QuestionGuy
Americans: Why do you riot over the death of a single individual but fail to riot over your health care system that fails to protect (kills) thousands a year?
Americans: Why do you riot over the death of a single individual but fail to riot over your health care system that fails to protect (kills) thousands a year?
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Most Americans don’t riot so…
Hmm. I could move some things around to make room for a 10 minute riot. Does the 28th work for you?
It’s usually because it’s a lot more personal to justify rioting about a person than a whole system. It’s like how we look at statistics, when you name a person that died there’s an attachment to it, but when you just look at a chart that shows how many deaths from a world war it’s a lot less personal and harder to create an attachment.
Most of us don’t care until it’s too late. And we don’t have the same free time as say French people with their 4-5 hour lunch breaks.
90% of Americans don’t riot
Mainstream media did not tell us to riot over healthcare
I have a job I need to pay my mortgage. I literally don’t have time to riot.
Because we value human life, regardless of how it was taken.
Because most Americans like to look at the smallest issues instead of the bigger picture
We feel much stronger about letting an individual get away with a single murder, because that’s a concrete injustice, with a clear perpetrator and victim.
We feel less strongly about the more abstract evils that are less clear which individual is to blame. A corporation ruining the health and livelihood of thousands. Or hedge funds pillaging the economy for trillions. Or a failing justice system that victimizes innocent people daily. Or greedy insurance companies letting people die because it’s better for their bottom line.
And not because any of those are less bad, but because they’re harder to pin down, and in a way because they’re worse. And they’re ongoing. What do we do, riot daily? How do we hold them accountable when it seems even the government isn’t on our side?
Rugged individualism. In the United States, there is a strong emphasis on personal responsibility and self-reliance, which can lead to a belief that one’s health outcomes are primarily a result of their own actions and choices.
When a cop kills an innocent person, that is a clear injustice that requires action. The systemic issues with the healthcare system are (by design) more complicated problems that are not easily solved or even perceived by most people.
Also there may be a lack of awareness and understanding about the extent of the problems with the healthcare system, which can make it difficult to rally people around the cause. When a cop gets trigger happy, you’re gonna hear about it. The failings of the healthcare system do not receive the same level of attention or outrage. Even if they do, they’re likely to be dismissed by a lot of people on the basis of SoCialISm/COmMmUNisM.
Well, if you are referring to George Floyd’s death, those were hardly riots. Also, it obviously became protests about racism and police brutality, it was not over one man’s death.
I’m much more surprised there isn’t on going large protests over Roe v. Wade.