Tea Partiers Mock And Scorn Apparent Parkinson’s Victim

Posted by ralph on March 19, 2010

Below is a clip from a video report on the Columbus Dispatch:

In a scene reminiscent of non-violent civil rights confrontations from the 1960s, Ohio Tea Partiers quickly turned ugly when facing off with health care advocates in front of Ohio Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s office Tuesday.

In shocking video taken by a Columbus Dispatch reporter Doral Chenowith, Tea Party protestors mock a seated counter-protestor with a sign indicating he has Parkinson’s disease. They then proceed to hurl wadded up bills at him shouting, “I’ll decide when to give you money!”

See and read more on the Columbus Dispatch

Posted in: Activism, Freedom of Speech, Health Care, Politics, Tea Party, Video

Andrew

Fucking assholes.
GoodDoktorBad

Talk about extreme cases of misdirected anger. What's next? Kicking old people and the mentally handicapped?
These are like the selfish archetypical characters who get horribly killed in disaster movies because they are too irrational and selfish to survive. When they get eaten by the monster, we don't feel so bad about it.
Broken Finger

I'm not one to normally defend the Tea Party but, in all fairness, at a protest where emotions are running wild and people on both sides of the street are in high gear and high strung, maybe it wasn't the greatest idea for this man to walk across and sit in front of them? Knowing what a temperamental species we are, I would say the Tea Partiers showed tremendous restraint.
5by5

Way to blame the victim, and try to turn the victimizers into heroes. Spoken like a true rightwinger.
Polymorpheous

Generalizations like this make me dumber and dumber every time I hear them.

As for the Tea Party and healthcare activists…
It's too bad neither side understand what they are fighting over. If they actually read the bills, (or even just parts of the bills), they are fighting for or against, they wouldn't be taking to the streets against each other.

Here's a quote from an acquaintance of mine who works in the insurance industry, “if this bill passes, I may be able to retire 10 years early.”

What are these people really fighting about?
Divide and conquer!
Broken Finger

Other than being a victim of Parkinson's (for which he has my sincerest sympathy), how is the protester in the video a victim? He chose to walk over and sit down in front of the Tea Partiers. Interesting idea by way of protest, and I would say it was tremendously successful in riling them further, if nothing else.

I don't think remarking about their restraint (or lack thereof, depending on your point of view) is trying to turn anyone in the video into a hero. They're just confused and angry, and spend most days not understanding what's happening around them. They're also, right or wrong (well, wrong), exercising their right to protest something they think is hurtful to them and their country.

And I am so not right wing.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for you and your posts, by the way.
ummmm…. maybe think?

So, im thinking this could be provocateurs involved in this. Just like that bullshit about the girl in the wheelchair 4 months ago that turned out to be bullshit media spin. And the “white racist” with the assault rifle at the healthcare convention that turned out to be black. Id research this a bit more. For sure. (Also, many times, police have had to admit that they dress as civilians and start shit to make a group look bad)
Cackalacka

The internets acknowledge and thank you for your concern.
Broken Finger

…thanks?
ummmm….

Yeah good point, the guy did go sit right there…. read my post below. What if the parkinsons guy, and the people yelling are provocateurs? it just really wouldnt surprise me with all the other bullshit medis spin thats been coming out of this healthcare debate. im still not on either side. i think we should regulate insurance companies, not force healthcare on people. but i see why people want it….
5by5

I have read the bill, and beyond barring the health insurance companies from being able to deny you for pre-existing conditions, and reducing costs by eliminating waste, you're absolutely right, it won't be as effective as it could be.

Which is why IN ADDITION to this, we need to pass Alan Grayson's four-page, self-funded Public Option Act that would expand Medicare coverage to any American to wants to buy into it, thereby giving people an alternative choice to the health denial industry, that would compete with those corporations and therefore push overall prices down.

Why would I pay 56% more for corporate “care” in California, when I can get reasonably priced public Medicare instead?

Right there, your problem is solved.

Of course, if the President himself hadn't been such a moderate Republican trying to kiss Fascist Republican ass, we'd have already had that in the main healthcare legislation just like Liberals wanted in the first place, huh….

The bigger lesson here is just this: Stop trying to get the GOP (and the DINOs who love them) to help the country. They aren't interested in helping the country, they're only interested feathering their own nest.

Put REAL Liberals into office who will do REAL work for “We the People”. Period.
5by5

Strictly speaking, he isn't a victim (except to circumstance and abuse by the health denial industry that the Tea Party types stupidly defend), but the rhetorical device you were using previously turned him into one, then called for us to have sympathy for those who were being unsympathetical to his problem, which would be having a serious disease that he has no control over, and yet not being able to access care.

In that sense, the people whose actions you were defending (those who were being verbally abusive) are acting like victimizers, blaming the man for that condition, and piling hatred upon him on top of struggling with the disease, by calling him a “Commie” or “Lazy”, when they have no proof of either, they're just getting off on being mean bastards. That latter sort, shouldn't be defended in the least, and they damn sure shouldn't get the privilege of throwing the name of Christ around when referring to themselves.

I mean seriously. Talk about “casting the first stone”, and ignoring the simple fact that “there but for the grace of God go I….” The Tea Party types are gonna have some serious explaining to do come Judgment Day, should there actually be one as they themselves predict.

Personally, I also like to watch astroturf events like this, and play the “pick out the health insurance employee game” too. (Generally much better dressed, not missing teeth, speak coherently if illogically, etc.)

The guy who threw money at the man with Parkinsons? $20 says he's a paid GOP or health care lobbyist stooge there to pump up the crowd of people they've suckered into working against their own best interests. The lady at the very end of the video who's only 100% wrong? Probably also works fro the insurance lobby.

It's so much theater on that side of the equation, and real desperation on the other, which makes their meanness all the more unconscionable.
Kieran

They win because we are scared of breaking the rules they break constantly

Look at this example, he is passive as fuck, and yes.. does get some moral high ground, but in the end he will lose and the moral victory is not worth it

My dream, we are as aggressive as teabaggers and they will wimper infront of us.
Broken Finger

My rhetorical device didn't do anything of the sort. The title and presentation of the video certainly did, which is why I took issue with it. Had he been suddenly surrounded and had abuse heaped upon him, the video would work. However, the narration explicitly states “at one point, a man sat down in front of.” So, what's being presented is a man who chose to walk over and seat himself in the middle of the proverbial Lion's Den, and the viewer is supposed to be shocked that he got roared at. While it's been proven very easy to make Tea Partiers look bad, this video just isn't doing it for me and is, in fact, offensive in it's ham-fisted attempt to sway me.
GoodDoktorBad

In addition, as these “people” brow beat this man, no one else has the decency to come to his defense.
The just stand there, milling about in little self-absorbed circles.
These people represent “the damned” of the world.
GoodDoktorBad

When we get as “aggressive” as teabaggers, we will BE teabaggers. I'd rather be at the death-end of a gun than to be the asshole pointing it……
Anonymous

I abhor the idea of “innocent bystander.” Anyone who stands idly by and allows ugliness and evil to prevail is guilty. I do not know if the man seated on the ground had Parkinson’s disease or not. But neither do those who ridculed him, I suppose that is not the point. Those who riducled him are insensitive at best..evil at worst.
deaconart

I abhor the idea of “innocent bystander.” Anyone who stands idly by and allows ugliness and evil to prevail is guilty. I do not know if the man seated on the ground had Parkinson's disease or not. But neither do those who ridculed him, I suppose that is not the point. Those who riducled him are insensitive at best..evil at worst.

Tea Partiers Mock And Scorn Apparent Parkinson’s Victim

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