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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI guess I was already having a bad day...
yesterday, Friday, at the end of a VERY long day...(dentists are inundated with pre-weekend 'emergency' visits - the tooth has been hurting for six weeks but "what if it gets worse over the weekend??!" - and I was just worn out from the tumult.
So this guy shows up in the late afternoon, and he hears that I have MSNBC on in my private office with the sound turned up a bit, and he says, "shame that kid had a drug problem and did that..."
I went right to Defcon 1. I retorted instantly, "I don't think it's a drug problem, I think he wanted to kill black people and maybe he really wanted to kill an articulate, charismatic state senator." His reply was, "I don't know about that." My reply to him: "Well, I guess you don't know much about much because before he assassinated the senator and murdered the other eight he said something about his women being raped by their kind. Just like Mr. Trump did the other day talking about people coming over the border."
Silence ensued.
I then took care of his trivial problem and sent him on his way. And to answer the questions:
1. I didn't bring it up, he did.
2. One patient more or less is irrelevant. 200 nice people would be great, one here and there at this stage of my career is meaningless.
3. I'm good and goddamned sick of the RW meme. You wanna do this elsewhere, that's your right and your business. In my business, in my home, I'm not gonna listen to it passively. I dont' HAVE to treat anyone if I'm not in the middle of a case and I sure as hell don't have to put up with anyone's bullshit and lies. Not at age 62 I don't. Nothing ever seems to make a difference in this country: all those kids were murdered in Connecticut and in no time at all there's poison out there that these kids never existed - that the massacre was all a lie set up by the Obama Administration so that they could take the precious guns away. There are no depths to which these creeps will not sink. It's a Nazification of the United States and it's DISGUSTING that it's allowed to persist and grow exponentially.
malaise
(269,219 posts)Rec
marym625
(17,997 posts)Good for you. You don't need excuses to do the right thing. No amount of money is worth it. Not in my life anyway. And believe me, I would be pretty well off if I kept my mouth shut about oppression.
Good for you
For Freddie
(79 posts)And my grand daughter Mahalila Thanks You too.
I have noticed in the past year the T.V.s in Dentist's offices, Hospital waiting rooms no longer have Fox on. Nothing like being sick or in pain and afraid and having that evil bilge piped into your brain.
Now they often have House and Garden TV. Wonderful.
The crap is getting thicker and thicker out there which is just a reflection of their fears and them loosing the dominant role.
They are cartoons of themselves with exaggeration.
They are terrified. OMG! what if all the money pumped into hate and fear doesn't work???? Then change just may reach a tipping point they cannot control. And when it does it will be a great tidal wave.
The deeper the negativity the more militant the positive reactions are becoming. People are waking up, one at a time. Not fast enough
for me and my grand daughter tho.
marym625
(17,997 posts)But you're welcome.
I can't take the rw crap. I just can't. I will walk out if it's on somewhere and they refuse to change it.
But I live in Chicago, so it's not as usual here to have it playing.
Not fast enough is right. I feel like I have been waiting a lifetime. Well, I have. But it is slowly starting. We have Occupy to thank for that
I spent a half hour in a large closet in a doctor's office.
I refused to remain in the room where Faux was on, and had polled the folks and found one who was watching so I could not ask for it to be turned off.
I asked to be put somewhere else.
I got my wish.
I still smile about it. Believe me, I caused serious consternation, but a half a year later, same office, the TV was on CNN.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)Really not sure what I said to deserve that but I appreciate it
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)It's very personally profitable for some people to have these divisions, this rancor, these mutual suspicions, and this rampant ignorance.
It also doesn't have to be the way it is.
Yeah, it will take a lot of time to change it for the better, maybe more time than either you or I have left. So I'm going to confront this nonsense, too. I want to do it in as kind a manner as possible, and I won't always succeed. But I got nothing better to do.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)I know a couple of horribly conservative racist white guys, and whenever confronted with hard facts which threaten their squinty, pig-eyed world view, their reply is always, "Well, I don't know about that." Which is red-neck speak for "You're full of liberal shit"
You pushed his face into reality and gave him something to think about. Nice going!
Baitball Blogger
(46,769 posts)I'm not that articulate even when I'm not in pain. Wish I could find the words to communicate the things that we talk about on DU, but I really don't know how to anchor my feelings as the maelstrom of words begins.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)brer cat
(24,625 posts)I agree entirely.
Tom_Foolery
(4,691 posts)malthaussen
(17,217 posts)monmouth4
(9,711 posts)sarge43
(28,946 posts)If we can do nothing else, we can, must, speak up. Otherwise, silence applies consent.
snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)if that speech is in any way implicated in Roof's horrific act.
tblue37
(65,501 posts)both his friends and his post on that The Last Rhodesian website he put up.
Besides, Trump was squawking about Mexicans, not black people.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Thank you, PCIntern, you're the best.
So sick of the nazification and the goddamned media keeping it well fertilized.
Sander
(137 posts)Nazification - Unfortunately, that is exactly what is going on in this country today.
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)Cuz their going to fuck US for sure unless some of them come to their senses.
valerief
(53,235 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)damn disgusting it is...thank you........
onecaliberal
(32,931 posts)I don't think we should passively listen to it from anyone anywhere. I think the rwnj's need to be called out and ridiculed for their bullshit.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,374 posts)... never piss off someone who's about to put power tools in your mouth.
DawgHouse
(4,019 posts)sarge43
(28,946 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)sarge43
(28,946 posts)and you'll be billed for tearing the arms off the chair
DawgHouse
(4,019 posts)Good for you! I left a dentist years ago because he insisted on having Faux News on in his waiting room. The final straw was when I asked the receptionist (I was the only person in the waiting area) if she could change the channel and she said, "No, we're not allowed to change it from Faux News."
So bye bye!
irisblue
(33,036 posts)PCIntern
(25,601 posts)I'm the only one in Center city who participates with his insurance. that trumps (pardon the pun) all.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)we understand.
PCIntern
(25,601 posts)I would get a lot of 'righteous indignation' posts about how I was abrogating my role as a health care provider and all that shit, and that I had no business arguing or discussing these matters with patients.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)pay them no mind. When complete strangers feel free to walk right up to me to share racist humor in public, we need to change things around. I've become a lot less 'easy-going' then I use to be. And I like it. The word is spreading around, if you don't want to be called on that shit, don't talk it around me. Makes my life much better.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Yes, his insurance works with your practice, but if he refuses to see you because of your views, that's his choice and his loss. He's not compelled to see you, and it's not like you had him in the chair all medicated up doing a root canal and started haranguing him.
I don't see a problem. He brought it up before you started working. He could have walked out the door right then and there. If he files a complaint (highly doubtful imho), I think he's SOL. I think your dental board would agree with me.
spanone
(135,900 posts)MineralMan
(146,338 posts)young, "When you're sitting in a chair, there are two people you should never piss off: Your dentist and your barber."
My father gave me lots of good advice.
catbyte
(34,485 posts)calimary
(81,527 posts)That silence always speaks the proverbial volumes.
When you get silence as a response (or retort), OR you get a mumbling "wellll, I dunno....", then that means you've hit home, and probably a little too hard. That, I think, is the human version of "TILT!" Which we used to see in the cartoons when the robot's or computer's wires suddenly got crossed and rendered it unable to function further.
Unfortunately, WE have to be the news now. Somebody who embraces the group-brainwash of the Pox Noise/hate radio/GOPspeak world is probably not very likely to watch a different news source like MSNBC. So they won't otherwise get much about the real world outside the bubble. They won't get their repeated and massaged and manipulated talking points that they're force-fed on Pox with all those pre-programmed-and-approved talking heads, biased anchors, and agenda-driven hosts and cohosts.
YOU AND I have to be there to debunk, to rebut, to fact-check, indeed, to REALITY-CHECK, and CORRECT the record - to poke holes in their comfy little bubble. Besides, MSNBC doesn't have the greatest coverage or distribution. So we've GOTTA be there to take up the slack.
Btw - I'm 62 too!
Mosby
(16,384 posts)She thinks he is possessed by a demon.
blm
(113,110 posts)You're living your life with integrity, PC.
Logical
(22,457 posts)dhill926
(16,373 posts)one thousand percent. Have just fucking had it....
madokie
(51,076 posts)I try not to let shit get past me either.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)They think it is their god-given duty to spread their meme. Anytime they hear of something like this they just parrot out whatever racist dog-whistle they have learned from their training class on the AM radio (which their opponents should be doing, instead of whining about it).
It's actually somewhat effective. They become a bully, in that people who then disagree are then marginalized by being seen as the outcast simply because no one else spoke up. Tough in your case, being the boss.
and
I am going to guess he sees you as a white guy, (he ain't searchin' out dentists of color, I suspect, though I have been wrong. lots.) and one of the interesting things about their mindset is the research which shows that, frequently, conservatives think people who _look_ like them, think like them. That's a big mistake when it comes to you and me and a few others, who have infiltrated their camp quite by accident. Of birth.
I suspect he was shocked. Shocked I tell you.
But it plays into that first point. They really aren't trying to change your mind. They assume you think as they do, and they are just making sure you are up on the latest training. If you disagree, you are broken and not worth messing with.
I wonder if he left your place and went running to some sympathetic white folk.
marble falls
(57,353 posts)Little Star
(17,055 posts)LiberalLoner
(9,762 posts)rock
(13,218 posts)Doesn't it? I agree with your post 100%.
niyad
(113,618 posts)spewed. we are under no obligation to have that garbage spewed around us without response. it might actually cause this lackbrain to stop and do something completely unexpected--like think.
by the way, congratulations on your self-restraint in not gluing his mouth shut!!
WaitWut
(71 posts)I actually lost my tact when a good friend of mine started to defend the cop in McKinney, TX. I popped off and said, "Why is you only defend the government, when they beat up or kill a black person?" Needless to say, that ended all political discussions that evening.
Waitwut (the other one.)
PatrickforO
(14,594 posts)There may actually have been some good that came from your interaction with this man. Your retort may actually have caused him to think. Because it WAS a racist act and it WAS an assassination. The guy was just ignorant and it isn't his fault because like most Americans he relies on the news to keep him up to speed, and naively thinks it is the truth.
If you'll forgive a paraphrase which I think I read Lincoln said: When exposed to the truth, the American people almost always go in the right direction.
I'm thinking, you know, of the recent post on here that resurrected the 'silent majority' concept and related it to the pure populism of Bernie Sanders. I think the quote was something like, "There's a silent majority of Americans who don't even know they agree with Bernie Sanders."
I guess in that sense we are all responsible for correcting mainstream media, Fox 'News' and talk radio misinformation and lies with facts wherever appropriate.
No need to feel bad or guilty about correcting this man. He needed it.
barbtries
(28,813 posts)and you seized it. no apology required when you do the right thing.
PCIntern
(25,601 posts)barbtries
(28,813 posts)i guess i got a whiff of that from your post. no offense intended.
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)I, too, am tired of being 'tolerant' of these jokers-time for a reality check for some of them.
40RatRod
(532 posts)... when it is appropriate to to correct someone. Lost a few friends over the years like that.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)I know you think you are entitled to do what you did and many here are applauding you, but as a professional I meet many people with political opinions I dislike or think are abhorrent, but it is still my professional obligation to treat them with respect and dignity.
There are many other avenues for you to address ignorant opinions.
PCIntern
(25,601 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)Because the way I see it, two professionals with similar codes of ethics and conduct make us neighbors.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)important to success. Or they can care more about protecting their little profit. Not both.
[BR]
Memories Pizza. Too subtle?
We all do better when everyone does better.
Lesson 2: Take the case of a professional, which means you either have the best interests of your clients at heart, or your own profit. If they evince behaviors that are harmful, such as smoking, you suggest they don't, unless perhaps you profit from treating smoking and might lose them if you pressure them too much.
If they are bigots such behavior can have a negative impact on their lives and others, and even lead to lowered profits for everyone. A professional, then, who suggests that it is not their business sounds a lot more like they are walking away from their professional duty, or are simply more concerned about profit.
They might even suggest that since they are, say, an architect or pizza ship owner, behavior isn't their problem.
...
To understand this, you have to go back to what [the] young brother here referred to as the house Negro and the field Negro -- back during slavery. There was two kinds of slaves. There was the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes - they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good 'cause they ate his food -- what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved their master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master's house quicker than the master would. The house Negro, if the master said, "We got a good house here," the house Negro would say, "Yeah, we got a good house here." Whenever the master said "we," he said "we." That's how you can tell a house Negro.
If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master more than his master identified with himself.
...
From: http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2012/05/its-21st-century-but-house-negro-is.html
Yes it is. When bigots make blatantly racists statement and you don't say anything, they, and everyone around them, assume you are on their side.
And that gives them more power from one's inaction. Not very professional.
Your case may or may not apply.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)Some are related to profits and some are not and its difficult for me to understand most of what you wrote.
And while I agree that silence or non-responses can be interpreted as supportive, when one accepts a patient or client you give up some of your personal inclinations.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)That's just an excuse, like cowering behind little children to avoid danger.
One either says something or becomes part of the problem, and perhaps celebrates by cashing their check.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)Of course you're entitled to your opinion, but what you wrote is not in the codes of ethics and conduct that I've seen.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)order, in profit, in excuses, in keeping their plantation running.
Not humanity.
Thank you for the confirmation.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)to know is in their manual.
The attorney asks him to turn to the page with the directions to the Mess Hall. It doesn't exist, of course, because there are things we know, things we do, things that are so basic they don't need to be written down.
Maybe some things need to be added to your code of so-called "ethics".
Maybe treating people as if all of them are important, or more important than one's bank account, is too subtle to leave unwritten.
I don't make this your personal responsibility, btw, beat you up for some supposed inaction. I think it is too much to ask individuals to put themselves on the line like that - even though everyone of color does it every single damn day whether anyone else acts or not.
The things we need to do we need to all do together, else we will all hang separately. But everyone is too afraid, as yet...
uppityperson
(115,681 posts)"I don't know why my blood sugar is so high, I had cheesecake for breakfast"
Present the facts.
"shame that kid had a drug problem"
Present the facts.
I find it unprofessional to allow misinformation to continue, to not educate people on facts.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)When you attend a medical professional you are expecting certain set services and generally not for political reeducation or shaming.
And Pcintern makes it clear in his point #3 that he was confronting a right wing meme and not necessarily clarifying facts because reports are that the shooter did have drug problems. Of course he was also a white supremacist and that is the root of the problem with this shooting.
Let me put it this way... Let's suppose someone went to the dentist and and was watching the news on this terrible tragedy and said to the dentist that he wished we had passed an assault weapon ban to prevent this type of thing. And then the doctor jumped on that comment saying that all reports show that an assault weapon wasn't used and that people are using this tragedy for an antigun agenda.
How might that person feel when the dentist puta his fingers in his mouth? How might they be concerned about going back when there are many other choices in the area?
Just facts? Or failing professional duties?
denvine
(802 posts)The truth needs to be heard. I'm also tired of these people with their head in the sand. Their ignorance is fueling the evil in this country. The question is, how do we get them to see it?
Omaha Steve
(99,780 posts)abakan
(1,819 posts)I'm with you. These people have pegged my bullshit meter and I do not sit by and let them get by with what I consider willful ignorance. Your description of nazification of this country is on point and terrifying, thank you. I'm 63.
Never let the ignorant, get away with their ignorance.
C Moon
(12,221 posts)Mira
(22,380 posts)(I worked out of the large basement of my home here in the South for over 35 years)
Especially during the Bush years politics often came up - through the tragedy of 9-11, where I saw the second tower get hit with the UPS man standing next to me, and a staunch Faux News type good money customer, and I shrieked:
"OH MY GOD it's terrorism, and now with the idiot in the White House we will go and destroy and attack and kill innocent people".
So, it was not always the others to bring things up. Naturally I lost the long standing customer, and lost another over my tirade over Bushes performance in NOLA where he finally brought water and huge lights, said "Good Work Brownie" and took the lights with him leaving Jackson Square in the dark, after flying over and ponderously looking out his plane.
So sorry, PCIntern, this subject matter pulled my own ranting strings. I quit now before I really start.
I think my house, my business, my money decisions, my rules is mostly a correct and emotionally self preserving attitude.
At best I would say to them: "Don't assume I share your prejudices"
at worst I would send them on with "I can't do this work for you, your comments offend me personally, and I want to make sure I don't hear them any more."
I never lacked for work, had a pretty bad ass rep along those lines, but that did not confront me as much, as I would have suffered had I put up with it.
So, celebrate that you feel better for being honest, and that in essence Life is good.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)People didn't used to feel the need to pack heat until they were told it was a "freedom" issue and, "Liberals are trying to take away your Right to own one".
Just like nobody would want to own a minivan but double it's weight, reduce it's mileage and make it look mean and then call it an SUV and say owning one is a "freedom" issue because, "Liberals are trying to take away your RIGHT to own one".
In both cases these trolls of society are hoping a liberal objects so they can give out a practiced spiel designed to make a liberal upset. Hopefully resulting in the liberal crying and them smugly laughing in their superiority.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,123 posts)Vinca
(50,318 posts)Re your point #3. That's how I erupt on an unsuspecting idiot from time to time. Sometimes it just has to be said.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Eventually, if this shit keeps up, they will realize, "Hey, I'm a Nazi now. Go figure."
GeorgeGist
(25,324 posts)for making stupid people think they had good ideas.
Alkene
(752 posts)TexasBushwhacker
(20,222 posts)they create their own reality. Well, they have a right to their own opinion, but they don't have a right to their own FACTS.
Springslips
(533 posts)And shame to the question askers, the questioners are part of the problem.
I've long thought we need to get into peoples faces and make them inderstand how many of us are out there--bust their bubble.
babylonsister
(171,102 posts)Thank you for speaking your mind, for speaking the truth. You might have made him think today, which could be a rarity.
Pinkflamingo
(177 posts)@ PCIntern- I too am a leftie dentist (who also saw a lot of emergencies on Fridays 🙈 but I'm all alone here in Melbourne Florida, which is awash in diehard faux news watching idiots. Hope you found a better place to practice. It's good to hear from a dentist who thinks right.
@ babylonsister- Welcome to town! Hope you like it here better than I do.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)I see nothing wrong with the way you did it, either.
I have my own non-verbal ways when this kind of comment comes up around the patients I see (I'm a respiratory therapist, but I do a great deal of hour long testing with patients, and that kind of stuff comes up.)
You know your moments, and I think we're all at the point that the facts be set straight
and when I'm out of the professional setting, I pretty much don't hold back.
Good on you, PC.
MADem
(135,425 posts)JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Make his head explode.
Hekate
(90,865 posts)tularetom
(23,664 posts)to serve a gay wedding, so you done good by taking care of him even though his opinions were in opposition to your own.
But you were entirely within your rights by telling him you thought he was full of shit.
mountain grammy
(26,658 posts)When I went to request my records. Wah wah Obamacare. I asked, what's wrong with it? What's right with it, she says. I asked you first, I said. Oh the paperwork, she said. Oh, i said, no paperwork before Obamacare? Oh yeah, she says, just so much more now. I said, you have more patients now. She says, yeah,for sure. I said, isn't that the whole idea? Job security! She says, mm never thought of it like that.
I stopped short of saying, try thinking about everything.
Nazification is the perfect word.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)Wired his mouth shut, and blamed it on drugs.
Brian66
(13 posts)... and if you live in a state where it's "legal" to refuse service on "religious" grounds you could have sent him elsewhere.
irisblue
(33,036 posts)but did you mean to sound homophobic?
pansypoo53219
(21,004 posts)Response to PCIntern (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
PCIntern
(25,601 posts)Funny...
to answer your question, I was addressing a RWer, so I utilized his language, right? Being chameleon-like is very effective. You should try it sometime...
uppityperson
(115,681 posts)Hekate
(90,865 posts)I'm not sure when it allegedly became some kind of code to backhandedly disrespect the POTUS and others who are not white.
Because language changes and I sometimes don't know it for awhile, I've withheld using what to me is still high praise in referring to African Americans I admire.
To hell with that. To hell with taking PCI's words out of context. Take it from me in the language of my childhood, that very high praise in a household of white barely middle class voracious readers: Barack Obama is an incredibly bright and articulate man.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)for him to hear your righteous anger. Maybe he'll think twice before he spouts off again, although I sort of doubt it.
Is it possible teeth have been hurting for six (or more) weeks but patients are delaying treatment(s) because they can't afford them? That's been my situation for the past 5-6 years. I wait until it's a screaming emergency. I know it's penny wise and pound foolish from a long-term perspective, but I don't have any pennies and have to keep my credit card credit limits in case there's another economic downturn.
Hekate
(90,865 posts)gademocrat7
(10,676 posts)secondwind
(16,903 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)spout out their filthy lies and spew their hate.
I'm so glad you reminded your patient of the truth in the Emmanuel Church killing.
It was a hate crime and and assassination.
It was an act of terror.
To call it anything less is dishonest.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)You not only educated the guy (hopefully) but if you lost him as a patient, you "put your money where your mouth is", which is a very brave and honorable thing to do. Much respect to you, sir!
raccoon
(31,127 posts)duhneece
(4,118 posts)I began to get knots in my stomach from listening to the Fox lies about the justification for the Iraq War...finally got the (Divine?) inspiration to say, "Well, I sure do see that differently."
I'd come to love these patients and their caregivers, but also saw them as deluded, brainwashed idiots...both at the same time.
That phrase either shut them up or opened up the door to a respectful, civil exchange of ideas.
Sometimes, I use the phrase, "Are you aware....."
I can't think fast like you did and I had to learn to memorize these two phrases.
PCIntern
(25,601 posts)as the political season begins, we can expect to be attacked on every front without exception. We are once again at a crossroad in American politics and we must wage war in this respect with all rhetorical vigor.
Stargazer09
(2,132 posts)So damn tired of hearing RW bullshit. I normally try to be diplomatic, but enough is enough.
Hugs to you.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Why? When did she rape his women?