It’s a nice thought, but sadly we will never get to find out…

It’s one of the reasons they maintain a poverty class, and invest in providing free (or heavily subsidised) education, housing, meals, and healthcare for soldiers (not to mention the massive and imperialist propaganda machine) - can’t feed the meat grinder if no one is desperate to enlist just to survive.

The sad truth is that the NHS has slowly and steadily been defunded in to uselessness, to justify and enable large chunks of it to be sold off to (mostly) American insurers under the guise of “increasing efficiency” or whatever, in the very deliberate process of tuning our system in to one more like yours.

This means private insurance has become a flourishing business here, but all that does is syphon trained professionals, facilities, and resources from the NHS, and hands them over to those who can pay to skip the queue, and the profits to a bunch of already rich bastards, resulting in staff and bed shortages which lead to months and even years long waiting lists for not only simply seeing a doctor, but also getting treatment, even for time sensitive conditions like cancer.

The same thing is happening in Canada and other places where there is socialised healthcare, because making money is more important to our capitalist, and at best neoliberal, governments and those who fund them, than our lives are.

I saw NHS covers dental and eye exams.

Maybe in the distant past, but definitely not anymore. The rules in other countries in the UK differ, but from a quick look in England eye tests are free only for under 16 (or 18 and in education) or over 60, people on income related benefits, and or have certain conditions or predisposition to them.

Dental is charged in tiers, from £26.80 for simple work to £319.10 for more complex work, however these reset every 2 months, so if you have to go back to complete complex work after longer (which is likely due to lack of availability) you gave to pay again. Kids, pregnant and postnatal people, and or those on income related benefits get treated for free. However there are hardly any NHS dentists left, they’ve almost all gone private, where they charge much more, and while private clinics are required to provide NHS services, the wait times and availability as I already mentioned, are terrible.

The only way to stop them is to abolish the systems and institutions that enable their existence in the first place, and eating removing them from society (unless they agree to give up their ill gotten power and resources, of course. As if).

Anything else is a distraction created by those maintaining said systems and institutions (which includes the governing bodies of all nation states, as well as organisations like the EU*, as noble as the idea is in theory, and in practice in the minds of those who created it, but it is after all an economic treaty, which is upholding an economy system and the status quo) all to buy themselves more time to pillage, hoard, and manipulate society for their personal gain.

*As a brit I feel compelled to say that I’m pro EU under our current system, since our shitty government(s) must have someone to answer to (because it sure doesn’t answer to the people), but I’m fully aware that it is at the end of the day a neoliberal institution that is there to maintain the status quo, not change anything fundamental to better society.

I’m expecting the DWP to instantly adopt whatever AI it is that that insurance company that recently lost its CEO uses to deny claims. And all I can do is hope that they, and those enabling them, get a similar response (though who am I kidding, if the general public gave two shits about poor and especially disabled people being deliberately and systemically denied support and left to die, we’d have seen a reaction a decade ago).

Hate to make you cry a little more, but it’s £14 billion, not million

whereas lots of European countries have universal healthcare.

Almost none of which include dental care.

They’re called luxury bones for a reason…

the rich and powerful people who rule Greenland to Trump: Not for Sale but Let’s Talk Business We want to maintain appearances, but will suck fascist cock for more money and power either way

FTFY

You’re welcome, and remember that they’re for browsing, not necessarily consuming in bulk, some of them I’ve never read the whole way through, but they provide answers to specific questions and are great for dipping in and out of.

Well, not anymore!

Hey now, mansplaining does have its uses…

I don’t mean to sound callous, but shit happens, especially with pets. Dogs are notorious for eating things they shouldn’t, I assure you a dog could find something to get in to that they shouldn’t and that could harm or even kill them even in the tidiest house.

Now if you’d said you didn’t take her to her appointment, or didn’t even call the vet, I’d have some harsh things to say, but you reacted and acted appropriately to an accident.

You did the right thing in a difficult situation, try not to beat yourself up over it or hold yourself up to an impossible (read: neurotypical) standard (easier said than done, I know), and be there for her as she recovers.

I suppose you could say both are pipelines in a manner of speaking, the difference is that one is designed to target the ego and promote artificial and toxic individualism in the service of a powerful few, while the other is designed to target our natural need for community and cooperation in the service of all members of the group.

One has to be promoted artificially, dishonestly (most often by co-opting leftist ideas, see national “socialism”), and at great cost to be effective, while the other just needs to be (unless my comrades are getting those Soros cheques I missed out on? lol).

Most people, when presented with leftist ideas with the “scary” isms removed, tend to agree with them, it is the capitalist indoctrination that makes them fear said isms. Remove the indoctrination and the systems it supports, provide people with their needs rather than hold them hostage behind a paywall, as well as providing an honest and critical education, and the left wouldn’t need a pipeline at all.

Meanwhile the right already have things their way, and yet they’re still dependent on those levels of deep manipulation to recruit to their side, because their side is shit and only serves a handful of people.

Anyway, I’m rambling, as for resources, these are unfortunately not as accessible as a graphic history, but here are some links I have saved for more general introductory material, and a couple of more topic specific articles to get you going (they’re not all from there, but in general, the anarchist library is a great resource, it can take some navigating to find what you’re after, but if nothing else, you’re guaranteed to find something interesting and informative on the way):

anarchism - a beginner’s guide

What is Communist Anarchism? Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism

Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!

An anarchist FAQ

Anarchy Works

Mutual Aid

Deconstructing Hierarchies

How Nonviolence Protects the State

Horizontalism

Red Flags: Before You Join That Org

E: as for the bullshit notion that we must platform and listen to fascists and other bigots “for balance” or to avoid an “echo chamber” or whatever other bullshit - NO. Our priority is to survive in spite of those people, not to allow them to continue to walk all over us and invade literally every single space in existence so that they don’t feel excluded. Fuck that.

Mostly people are interested in what might benefit their lives. Not the thousands of hours it took to get there.

Nor in anything that might benefit the lives of people they see themselves completely detached from or even superior to, even if in reality they are either much more alike than they ever would or could admit, and or could end up in the other person’s shoes in a heartbeat.

No, we need to abolish capitalism so we can have free access to healthcare (and food, water, shelter), not to continue playing by the rules set out for us by those who profit from commodifying our basic needs and human rights.

Ah, yes, continuing to prioritise economy over society, and even humanity, that’s sure to start working out (for anyone other than the billionaires in power) any fucking day now… 🙄

The bigger a threat to the status quo a group or movement becomes, the bigger the lies those who benefit from that status quo need to tell themselves to justify their opposition to progress.

It’s very specific to south korea.

The hand gesture might be, but the aggressive reaction to anything that even implies feminism, absolutely isn’t