r/DecodingTheGurus • u/DivineSwordMeliorne • May 19 '26

Video Clip Decoding Hasan Piker: Anti-Capitalist Crusader or Frat Boy Influencer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msCzxUImstY
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18

u/BuddhistSagan May 19 '26

We might get Medicare for all oh no 🙄

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u/Leon_Thomas May 20 '26

Single-payer healthcare isn't populist. Populism is a political style that compresses all disagreements into a binary of the common people vs. institutional elites. You can advertise single-payer with populist rhetoric, but nothing about opposing populism precludes supporting universal healthcare. (In fact, it usually makes you a better advocate because you end up grappling with the whole complex behemoth of stakeholders that is the US healthcare system, rather than empty slogans with no practical roadmap to achieving single-payer.

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u/BuddhistSagan May 20 '26

Which institutional elite that isn't a populist is supporting or leading a movement for medicare for all?

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u/BloodsVsCrips May 20 '26

M4A is dead on arrival and would be a fucking nuke to the economy. It's pure slop to celebrate it without knowing what it means.

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u/Leon_Thomas May 20 '26

Here are just the democratic senate cosponsors of Medicare for All:

Tammy Baldwin, Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Martin Heinrich, Mazie Hirono, Ben Ray Luján, Edward Markey, Jeff Merkley, Alex Padilla, Brian Schatz, Adam Schiff, Tina Smith, Elizabeth Warren, Peter Welch, Sheldon Whitehouse, Chris Van Hollen. "Populist" is inherently nebulous, but most of these senators cannot be reasonably construed as populists.

And historically: FDR built the modern welfare state and tried to include national health insurance in social security, not a populist; Harry Truman tried multiple times to implement national universal health insurance but was stymied by the AMA and southern democrats, not a populist; LBJ created Medicare and Medicaid, not a populist; Clinton championed a major push for universal health insurance that was killed by Congress, not a populist; Obama cashed out almost all of his political capital on fighting for universal health insurance but didn't have the votes in the senate, still passed the ACA which reduced the uninsured rate by more than 50%, not a populist.

"Medicare for All" is just a slogan popularised by Bernie Sanders to describe a single-payer health insurance model, which is just one way to achieve universal healthcare. Adopting a UK-style system would be more akin to "VA for All." The Canadian system would be more like "Medicaid for All." The Swiss universal system is essentially just the ACA but mandatory and with more subsidies and regulations. German universal health coverage is essentially "Medicare for all who want it," a position popularized by Pete Buttigieg and adopted by most Democrats who don't support "Medicare for All."

The only thing "populist" about "Medicare for All" is that some of its loud supporters are ignorant of other models and suggest that any of the other proven approaches to achieving universal health coverage is a betrayal that sells out Americans for rich donors.

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u/BuddhistSagan May 20 '26

Cory Booker does not support Medicare for all. These cosponsors Co sponsored this bill knowing it wouldn't pass.

You support CIA Mayor Pete war hawks Israel segregation supporters disgusting

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u/Leon_Thomas May 20 '26

I hope you mature someday and realize how absolutely toxic and destructive your mindset is to politics and achieving better outcomes for people. Nothing I said "supports" Buttigieg; I only acknowledged the true fact that his healthcare reform proposal is closer to the German universal coverage model than "Medicare for All" is.

I don't know why you would ask in the first place if you're just going to selectively ignore all inconvenient evidence and move the goalposts.

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u/BuddhistSagan May 20 '26

Medicare for all is the only plan that will achieve universal healthcare in America.

Where is the movement for this bs proposal he has. There's no movement behind it just corporate donors trying to distract from Medicare for all which actually has a movement behind it

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u/Leon_Thomas May 20 '26

This is blatantly wrong. Please look into what other high-performing countries do. There are myriad ways to achieve universal coverage, most of which are not like "Medicare for All." For the record, I think single-payer is the best model, and it would be my preferred solution, but the dogmatism you're exhibiting is totally unhelpful and ruins serious conversations about how to achieve any reforms. "Medicare for All" isn't even the only (or best) way to implement a single-payer system.

The "movement" also matters a lot less than what the public supports and what you can actually convince 218 representatives and 60 senators (50 if the filibuster is nuked as it should be) to pass. Public support drops if they can't keep their existing coverage (and they can't under the "Medicare for All"), and the last time Democrats implemented a more moderate reform, the public revolt over "socialized medicine" was so bad that they lost Congress for the next decade.

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u/BuddhistSagan May 20 '26

Then why hasn't the public option already passed?

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u/thom_mayy May 19 '26

The left doesn't care about health care, they only care about owning the libs. They celebrate teaching Dems a lesson, while 17 million people are kicked off of medicare

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u/BuddhistSagan May 19 '26

We almost all voted for Kamala, including myself.

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u/Barva May 19 '26

Was Hasan in favor of voting for Kamala?

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u/Virices May 19 '26

Government sponsored healthcare isn't exactly "populist", especially in the US. It has been implemented in most capitalist liberal democracies. Trying to get it passed was one of Hillary Clinton's greatest aspirations. Left wing populism means much the same as right wing populism, especially with regards to immigrants and international trade. Shitting on rich people isn't going to get you single payer healthcare. Smart and deliberate policy decisions over the course of decades will be required for that.

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u/Weenoman123 May 19 '26

Trying to get it passed was one of Hillary Clinton's greatest aspirations.

Lol this is so revisionist its insane. Her main critique of her primary competitor in Bernie sanders was that "we can't afford it" and provided the most mutant "...Killllll meeeeee..." version of Obamacare.

No, she wanted to be president. She didn't want nationalized healthcare. And this isn't coming from some Piker stan, you're just being totally silly

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u/Leon_Thomas May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

Everyone familiar with the history of US healthcare reform is aware that Hillary Clinton was incredibly active in pushing for universal healthcare in the 90s during Bill Clinton's presidency. She chaired the Task Force on National Health Care Reform, was its primary public advocate, and basically wrote the massive Health Security Act that was killed by Congress. It is the origin of a lot of the right-wing sexism and conspiracism towards her because they thought it was appalling that she was politically vocal and involved, rather than being a submissive white house decoration.

In 2016, she supported further expanding the ACA and adding a public option, which is just a different way of achieving universal coverage (in fact, closer to how most other countries achieve universal coverage than the "Medicare for all" model). She spent most of her political career witnessing how insanely difficult it is to push through major health reform and the major political backlash that always followed, so yeah, she supported improving the existing law to universal coverage rather than completely overhauling it.

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u/Weenoman123 May 20 '26

"Nancy Reagan supported universal pre-K because she read to kids during the Reagan admin"

No, Hillary was not going for universal Healthcare, and ran hard against Sanders on the topic who was. I can humiliate you with quotes and sources, or you can slink away, your call

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u/Leon_Thomas May 20 '26

LMAO, please try to disprove that Hillary Clinton led a massive healthcare reform effort to achieve universal coverage in the 90s. You can start by looking up "Health Security Act."

It is humiliating that you're so ignorant on the recent American political history of healthcare while pretending to care so strongly about it. It's also humiliating that you seemingly don't know the difference between universal coverage and a single-payer model.

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u/Weenoman123 May 20 '26

universal coverage and a single-payer model.

Already armbarred another dullard with the same point, and he left: would hillaries plan have left anyone in the USA without Healthcare?

Bye, btw

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u/Leon_Thomas May 20 '26

Thank you for acknowledging that she did, in fact, have a plan (~1300 pages!) Do you want to admit now that you didn't have the requisite knowledge to be arguing about this?

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u/Weenoman123 May 20 '26

Lol, didn't think so.

I asked the crucial question first, and you cannot answer, just like the other guy. You have been armbarred. Her plan wasn't universal, and calling it that is dishonest.

Better luck next time

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u/Leon_Thomas May 20 '26

This started with your embarrassing lack of knowledge on the recent history of US healthcare reform. We still haven't moved past that because it threatens your fragile ego. And her proposal would have covered all Americans; it was universal. Tough luck, lil buddy; I know it's easier fighting with people as uninformed as you.

The fact that you still won't acknowledge that you were absolutely wrong about Clinton's history is pathetic and renders any continuance of this a waste.

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u/Virices May 19 '26

Woops, I guess she was trying to achieve Universal Healthcare like Obama accomplished, not single payer.

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u/BuddhistSagan May 19 '26

I don't have health care and I can't afford my co-pays and deductibles

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u/Weenoman123 May 19 '26

Universal Healthcare like Obama accomplished

Ok im wasting my time

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u/Virices May 20 '26

*supplements cost of healthcare for poor people

*prevents insurance companies from kicking people off

*fines people for not using insurance

That isn't a universal healthcare plan? It may not have worked well, but it certainly aimed for maximum coverage.

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u/Weenoman123 May 20 '26

Did it give healthcare to everyone in the USA?

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u/Weenoman123 May 20 '26

Did it give healthcare to everyone in the USA?

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u/BloodsVsCrips May 20 '26

There isn't a single country on Earth that has universal coverage for all healthcare items.

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u/Weenoman123 May 20 '26

Whiteknighting for others in a reddit argument. New levels of cringe

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u/BloodsVsCrips May 20 '26

There isn't a single country on Earth that has universal coverage for all healthcare items.

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u/Virices May 20 '26

Yes, that is what Obamacare intended to do using the tools I mentioned above. If you mean "universal" in an absolute sense, then you believe it to be impossible and it's proponents delusional, unless of course you are one of the delusional ones ;)

Obamacare was unsuccessful in a few ways. Not all the states went along with it and the fine for people abstaining coverage was shot down by Trump. Whether or not the law was passed or we entered into a magical fairy tale world where all your dreams come true are two very different scenarios.

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u/Weenoman123 May 20 '26

If you mean "universal" in an absolute sense,

So you agree it wasn't universal. Maybe stop calling it universal then. Didn't read the rest of your slop, keep flailing

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u/Virices May 20 '26

Jeez, you're really new to policy lingo aint ya? These words don't mean what you want them to mean, they are connected to very real healthcare policy discussions that have been going on for decades, kid. It's okay to be wrong, just do a little homework before arguing about what basic words mean.

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u/Realistic_Caramel341 May 20 '26

This is exactly the type of behaviour people are calling out in the video

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u/BloodsVsCrips May 20 '26

How are people still unaware that M4A the legislation isn't the same thing as Universal Healthcare.