Unlike Nate, I don't consider any human being "pieces of shit". And unlike Nate, I recognize there are NO perfect humans. None. Everyone does risky things or things we should not. It's called being human. And anyone can have an accident. Obviously there are degrees. Shooting heroin or smoking cigarettes is more risky than going for a walk. But right now I have a painful swollen right knee that has knocked out my weekend plans and has me limping through the day taking painkillers because I went for my normal 2 mile after work walk, the toe of my sneaker stuck in a crack in the sidewalk and pitched me forward onto my right knee. Hard. On concrete. If I need medical care, which I might if it does not heal on its own, will Nate say I took a risk by walking on badly kept city sidewalks? Maybe if I looked where I was going I would not have fallen. Should I be denied treatment because I had my head in the clouds?
I mean, I make pretty decent choices in personal lifestyle but I have no choice about air quality or water quality and Trump is eliminating standards. Are people in Flint pieces of shit who took the risk of drinking water and got lead poisoning, or are they people who live in a non-affluent community that was low priority?
Years ago, my late cat Celia got her leg caught and went into total panic. I realized I needed both hands to free her so could not restrain her head, and the only neighbor in shouting distance was not home. So I used both hands and in her panic she repeatedly bit me. Not normal for her, she was normally a good cat but was just blindly panicked. By the time she was freed, which only took 2 or 3 minutes, her leg was covered with blood from my hands, her skin never broke. I cleaned as best I could but had punctures. I had to go to ER next day with incipient blood poisoning where one of her canines bit right into my finger joint. Cats carry two bacteria we do not and therefore have no immunity to. I waited hours because the fucking insurance company would not clear ER, saying a cat bite was not an emergency, until I grabbed a nurse, showed her my hand red and twice normal size, she started treatment and dealt with bureaucracy later. Because I would lose the finger if not treated. So was I a piece of shit taking a risk because I had a cat?
And sometimes women have unwanted pregnancies, either unplanned or planned ones that go wrong. Sometimes horribly wrong. No one has the right to make value judgments. Even though a lot of people, mostly males in power, think they do.
My point is life is risky and all of us take risks and no one is mistake free. If that is your criterion for who deserves health care we will all be dead.