# Republicans don't give a CHIP about children's health care **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 27, 2017, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-give-a-chip-about-childrens-health-care/799986 "2017-10-27T12:29:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-give-a-chip-about-childrens-health-care/799986/281 "2017-11-04T19:16:26Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Was hoping **Bricker** would’ve answered the other questions in **Septimus** ’s post, too, (#246) but these three, in particular, need to be addressed. No, they don’t. 1. I don’t see any posts made by septimus. 2. I already announced that in this thread I would not respond to idiotic points. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-give-a-chip-about-childrens-health-care/799986/282 "2017-11-04T20:29:56Z")
And with this, **Bricker** has gone full **Starving Artist.** “Won’t answer because your questions are stupid.” Good Lord. Absolutely pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-give-a-chip-about-childrens-health-care/799986/283 "2017-11-05T00:42:31Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > No, they don’t. Oh they sure do. > [@Bricker](#): > > 1. I don’t see any posts made by septimus. Your welcome, then, for me bringing them to your attention. > [@Bricker](#): > > 1. I already announced that in this thread I would not respond to idiotic points. Oh, I see - so, what you _meant_ to say, actually, was that you’re completely fucking turtling. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-give-a-chip-about-childrens-health-care/799986/284 "2017-11-05T08:24:08Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Can we just stop with this shit? Please? I will _gladly_ grant that there are some inconsistencies in the pro-life position. I will equally grant that most pro-lifers haven’t really thought the consequences of their position through (although I’d doubt **Bricker** is one of those people), that many thought experiments lead to really unpleasant places, and so on and so forth. Granted. > > But this shit is an opinion almost entirely projected upon most pro-lifers. It does not pass an ideological turing test. I have never met a pro-lifer in real life who actually believed this. I have never met a pro-lifer in real life who would describe their beliefs as _anything_ like that. And when you look at pro-lifers who aren’t Rush Limbaugh, you can hear them saying (granted, often phenomenally tactless or stupid) things about how women should see the children as gifts. > > You know how I know most pro-lifers don’t hold this opinion? Here’s the key hint: > > _Most people do not hold positions they consider disgusting_. And yeah, it _is_ disgusting to see children as punishment for sexual behavior. That’s why you almost _never_ see anyone say that, even in private. Because most people get that that’s fucking awful, and _don’t believe it_. > > Jesus. You’re not going to reach anyone by badly strawmanning their opinions. You are missing something rather important. No one is asserting they consciously hate women or are trying to punish them. The assertion is that this is the underlying reason for their beliefs. Of course no one is going to admit to themselves that they believe something disgusting, but that has no bearing on whether or not they believe something that is disgusting. People not only can but generally do hold beliefs they are not aware of. It is rare that a person drills down to the underlying beliefs that lead them to their positions. I was pro-life for more of my life than I have been weakly pro-choice. I can guarantee that ideas about how the women who got pregnant were inferior went through my head. And as helpful as I was towards them, I definitely had thoughts of “if they’d just not sinned and not had sex, they wouldn’t have this problem.” And I observed this same belief in plenty of others. Heck, it’s the only way I could have come by this belief myself, since I had not yet sat down to figure out what I actually believed. It had to have been absorbed from others. I remember the gossip, the rumors. I remember the condescension. I would not have consciously at the time believed that my position on abortion had anything to do with that other stuff I mentioned. But I now know it played a big part. And I have no reason to believe that I was anything special. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-give-a-chip-about-childrens-health-care/799986/285 "2017-11-05T13:08:58Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > 1. I already announced that in this thread I would not respond to idiotic points. “Idiotic” points that go to the heart of the matter. You think there are a “kajillion better ways to spend $8 billion” than helping poor children fight disease, but are unable to name any except tax cuts for the rich, presumably to boost the charity given by Christian billionaires. Since you won’t fill in the dots we must assume that the key problem with America your GOP idols are trying to solve is that men like Martin Shkreli have only $100 million. If the Congress would just make it easier for fine men like him to become billionaires, Shkreli, when worth a billion, would probably help baptize a half-dozen orphans out of his own pocket! > [@Bricker](#): > > No, they don’t. > > 1. I don’t see any posts made by septimus. He doesn’t read _N.Y. Times_ either, nor watch any TV channel except his beloved FoxNews. I still recall the time he came bombing into a thread about Karl Rove, defending that fraudster as a fine specimen of Republicanism. It turned out he knew nothing whatsoever about Rove — they don’t give his mini-bio on FoxNews :smack: — in fact he hadn’t even read the thread’s OP which laid out some complaints about Rove! 😃 Several years ago, **Bricker** often had useful contributions on non-political matters. Now his only role is to serve as Tweedle-Dee to **Clothahump** ’s Tweedle-Dumb. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-give-a-chip-about-childrens-health-care/799986/286 "2017-11-05T17:51:30Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I already announced that in this thread I would not respond to idiotic points. Yes, yes you did. You also announced that [your position on abortion is unassailable](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20576981&postcount=266). Well, thank you for at least clarifying one of the mysteries that I had asked about, namely, how you can justify your opinion on abortion, the kind of intransigent absolutism one associates with the Taliban or some other spittle-mouthed theocrat. It utterly baffled me how someone could have the astounding arrogance and lack of basic human empathy to declare that his arbitrary opinion on such a philosophically ambiguous and intensely personal and intimate matter should be the law of the land, imposed on everyone and enforced with dire legal consequences. It also baffled me how someone who purported to care so much for unborn children could harbor such a diametrically opposed callous and barbaric attitude toward the care of actual children. The answer is now clear: in your fevered imagination you are always infallibly correct, and anyone who disagrees with you is an idiot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-give-a-chip-about-childrens-health-care/799986.md?page=14)