Conservative hospitalized blogger asks for donations. Liberals ask, should I donate?

[miss_elizabeth]

I personally wouldn’t donate to this guy. I’m already helping out my conservative dad who hates health care reform and WHOOPS! just found out he has cancer. I would sincerely hope he sees the light on this issue, but I really doubt he will. I dunno, I’m just left feeling sad.

Also I agree it’s pretty irresponsible for a guy who made a living talking about BOOTSTRAPS to not have life insurance or anything. I mean, damn dude, when I was 20 and living off rice, I made sure I had it because I had a baby, and it would have been shitty to do otherwise. But, you know, hindsight is 20/20. I hope things work out for him somehow.

Also, why aren’t the people at RedState taking care of this guy?

[miss_elizabeth]

@Cheesesteak

Who am I to interfere?

Things are playing out exactly the way he wanted, man with no insurance gets sick, his family is fucked. He may have thought differently when it was anonymous losers who got fucked over, I suppose. I’m not going to feel bad about him living with the healthcare and social safety net he advocated.

I feel incredibly guilty about how much I agree with this. I want to move past that and be a better person, but my initial feelings when I read the story were pretty much exactly this. I do hope he survives and realizes he was wrong.

[SeldomSeen]

@Cheesesteak

Who am I to interfere?

Things are playing out exactly the way he wanted, man with no insurance gets sick, his family is fucked. He may have thought differently when it was anonymous losers who got fucked over, I suppose. I’m not going to feel bad about him living with the healthcare and social safety net he advocated.

This. +1

[wonky]

@miss_elizabeth

I feel incredibly guilty about how much I agree with this. I want to move past that and be a better person, but my initial feelings when I read the story were pretty much exactly this. I do hope he survives and realizes he was wrong.

I hope you don’t continue to feel guilty over it. We’re allowed to recognize when people are suffering the consequences of their actions, and to feel like they pretty much have it coming when bad stuff happens.

Something from Kos made me understand that the fund is directed toward the girls’ upcoming school year, which makes me think it’s a private school fund drive. My feelings about that are much less charitable than health care.

[Little_Nemo]

From what I’m seeing, this guy has said that people in situations like his should be handled through private charity - and that’s what he’s asking for. So I don’t see any apparent hypocrisy in his position.

[Ferret_Herder]

@jsgoddess

Something from Kos made me understand that the fund is directed toward the girls’ upcoming school year, which makes me think it’s a private school fund drive. My feelings about that are much less charitable than health care.

Wait… this is for school tuition? I mean, I understand prioritizing healthcare over school, but your average person would not only be enrolling their kid in public school when things got that tight, they would still be in over their heads on the medical bills at that point.

[wonky]

@Ferret_Herder

Wait… this is for school tuition? I mean, I understand prioritizing healthcare over school, but your average person would not only be enrolling their kid in public school when things got that tight, they would still be in over their heads on the medical bills at that point.

I think it is. I’m not certain. Here is a post from someone at RedState, but they could be lying:

[The fund was set up for his kids *my nieces, I am FURIOUS at the so called writer at KOS for number one having his facts COMPLETELY wrong and number 2 taking this as a political thing, it started as a fund for the kids to get school stuff. I am fuming! Thank you so much for posting this, I am so mad that I would not have been as kind.

Side note: Caleb is unaware that this fund is even set up! Some people donating are saying that he has been reduced to begging, makes me so furious.](http://www.redstate.com/lineholder/2013/08/01/response-to-the-kossacks/)

My bolding. Also in there are comments that the fund was not originally set to be as high as 25,000.

I don’t know what the truth is about this particular fund. I don’t think that invalidates the whole conversation, though.

[Ferret_Herder]

@Little_Nemo

From what I’m seeing, this guy has said that people in situations like his should be handled through private charity - and that’s what he’s asking for. So I don’t see any apparent hypocrisy in his position.

I agree, but the private charity promotion angle was also noted in the OP. The problem is that your average person isn’t of sufficient fame to be able to pull in serious bucks to help out for their own catastrophic medical situation.

[bup]

@Shakes

I donate on a regular basis, so I feel no moral obligation to donate to this guy. Let the charitable organizations out there decide if he’s worthy. If he dies, I feel sorry for his poor daughters. But on the bright side, maybe they’ll walk away from this with an understanding of why affordable health care is a GOOD thing. Where as otherwise, they probably would have been polluted with their father’s ideas and continued the cycle on down the line. Silver linings and all that.

This thread poses an interesting question, and I think **Shakes **captures my feelings pretty well.

I’m comfortable with my charity donation level, but if I weren’t, this guy’s story might move me to donate to a charity that helps families of people with unpayable medical bills. But not to him directly.

[miss_elizabeth]

@jsgoddess

I hope you don’t continue to feel guilty over it. We’re allowed to recognize when people are suffering the consequences of their actions, and to feel like they pretty much have it coming when bad stuff happens.

Well, I mean, I’m ok now. I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole I guess. I do want to be a better person than that though. It’s one thing to recognize his poor decisions caused this situation; it’s another to feel glee over it. I feel bad about the latter, not the former.

Something from Kos made me understand that the fund is directed toward the girls’ upcoming school year, which makes me think it’s a private school fund drive. My feelings about that are much less charitable than health care.

Uh, yeah. Fuck that shit. If it’s for private school tuition he can eat a bag of dicks.

[EmilyG]

The hospitalized blogger sounds like kind of a jerk to me, whether or not he’s a Conservative. I wouldn’t donate money to him.

[Anaamika]

@Cheesesteak

Who am I to interfere?

Things are playing out exactly the way he wanted, man with no insurance gets sick, his family is fucked. He may have thought differently when it was anonymous losers who got fucked over, I suppose. I’m not going to feel bad about him living with the healthcare and social safety net he advocated.

Agreed 100%. And I don’t feel even a little bit guilty. Why the hell should I? People die every day. Every minute.

[Munch]

I wonder if he’s ever muttered “get a job, loser” under his breath any time he sees someone begging on the street.

[Little_Nemo]

@Ferret_Herder

I agree, but the private charity promotion angle was also noted in the OP. The problem is that your average person isn’t of sufficient fame to be able to pull in serious bucks to help out for their own catastrophic medical situation.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this guy discovers that private charity isn’t enough to cover medical bills. So while his current position isn’t hypocritical, he may find that his beliefs are unsupported by reality.

[Dangerosa]

So his kids should get social security survivor benefits once he passes. Assuming, of course, he paid in. I’m not really seeing the problem.

I already supported someone through a terminal illness, my brother in law. Thanks to Minnesota Care, he had insurance, and due to his diagnosis SSDI - it wasn’t a lot, and we supplemented his SSDI by buying a house and renting it to him at less than cost. I’ll do it again for another sibling - but I think its the responsibility of this guy’s family to step up.

As for supporting complete strangers, I do that through my charitable contributions. If there isn’t enough charity out there for everyone, its because its a voluntary thing and people decide where to put their money. Those are the breaks.

[drewtwo99]

Wow I must be a real heartless asshole, because honestly, I just say, fuck 'em.

And universal healthcare isn’t even that important of an issue to me.

[Bozuit]

@brickbacon

That said, if you beg for money, people get to impose their own standards on whether you are deserving.

Which just happens to be exactly what’s wrong with his ideas.

[Werekoala]

Private citizen asking for funds from other private citizens - no problem with that at all.

If you don’t want to send him money because you don’t like his opinions, that’s your call. How would you feel if he was getting your tax money without your say-so; your hard earned money going to help someone who you vehemently disagree with?

Aren’t you glad you have a choice in this instance?

[wonky]

@Werekoala

Private citizen asking for funds from other private citizens - no problem with that at all.

If you don’t want to send him money because you don’t like his opinions, that’s your call. How would you feel if he was getting your tax money without your say-so; your hard earned money going to help someone who you vehemently disagree with?

Aren’t you glad you have a choice in this instance?

No. Because I don’t want someone’s survival to be a popularity contest.

[miss_elizabeth]

@jsgoddess

No. Because I don’t want someone’s survival to be a popularity contest.

+1