Geez. I'm glad on not a patient. What a heartless tool!

of urine when examining baby boys. Happened every time, so must have had something to do with him. I'm happy to say our children never bit their doctor, though.

The doctor is obviously talking about children, and is actually sarcastically writing like a Republican in order to show how heartless they are in denying children health care.

They will read this and cheer, "One for our side!"

So what's the point of this exercise?

It's not like conservatives "get" reasoned arguments, arguments based on compassion, economic arguments, etc., either. There is no way of getting through to the densest conservatives. It's the middle-of-the-roaders that can be reached with any of these kinds of arguments, including sarcasm.

But who are their readers? People like me. Preaching to the choir or satirical articles are fun but I don't think it does much to start real thinking in the general population.

because i read this just now, i'll be calling my 2 heartless republican senators today to urge them to get CHIP funded already. So there's one anyway.
i also shared on FB with the number 202 224 3121 urging all my FB friends and family to call as well.

is get their audience to to contact their congress people.

It's said that if all Democrats voted, we'd have no problem seeing our agenda enacted.

I'm a professional persuader. I wrote marketing communications for some of the biggest companies in the world. When it comes to persuasion, you don't go to the people who are directly in opposition to you. You start with people sympathetic to your position, but who may not have yet acted. Once momentum is built for a position, that's all it takes. It only takes a majority, not 100% agreement.

No irony..

The basic cold-heartedness of the targets of this satire is actually painful to me sometimes. This whole "free stuff" thing - "lazy moochers" who just want "free stuff." That's how these selfish bastards, with such a lack of compassion, can so easily and callously diminish their fellow citizens - their fellow human beings. I've never been able to forget how the lovely dick cheney actually, publicly, SNEERED at the whole idea of empathy. I often find myself thinking - "what if that was YOU?"

Or logic, reason and and in too instances, reality.

Ask the developers of both Horatian and Juvenalian satire, literary mechanisms of social criticism for over 2500 years.

But if it helps, here's the Little Red School House definition of Satire: Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society (note-- it doesn't specify that it needs to be understood by the target ).




That may assist you in better understanding the greater and more relevant literary issue rather than focusing on whether one specific demographic gets it.

the sarcasm too at first. I'm a social worker and have worked for years with people on government-funded healthcare. Unfortunately, the tone and words of the sarcasm is exactly what a lot of people actually say. I've gotten into arguments in my own house when people want to tell me about the wonderful benefits welfare low-lifes get. I've never actually gone to the mat, but I sit there and think, You're telling ME about "welfare?" This is (part of) my f*cking JOB, Foxfan! Do I tell you how to fly a plane? No, so don't tell me how much and what people get in this state, I know it to the dollar.

OK, that felt good.

if they're free to spread bullshit around you, you are free to counter it.
this is why i haven't talked to my brother for over a year. i won't be the first to bring up politics but if he does, it's on. i'm afraid we could lose each other forever and that would hurt so much.

WHY is Texas a red state?? Obviously, the gop cares little, if any about the constituents.

Swift strikes again. I sat in college English class and laughed my ass off at all the other students in the class that were "horrified and shocked" that the professor would make them read such a thing. Not many people in the class actually read it all the way through because they were unable to see it for what it really was.

You posted before I did.

Time and again. It's amazing how people do not often readily recognize parody, satire, sarcasm etc

Didn't realize the doctor wrote that part.

Sorry folks.

was when suggesting in "A Modest Proposal" that the impoverished Irish could sell their children as food for rich people, thus bringing in money while also reducing the number of kids they had to support.

it's an appeal to fund CHIP. worth the whole read, too.

WHOOSH!

It's pretty cute if you follow the link and read the whole thing. Maybe the humor will get somebody(ies) to see that healthcare should be a right for all, show up at the polls and vote accordingly.

it's a great read - keep going. The doctor uses irony/satire to make a very important point by mimicking rw assholes.

It was the tail end where i thought the part about "getting a job" was somebody else's editorializing about this doctor's opinion. Didn't realize the medico was the one saying that part.

It's obviously satire once it's known that the comments are those of just one person.

I misread the piece as i described above.

That's funny!

I look forward to years of reading your positive contributions!

Much better care!

you poor, stupid fool

I’m sooooo sorry that this guy is upset that he actually has to care for people, which I’d bet there’s a good chance he wrote something close to that on his medical school entrance exam. Fuck him for judging people and for complaining, “I don’t get paid enough to do this!!!” Such a fucking snowflake....call me when you’re seeing patients who are working poor, that don’t qualify for Medicaid, and are dying from cancer if you don’t share with them your services. Your patients aren’t freeloaders...they are patients.....With very real fucking issues....doctors with this mindset are infuriating to me.

He/she is obviously in favor of health care for kids.

they will die before they get the chance.

The GOP doesn't care about healthcare for families.

It only care for the billionaires who keep them in office so they can serve their primary directive.... transfer all wealth to the riches people in America.

And Babies.

Must be too early for folks.

Things are so nutty now it’s becoming harder and harder to recognize satire....

i recommend the whole article it's good and to the point actually.

Apparently I’m on crazy overload that I missed the satire

I didn’t recognize this was satire...that’s on me

A kid in my class once thought a short story was about a girl who became blind because of a passage that went, "The girl's eyes fell upon the flower."

Sometimes sarcasm and satire are missed on the audience...thanks for being rude and not reading below where I clearly said I recognized this as satire.

maybe people could afford to have and pay for healthcare. The FACT that "we" have the most expensive healthcare in the world consuming nearly 20 % of the GDP while delivering poor overall performance (ranked 37th in the world), is just another outrage. Many people have jobs and can barely afford to exist let alone pay for outrageous overpriced healthcare.

the point.

I got confused at the end of it, thinking that someone else added the tag line about potty training and getting a job.

Didn't realize the doctor wrote that part too.

and then realized the meaning of the juice, graham crackers or brightly colored objects.

funding.

who can't stand having to treat Medicaid patients.

I thought he was a veterinarian. It took me a few sentences to realize he was talking about kids. I was thinking how do animals get government healthcare?

Good satire!

or Medicare, Medicaid, etc.

But I imagine examining the Mammoth Ass In Chief has its share of hazards.

who would read the headline and the first paragraph or two and say, see I told you..

It's about treating children, who, yes, haven't worked because they're children.

Most "welfare" goes to children. Most food stamps go to children. People qualify because of the children. But, now, in Christian trumpland, the attitude is, throw those little leeches of society out, let em die. As long as we force mothers to give birth, we've fulfilled the requirements of being Christian. Right, Texas?

This is pure sarcasm, but will likely not reach the cold hearts of many Texas Christians.

Well done. I fear however, it will fall on 'blind eyes' in the GOP.

... and probably gets the respect they deserve. None.


-Puzzler

Their "Christmas gift to America!"

Working like mad to deliver a tax cut for the political donor class while paying for it with 13,000,000 more uninsured (which will raise the premiums for the insured) while letting Children's Health Insurance expire?

Charles Dickens would be feverishly writing a new novel.

And who also don't bother to read the comments pointing that out before they post their own clueless comment.

but alas, a common phenomenon

At least it seems that way.

The article was completely obvious (I wish that there was a word that was stronger than 'obvious'. Mind-numbingly obvious? Plain as day?). Bizarre.

not too many folks are reading the replies in these discussion threads

I even went to the site for more clues. When I returned back to the post, I saw in the comments that it was supposed to be satire. What a relief. But if that many people aren't sure, then it's not good satire. It was very alarming to me that someone who is responsible for the care of less fortunate Americans could be so judgmental and disgusted by his/her patients. Maybe it's the subject matter that makes it harder to satirize?

Edited to add: The bold text at the bottom that mentioned potty training appeared to be sarcasm added by the OP, not the author of the article.

CONservatism has rendered Satire Obsolete.

If you can walk you can work.

because of age without any coverage and tell them find your own healthcare in thier sick fantasy





On a side note I once worked with a pediatric nurse who in real life wasn't far from the OP satire

Good lord bird

I swear by Apollo the Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.

To hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood; when he is in need of money to share mine with him; to consider his family as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they want to learn it, without fee or indenture; to impart precept, oral instruction, and all other instruction to my own sons, the sons of my teacher, and to indentured pupils who have taken the physician’s oath, but to nobody else.

I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.

Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free. And whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession, as well as outside my profession in my intercourse with men, if it be what should not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets.

Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain for ever reputation among all men for my life and for my art; but if I transgress it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me

but sad, too, that such humor hits so close to the truth.

They are parents of children with cancer. She calls me last year and tells me of all the moms whose children are on CHIPS and still vote Republican. It is astounding! Really, they don't even know who it was that started this program!

I wasn't quite sure about it until the fourth paragraph (still waking up). But if you click the link, it is much more obvious because of the pic of a crying baby right at the top.

... you’d think I’d learn, and you’d be wrong.




-Puzzler

I expect the content in this article to be used as a Republican talking point soon...

Missing the satire is easy. This sounds like common right-wing victim talk. An 'Other' is stealing our stuff and no one else cares.
The real clue that it is satire is that it is HERE...and not on some mouth-breather blog.

Thanks for this, babylonsister

why do you think your statement is true?

But thanks.

And I've since seen that it's just sarcasm.

It's satire, yes, but a lot of it could just as well have been lifted from a Fox News editorial.

Great letter, too funny how the point was missed. Kids need health insurance.

how many completely missed the point.

Excellent satire. And a reminder—read the whole thing.

C'mon people, re-read the thing - what I like about this - the furor makes people notice it because this is yet another life/death issue being swept under the repuke rug

I admit I didn't catch on til the fourth paragraph. I'm glad I read the whole thing before posting.

Of course, there’s that “no birth control, no abortions” thing, but....that must just be pandering to the fundies.

They are extremely ungrateful for the care that hardworking taxpayers provide for them. Patients have punched me, bitten me, screamed at me, and even urinated on me. I often leave with vomit on my clothes.

it describes the behavior of some very young children

To be fair, I have understand.

I wanted to be satirical to be in the mood of the article but I didn't it well

for those saying it's satire: maybe this example, but I've met real life doctors (yes, plural) with this attitude

I am tired to see people going bankrupt or dying because they can't afford life saving treatments!