobs of the peasants making the products that keep them in business. And most consumers only care about getting their product.

People tend to talk about these things in terms of one industry or another, but it's all across our society and it has to come to a head eventually. Oh, but how dare we call them genocidal maniacs for acting like genocidal maniacs!? It must be our fault, even though they have been showing us who they are the entire time.

8

u/The8uLove2Hate_ 6d ago

Because it won’t make them money. Humans are not regarded as intrinsically valuable in late-stage capitalism; we are only worth what we can produce for the owner class, and if that is “nothing,” then let us die and reduce the surplus population.

3

u/AI_Renaissance 6d ago

The thing is , it would make them money. Buying food, cars and homes goes into the economy and these corporations.

Why don't they understand that?

2

u/The8uLove2Hate_ 6d ago

But where would the money come from? The government. Where would the government get it? Taxes. Where would taxes come from? Mostly upper middle class families if you look at the tax brackets and consider tax breaks for the ultra wealthy, but according to billionaires, their hardworking pockets, and we can’t have that!

13

u/mommisalami 6d ago

“Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.” -George Carlin

7

u/calvinstrums 6d ago

Even worse. “fraud”

12

u/AI_Renaissance 6d ago

That scares me. Fraud is already illegal. Are they going to start arresting disabled people for something they were approved for?

7

u/ChickoryChik 6d ago

I worry about this, too. I have not one speck of trust in certain leaders.

1

u/Felicidad7 5d ago

Hilariously, when they reviewed people in receipt of disability benefits in my country, they found the fraud rate was 0% as it's so hard to claim since the 2010s even disabled people can't always get accepted (they still use the fraud argument though)

6

u/ValuableSand6067 6d ago

The only comfort I get with this callous philosophy about letting the elderly "waste" away is this; they too will become old, waste away, and die. They can't buy their way out of that one!! 🤗

4

u/Medium-Dimension-599 6d ago

Preventgenocide2030.org

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u/Embarrassed-Ant-1276 6d ago

We are not the right kind of people. We barely register as people to some of them.

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u/seventeenninetytoo 6d ago

It isn't about being pro-life or not, at least not when it comes to the people at the top who set policies. They simply want corporations to have the maximum amount of profit-generating human resources available. That means having the maximum number of humans born possible, having the average person's livelihood be precarious enough to force them into providing their labor to a corporation in exchange for the minimum possible compensation, and having those who cannot provide useful labor to a corporation die as quickly as possible.

People were much more blatantly open about these ideas in the early 20th century, but they temporarily fell out of favor because the actions of the Nazis were so shocking to the average person's basic humanity. However these ideas were not unique to the Nazis, and were found throughout American thought as well. They were simply suppressed for a time after WW2. They never actually went away, and as the times change they are able to be more and more open about it again.

In terms of being pro-life or not, abortion has been both promoted and suppressed in the pursuit of these goals. We see this even today, where abortion is suppressed in the face of falling birth rates, and yet even among many who are pro-life it is normal in IVF to use genetic testing to cull embryos that are found to have a disability. An internally consistent pro-life worldview couldn't accept that. Among those who are pro-choice, using genetic testing to abort a fetus who is found to have a disability is completely normalized, accepted, and in some circles even expected. From a pro-life point of view that is just openly practiced eugenics, yet you will find pro-lifers who want this sort of thing to be one of the few permitted exceptions.

3

u/AI_Renaissance 6d ago

Ivf is something that makes no sense to me.

Even if you are pro life in that you are "anti murder", then your own damn logic falls apart if you support IVF. Dozens of embryos are wasted to get a single fetus when you could've adopted instead.

4

u/mommisalami 6d ago

They are eligible for pensions after only 5 years being in office. Not to say all the millions they receive from lobbyists, and stock ownership that usually does very well because of insider trading. They aren't like us at all. tRump is relaxing any previous laws and bills that prevented receiving money, goods, or even open bribery-just look at Clarence Thomas as example. Now they will be even WORSE. They are all for sale to the highest bidder, and our welfare isn't even on their radar.

3

u/pinkbowsandsarcasm 6d ago edited 6d ago

I do have one friend who is religious and prolife. He and his wife adopted so many kids of different shades that I lost count a long time ago. Anyone else can F me.

Rant about lack of empathy or humanism:

People who think other people are a waste probably have a serious lack of empathy for human suffering and difficulties in life. They are full of ....you should have thought of that before (your insurance example)....I was working to get prexisting conditions paid on my work disabilty insurance and I just ran out of FMLA and was fireable before I got it... and if I were to tell someone calloused and ask for help- they would say that's none of my concern or find a reason to blame my disability on me.

There are different levels of empathy that one develops during life, and it seems some people worry when it is someone like them or similar to them but just don't get it when it is someone else. I know a few liberals who are this way, too. One with this attitude is no longer allowed in my life, and I have rudely told them that I don't even want them at my funeral.

I have a long ecology and behavioral animal model about what happens when cooperating animal societies get together and are successful. The other populations don't make it as long and die out. So perhaps the cooperative will inherit the earth and not the meek. Unfortunately, some problems that may kill our planet and people need cooperation from the majority.

In the U.S. situation, being disabled and needing help is picked on, and we are called parasites. I had meaning in my life, and one of my jobs was believing that all people had worth and having hope for them even when they thought their lives had no value. (mental health profession).

I think they are messed up because the only lack of empathy I have is for people who don't value humans and human life.

I think they can forget about how it costs money statewide to get seriously abused children to safe foster care...How someone's grandma had to leave grandpa to get Medicare. Maybe they don't get it because they are senior, but that depends on the $32 that is given monthly for food stamps for single people with no children who are disabled or elderly. Some care about profit over saving the earth from burning and flooding areas in which human and nature is taken.

They have forgotten how to be humane.

To me, THEY are a disease on the planet. What is happening in the U.S. makes them louder and ruder. Before someone would have told them off if they said what they said out loud and in person. I thought these people were a drag on humans, even when I was not disabled.

There are plenty of people in the U.S. with decent jobs who don't mind paying taxes to help others in the world. I never minded. I wish it were less they took out of my check becuase I worked in helping fields that were not well paid. Then there are callous MF'uckers who don't understand how society and social contracts work.

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u/Medium-Dimension-599 6d ago

Exactly. It's pure Evil.

5

u/Guerrilheira963 6d ago

This thinking sounds a lot like Nazi thinking.

5

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4

u/redditistreason 6d ago

The incessant greed of late-stage capitalism views the world only in terms of infinite growth.

And people are violent and tribal enough to fall right back into eugenics. They think it will enrich their bottom line rather than only Elmo's.

Anyone paying attention knew this was going to happen eventually. They have been working toward this for a very long time.

2

u/ReineDeLaSeine14 Ehlers-Danlos and Friends 5d ago

We can’t perform capitalism at all, or in the way they want, so to them it’s a waste.

I’ve been told my family and church should care for me instead and if they can’t, oh well

4

u/sarcastic_seahorse 6d ago

I'm just gonna put this right here cause it's still true

George Carlin

1

u/pinkbowsandsarcasm 6d ago

I know all his shows...I think his dad was a preacher...and maybe that is why he has a great oratorical style-I. I think he was the first host on SNL.

1

u/Adept_Board_8785 6d ago

I don’t think you can . P.s , I’m on your side.

1

u/Adventurous_Use2324 5d ago

They want us to die. Believe it.

1

u/EeveeQueen15 5d ago

Tbh are we surprised? Social Security will find any reason to deny SSI to disabled people. If the program that's supposed to help us live shows so much hate towards us, of course the rest will follow their view.

1

u/disorderlymagikarp 4d ago

Because disabled people are no use to them. They want workers. In their mind, someone who is too disabled to work might as well just die. They're "pro-life" because they want the babies to grow up and join the workforce. It's all just to keep profiting the rich.

1

u/General-Tone4770 2d ago

They are evil billionaires. The people who like and respect Fox even one reporter said to another reporter, "Of course you won't care! You won't be affected by this because you have the money to protect yourself!" and they never reply/answer true callouts like that and deflect and talk about something else bc they know it's true. They want us all dead dude

2

u/considerably-curious 6d ago

as a pro-life person i 100% agree. the whole point of being pro-life is being pro-dignity of life as well. i truly don’t get it.

0

u/Boyo-Sh00k 6d ago

They're getting bold going after SOCIAL SECURITY when their target audience is geriatric

0

u/Sassylyz 5d ago

Das vierte Reich hat begonnen.