Friend,

Refuse Fascism podcast #83:
COVID, Public Health & U.S. Mythology

Uploaded October 31
Sam Goldman speaks with epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves on his recent piece for The Nation, America as a “Shining City on a Hill”—and Other Myths to Die By:
"I think we have to go back deeply into history to understand our presence specifically, in my mind, the nature of how we have developed our systems of health care, public health and social protection...The idea that we're a shining city on a hill, that we are the beacon for the world and everybody wants to come here. Yes, if you'd like places where dogs eat dogs."


>> Listen and subscribe
>> Listen on Youtube
>> Transcript for those who prefer to read

Gregg Gonsalves:
We didn't have to end up on the shores of this great catastrophe that we did in 2020 to 2021. A lot of that history is tied to our history of white supremacy, and that history is tied to capitalism over the centuries, but also neo-liberalism. It's a more contemporary form, which left us basically with a fragmented healthcare system, which really has two classes of people: people who can pay for the care they need and get the best services and then people are either uninsured or under-insured. We rely on a public system that isn't necessarily the best in the world, and then the sort of absolute disgrace of the public health infrastructure in the U.S.
Again, it's a sense of ambivalence that public health, community health is something for others, which means we spend three cents for every dollar we spent on health care and public health, and then to the neo-liberalism which drove everything to profit. If you can't make money on it, what good is it?

Sam Goldman
In the beginning of the pandemic, and as a hallmark of the growing fascism which we are confronting even before this, we have been confronted with a wholesale demonization of any form of expertise in science itself. When the value of objective truth and reasoning are desecrated, we are left with a value of brute force, money and power. Not just individuals but whole sections of society are taken in by unbelievable lies. In a moment where the only way to ignore the vast amounts of debt and extreme suffering is to cover your eyes and plug your ears, we have people wearing their vaccine refusal and mask refusal as a badge of honor. The willful violence and terror of continuing to spread this disease is no less real for its buffoonishness. It is a form, in my opinion, of white rage.

***
Send your comments to [email protected] or @SamBGoldman.
Or leave a voicemail at 917-426-7582 or on anchor.fm.

                         

>> RefuseFascism.org 2021 mission statement

Connect with and donate to the movement:

Venmo: @Refuse-Fascism
Cashapp: @RefuseFascism
Paypal: paypal.me/refusefascism
Web: donate.refusefascism.org

RefuseFascism.org national team 917 407 1286

Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from RefuseFascism.org, please click here.