He probably means turning a typical feel-good story into an opportunity for social polemic.
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More poorsploitation for everyone: Teen can't stay on transplant list unless in stable home. Gets adopted by his teacher.
- Thread starter BladeoftheImmortal
- Start date
Yeah. I'm not a fan of the name at all but the concept is very real.
There's a cottage industry of "feel good stories" that are really deeply cruel and heartless.
This is a perfect example. It's nice that the people at Home Depot helped out, but the kids situation was heartless and gutting especially when you consider all the other children in his situation that didn't get that help.
Here's another that caught my eye.
What's absolutely incredible (and shameful) is the kid not being covered by insurance.
It means that some of y'all try to come off as if you care about the average, common man, but then show your lack of understanding as well as your privilege when you do shit like this.
There are a million different ways to make a point about the exploitation of the poor. But the OP wanted to be cute and settled on "poor-porn" and expected people to vibe with that. Fuckouttahere.
Kid is covered. They were not sure if the walker was covered.
Here's another that caught my eye.
What's absolutely incredible (and shameful) is the kid not being covered by insurance.
I don't like the term but I think OP framing the thread as a critique of media when they frame these stories as a feel good heart warming tale demonstrates the opposite of what you claim.
I don't like the term, but the OP is demonstrating the shitty practice of playing up these stories as feel good noble humanity instead of the systemic issues that they are.
It's not media clickbait, the entire reason it exists as a term is because of the well known phenomena of people enjoying seeing people worse off than themselves see Jeremy Kyle and Jerry Springer and other such shows. It's the entertainment and interest derived from these situations that people have an issue with not that it's clickbait.
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See, that's the problem: this IS a feel good heart warming tale. Systemic issues with America's health care system or any other system won't be fixing themselves anytime soon, so sometimes you need some hope. The media gonna get their views & clicks and might not give a fuck about the bum on the street behind their building, but sometimes a life gets saved and people need to hear about it.
But y'all think we wanna hear "Shit's bad fam, we'll give you the 5-day forecast after the break" all the damn time. But even if that were the case, OP could've shown some damn poise within the English language & social awareness by not calling it "poor-porn".
If you want to take it as a feel-good story, that's your decision. Others here are willing to discuss what it says about our system. If you don't want to hear that kind of talk, could just ignore it.
Personally, I can't view it as a feel-good story when there are so many others in similar situations that don't get the help that they need.
I don't agree. Framing this as anything other than a national travesty and failure of policy is burying the lede. Recognizing that isn't admitting that what the kid's teacher did for him isn't a good and noble act.
The behavior of the teacher is praise-worthy. Now let us talk about what is shitty: having to resort to gofundme for such situations because the system is broken.Gofund me is awesome, but the fact people have to resort to his so often for health or food issues is damn sad .there is a government and a system to call out as long as things like these last.
We won't too much propaganda. This country is doomed to collapse in our lifetime.
Right. If this is the thing that should happen, because it is right and just, then it should be codified as policy and mandated rather than left to the random whims of strangers.
This kid's smile is the greatest, happiest smile I've seen on a kid. Jesus. Fuck insurance companies.
Here's another that caught my eye.
What's absolutely incredible (and shameful) is the kid not being covered by insurance.
Yeah, our country is not perfect but we are fucking amazing at organ donations and healthcare is one of the top 10 in the world IIRC (or near top 10, somebody posted a graph here about it like a week ago).
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Totally. "Poverty Porn" sounds much better. Rolls off your tongue...
I approve of changing the title but think you should have gone with "that sweet poortang"
Not really sure that the title tweak helps tbh - it editorialises the story and is still going to lead to people latching onto it. It's also taking away from the story itself.
Why not just remove the first sentence and let the story speak for itself? Discussion regarding the wider context can come from people reading the article - rather than it being framed artificially.
But, all being said, fantastic move by the teacher.
government should have an obligation to provide this to a person in such situation.
...It's a child.
How exactly do you propose that a thirteen-year old demonstrate that ability?
Do you think this applies to toddlers too? "Well this three year old lacks the mental capacity to take care of this transplant so clearly they might as well die."
The point of the thread is to highlight how these feel-good stories are darker than how the media presents them.
Sure - and OP expressed that valid point in his OP. I just felt that the previous title, and the subsequent title took away from the agency of the act shown in the article itself.
I read this earlier, and I ended up reading it again post change to see if I'd missed some heinous updated detail.
It read to me as if the act itself was an example of exploitation towards the subject.
If anyone read the story, I don't think they'd disagree that it's a crying shame that this child is in this situation and how the status quo clearly needs to change.
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I'm glad we are deciding that for a 13 year old that has no power over his predicament.
It's not taking anything away from the act, just highlighting the systemic issues that necessitate that noble act. The focus of the OP is the media's framing of the act as good instead of something that needs to be addressed.
Requiring a stable background for organ transplants is an explicit policy of "let poor kids die, fuckem."
A good program has good social workers that can try to work around this kind of thing and actively try to engage people or systems without saying "sorry, no transplant unless..." That is generally reserved for behavioral/adherence issues, and even then, only when proven absolutely refractory to mitigation
So this story is a failure on multiple levels.. this is a kid for god's sake
Teacher is a good guy and role model in his students lives. But god our medical system in this country just makes me so angry. I want to just leave America behind and move to a modern country at times when I see people on the right arguing how we dont "NEED" universal healthcare.
Doling out donated organs is pretty much a non-stop Trolley Problem, because every person you decide to save by giving them a kidney results in someone that dies because they did not get a kidney. So in instances like this, how or why would you priortize someone with an unreliable homelife over someone that does have one? You could make organ recipients completely random, but that would still not really seem just or fair.
This story shows how even in shitty situations, there are good people willing to help. I will look at this as a positive story but it's just as easy to view it as a sad story for this situation being possible in the first place.
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Jesus people. Can you discuss the fucking topic? I even let it get changed and you are all still harping on it even when poverty porn is a real term. Get the fuck over it.
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OP, I agree with how shitty this is and how it reflects on society as a whole. These stories anger me endlessly and people consistently take the wrong lessons (i.e. everything's fine because a neighbor bailed someone out of a capitalist nightmare situation when the situation shouldn't have occurred to begin with).
But to be clear, there is no way they would put give that kid an organ under his current living conditions. The amount of stability and consistency needed to recover safely from a transplant without a major infection that would ultimately kill him basically means he needs to have a stable environment. So this is ultimately good for the kid. Organs are few and far between, and so unfortunately they HAVE to give them to the cases with the highest likelihood of positive outcomes.
What is disgusting is that that inherently means that wealthy people with plenty of resources and a good support network are much, much more likely to be placed on the list or to receive those organs once their turn comes, simply because they can afford the stability.
But to be clear, there is no way they would put give that kid an organ under his current living conditions. The amount of stability and consistency needed to recover safely from a transplant without a major infection that would ultimately kill him basically means he needs to have a stable environment. So this is ultimately good for the kid. Organs are few and far between, and so unfortunately they HAVE to give them to the cases with the highest likelihood of positive outcomes.
What is disgusting is that that inherently means that wealthy people with plenty of resources and a good support network are much, much more likely to be placed on the list or to receive those organs once their turn comes, simply because they can afford the stability.
The GoFundMe goes into some more detail about the kid's situation.
In foster care from a young age, expensive medical issues, was able to live with a relative for a while, started attending this teacher's school and got back on transplant list. Relative could no longer care for him, kid lived in the hospital again for a few months, off transplant list. Teacher decides to take him in, kid gets back on transplant list, gets to go to school again, teacher working on getting foster certification.
In foster care from a young age, expensive medical issues, was able to live with a relative for a while, started attending this teacher's school and got back on transplant list. Relative could no longer care for him, kid lived in the hospital again for a few months, off transplant list. Teacher decides to take him in, kid gets back on transplant list, gets to go to school again, teacher working on getting foster certification.
This is like the story of the teachers donating vacation time to another teacher with cancer who would've been fired otherwise. Good individuals, sure, but it's a bullshit situation.
And I dont completely buy the "but people need hope". At one points that's just plain old propaganda and a lie that "miracles happen herp derp". You cant base any public policy on "hey the money will magically show up, have faith!"
I want to know more about the less special cancer patient that actually got fired.
And I dont completely buy the "but people need hope". At one points that's just plain old propaganda and a lie that "miracles happen herp derp". You cant base any public policy on "hey the money will magically show up, have faith!"
I want to know more about the less special cancer patient that actually got fired.
I dont agree. This is setting up many organs to fail and thus killing other children in the process. The ethics of the transplant list is very complicated and honestly can generates hours of discussion but I will still state that it is a reflection of the shitty overall US safety net.
I dont think you realize how difficult taking care of a transplanted organ is and unless the hospital is going to set up permanent housing for those without stable housing the organ is likely to fail and the kid will die anyway. Kids need to take their medication extremely consistently and other medications can change the levels so they have to be vigilant in watching what they consume. This is why having a dedicated support system is necessary for this otherwise you might as well thrown the organ away. The shitty thing here is that the child didnt have a say in it but the list is to try and maximize the organs chance at success which is why alcoholics need to be sober for a period if time.
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