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I'd like to maybe do something to help with veteran's causes - stuff like more funding for the VA. I'd also like to feel like I'm not the only veteran in this city without surrounding myself with the sort of people who unironically wear "VETERAN" hats, if that makes any sense. My first thought was organizations like the American Legion or VFW, but I strongly suspect they're MAGA. Any ideas?
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Feb 7, 2023 23:01
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Cessna posted:I'd like to maybe do something to help with veteran's causes - stuff like more funding for the VA. I'd also like to feel like I'm not the only veteran in this city without surrounding myself with the sort of people who unironically wear "VETERAN" hats, if that makes any sense. There isn't. At least I haven't found anything yet. I've heard that there are mythical VFW/American legion chapters that aren't hardcore right wing. The closest I have found is the occasional post exclusively populated by extremely old vets waiting to die. I know that sounds bad, but it is the only way I can describe these dying chapters. I would be open to joining a new organization if such a thing exists.
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Feb 7, 2023 23:46
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It would almost certainly be easier for leftists to swell the rostersof existing veterans service organizations than it eould be to start new ones. Membership is down acrose the board and funding is already established in the existing orgs
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Feb 8, 2023 15:48
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I've run into quite a few Leftist vets in groups like Socialist Rifle Association and it tends to have a very good mental health support groups associated with it, but its not exactly a Veterans org.
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Feb 8, 2023 20:00
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Some of my friends from college are really active with IAVA or they were. No idea if they are good or not but it is at least worth a look. https://iava.org
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Feb 27, 2023 23:30
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Cessna posted:I'd like to maybe do something to help with veteran's causes - stuff like more funding for the VA. I'd also like to feel like I'm not the only veteran in this city without surrounding myself with the sort of people who unironically wear "VETERAN" hats, if that makes any sense. https://forums.somethingawful.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=218
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Feb 28, 2023 02:01
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My friend linked me to some leftist vets discords/videos and it was just like being back in and listening to the crazy poo poo my buddies had to talk about, except in this case it was horrifyingly worse because I found myself agreeing with them. Anyway that's been my experience in the leftist vets sector, but if you find something you think is pretty okay, I'd love to know about it.
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Feb 28, 2023 04:38
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ASAPI posted:There isn't. At least I haven't found anything yet. You are not kidding about the 'waiting to die' VFWs. The one that I went to there was nobody under, like, 60, and it was a [i]rough[/] 60 at that. I didn't even stay around to find out how far right wing they were. It was before MAGA hats and Trump flags made that easy to figure out.
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Mar 1, 2023 22:33
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bird food bathtub posted:You are not kidding about the 'waiting to die' VFWs. The one that I went to there was nobody under, like, 60, and it was a [i]rough[/] 60 at that. I didn't even stay around to find out how far right wing they were. It was before MAGA hats and Trump flags made that easy to figure out. I tried at my local VFW. The white elephant gift exchange was almost exclusively booze or Trump paraphernalia.
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Mar 1, 2023 22:43
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ASAPI posted:I tried at my local VFW. The white elephant gift exchange was almost exclusively booze or Trump paraphernalia. I visited a local VFW and yeah the few guys who were younger than 50 had either MAGA hats or drove vehicles with Trump/MAGA/Q stickers. Just, no thanks.
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Mar 1, 2023 23:12
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bird food bathtub posted:You are not kidding about the 'waiting to die' VFWs. The one that I went to there was nobody under, like, 60, and it was a [i]rough[/] 60 at that. I didn't even stay around to find out how far right wing they were. It was before MAGA hats and Trump flags made that easy to figure out. No doubt. I tried an American Legion and it was like visiting a nursing home in Florida.
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Jun 19, 2023 20:28
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I don't know of any leftwing veterans organizations but I know quite a few left leaning veterans that also live here in Seattle. For whatever reason they also seem to be some of the most left leaning people I've met here. Me and another veteran were in a political discussion with some other grad school students and someone made the comment that "I never expected to be debating two veterans from the right". One thing I've noticed is that for left leaning veterans their status as a veteran isn't nearly as central to their identity the way it is with many right wing veterans. Doesn't help that we're also much fewer in number too.
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Jun 19, 2023 21:43
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What about these? https://www.veteransforpeace.org/who-we-are The above is very left leaning. Below is a general health and community focused organization, not necessarily leftist or right leaning. Which, honestly, is preferred for me. https://about.teamrwb.org/mission
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Jun 19, 2023 22:54
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Mustang posted:One thing I've noticed is that for left leaning veterans their status as a veteran isn't nearly as central to their identity the way it is with many right wing veterans. Doesn't help that we're also much fewer in number too. It seems to be mostly 4-and-out "I coulda gone SOF but they wouldn't let me" types, or the type of complete sociopath that retires out as senior enlisted that really push the Vet as an identity thing. I know for myself I was always uncomfortable with being part of the MIC, and while Putin's made me feel a lot better about it recently, I always had moral quandries about spending taxpayer money that could be better spent on social programs "fighting" Cold War II. I think that sort of ambivalent relationship with their own service may be why any liberal/leftist vet type is going to avoid leaning on their identity. Most of my coworkers at my job near Seattle are Vets, and the absolute worst of them are pretty milquetoast non-MAGA conservatives at worst, and it's mostly progressives, which has been really nice. My group chat with my buddies from the old boat is basically out-and-out socialists too.
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Jun 20, 2023 04:50
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Mustang posted:
I think this is a large problem. The brief time I was "a veteran" was basically a technicality of doing one year between enlisted service and being contracted as a cadet, but at the campus of the university any veteran activity was always centered on the status of being a veteran, and how it is the pillar of their life. It's weird, because four years drinking monster at the motorpool isn't all your life is. The type of rejection of the outside world and mal-adjustment proabably goes hand in hand with being a reactionary. Mustang posted:
But I don't think it's this as much. We aren't exactly one in a million. I look back at the infantry and engineer platoons I've been in during my time in the Army and they are pretty evenly spread. But all the leftists and progressives who left in the Army just don't constantly post about it, and some of them would hard to even peg as a veteran right away. The progressives who in uniform remained don't post about it constantly either, because I don't think there's an equivalent social bat signal for them as there is to having a Glock with Trump's face or big truck with stupid flags or whatever it may be.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:28
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Elviscat posted:It seems to be mostly 4-and-out "I coulda gone SOF but they wouldn't let me" types, or the type of complete sociopath that retires out as senior enlisted that really push the Vet as an identity thing. I know for myself I was always uncomfortable with being part of the MIC, and while Putin's made me feel a lot better about it recently, I always had moral quandries about spending taxpayer money that could be better spent on social programs "fighting" Cold War II. I think that sort of ambivalent relationship with their own service may be why any liberal/leftist vet type is going to avoid leaning on their identity. Don't lie to yourself, if that money hadn't been spent on you it would've been spent on executive compensation and tax refunds. The reality is that veteran aid is about as close to socialist support systems as our Country will allow, and in all honesty they're pretty robust. If there was a way to expand them to include everyone, well that would be just about swell.
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Jun 22, 2023 16:51
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Grip it and rip it posted:Don't lie to yourself, if that money hadn't been spent on you it would've been spent on executive compensation and tax refunds. The reality is that veteran aid is about as close to socialist support systems as our Country will allow, and in all honesty they're pretty robust. If there was a way to expand them to include everyone, well that would be just about swell. That's how I frame my veterans benefits when I talked about them to people, particularly my healthcare. So far the VA has been the best healthcare experience I've had in my life, I'm surprised Democrats rarely ever talk about it. I think privatization of something like the VA was more palatable to discuss in the past but with how expensive healthcare has gotten I don't think anyone is happy with the system our country currently has in place.
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Jun 22, 2023 20:27
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Mustang posted:That's how I frame my veterans benefits when I talked about them to people, particularly my healthcare. So far the VA has been the best healthcare experience I've had in my life, I'm surprised Democrats rarely ever talk about it. The VA is a nightmarish hellscape from which there is no escape for a significant fraction of veterans. Those people get screen time on TV. Why tie the burning dumpster fire that literally kills and gives HIV to veterans to your party?
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Jun 23, 2023 05:51
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LtCol J. Krusinski posted:Why tie the burning dumpster fire that literally kills and gives HIV to veterans to your party? Sources for this claim (bolded) above?
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Jun 23, 2023 07:51
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Queer Grenadier posted:Sources for this claim (bolded) above? A quick google shows an incident in which 1800 vets were exposed to it: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/va.hospital.hiv/index.html#:~:text=(CNN)%20%2D%2D%20A%20Missouri%20VA,such%20as%20hepatitis%20and%20HIV. In February, a Georgia VA had patients test positive for HIV after having non sterilised surgical instruments being used, 4000 exposed: https://www.walb.com/2022/02/26/pure-devastation-va-center-reports-positive-hepatitis-hiv-tests-due-unsterilized-equipment/ Those were the top two hits on a google search for "VA gives HIV to vets". No one is hiding this, it is easy to confirm. These stories are a constant, not the "rare exception". It has become so common place I don't think the news even gives it a segment anymore. I don't remember hearing about the February incident.
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Jun 23, 2023 12:39
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ASAPI posted:A quick google shows an incident in which 1800 vets were exposed to it: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/va.hospital.hiv/index.html#:~:text=(CNN)%20%2D%2D%20A%20Missouri%20VA,such%20as%20hepatitis%20and%20HIV. These types of things are common in medicine generally, but lawsuits and such over it are usually quietly settled with NDAs. Yes, the VA has issues and you get disparate care sometimes depending on the region you’re in. However, the issues they have are US medical issues that occur outside of the VA, too, at similar frequency. The VA gave me a staph infection on the back of my head because they didn’t change the bedding or pillow or something before I got an endoscopy. When I talked to a medmal expert, I was told that this is so common in all hospitals it isn’t even considered negligence.
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Jun 23, 2023 12:59
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Queer Grenadier posted:Sources for this claim (bolded) above? You have got to be loving kidding me, right? If this were 2001 and far and away the vast majority of the forums were 14-22 years old, I could kind of understand this kind of ignorance.. but this is 2023.
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Jun 23, 2023 13:00
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Mr. Nice! posted:These types of things are common in medicine generally, but lawsuits and such over it are usually quietly settled with NDAs. I agree that crazy poo poo happens in medical settings on the regular, VA or not. But the guy I was replying to seemed rather shocked that the VA was providing vets with an additional opportunity to die for their country. As if the stories about vets dying in waiting rooms, getting additional infections/diseases, and receiving generally sub par care was a wild accusation and not something that has been in the media so much that they stopped reporting on it.
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Jun 23, 2023 13:43
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A lot of the reporting was definitely pointing out things that are wrong, for sure, but some of that was definitely funded by people trying to privatize VA care. Some VA clinics and such have definitely had problems, but they’re not unique to the VA at all even if that’s all you hear about on the news. I’m still finding new ways to get frustrated at the various things that are privatized like the C&P stuff. I get paid less for milage than when it was in house, they make me drive further and to more appointments, I’m seeing a nurse practitioner instead of a doctor in a completely different city because the only doctor they could get me to see w/in 6 months was over three hours away. My labwork this morning, either quest lost or QTC never sent it over to them, so I had to make a few phone calls and waste a lot more time for one blood draw this morning. My experiences inside the VA are not perfect, but they’re generally better than any I have outside plus I don’t have to deal with any of the doctor availability my friends have to in the private system. The VA mental healthcare team combined with the Vet Center is far more responsive and available than any of my friends’ with private counselors.
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Jun 23, 2023 14:03
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VA treatment varies drastically by treatment team, not just facilities or states.
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Jun 23, 2023 14:12
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bulletsponge13 posted:VA treatment varies drastically by treatment team, not just facilities or states. I think this is the issue. Even within the VA itself, there are a bunch of different groups with different standards held together by yet even more different groups with different priorities. I will say that the work I did with the crisis hotline guys was a vastly different experience than working with other groups within the VA. The hotline guys where possibly the most motivated/dedicated group I have ever worked with.
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Jun 23, 2023 14:29
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I get that. The same is 100% true for private healthcare, too. American healthcare is really not great unless you’re fabulously wealthy, and even then doctors gently caress up and kill people. See, e.g. Michael Jackson & Prince. My first VA doctor was great. My second caused major problems and resulted in the patient advocate waiting at the door for me when I arrived at the clinic because she knew how upset I was. My next two doctors have been amazing. I’m just saying as a former personal injury attorney that touched on medmal stuff that the VA is not unique at all in these types of issues.
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Jun 23, 2023 14:34
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My first major experience with the VA they missed major knee damage by not doing imaging, and my first mental health provider degraded me for killing in combat. My long time provider team understood my record, my issues, and that I wasn't a loving moron, and basically let me choose my own care with their input. The biggest problem with VA care is the low standard of recruiting of professionals, and retention of quality doctors who tend to move up or out. I've found the ones that are teaching hospitals to be a storm of the worst type.
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Jun 23, 2023 15:05
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bulletsponge13 posted:My first major experience with the VA they missed major knee damage by not doing imaging, and my first mental health provider degraded me for killing in combat. How does that even happen in the VA system? That level of malpractice should be criminal.
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Jun 23, 2023 15:12
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A.o.D. posted:How does that even happen in the VA system? That level of malpractice should be criminal. You can work at the VA with a suspended license. There are doctors in the VA system who have a dozen malpractice suits. I never pursued it, because by the time it was realized, it was too late anyway, but I think VA falls under Feres Doctrine, the same reason we can get malpractice from the service. They weren't the only ones. The Army gave me 3 days no run, then 3 weeks run at own pace before going back to "The Standard" 2-5 miles a day @ ~7 min/mile...on a torn ACL, among other things.
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Jun 23, 2023 15:18
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bulletsponge13 posted:You can work at the VA with a suspended license. We're the number of motrins you were given greater or lesser than the number of times you were called 'broke dick' while on profile?
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Jun 23, 2023 15:57
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A.o.D. posted:We're the number of motrins you were given greater or lesser than the number of times you were called 'broke dick' while on profile? Way, way, WAY more. Handfuls regularly. 5 or 6 just to get out of bed and moving to PT.
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Jun 23, 2023 16:05
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I’m just irritated with QTC this morning and am seeing a nurse practitioner at a chiropractor’s office for GI problems. E: also the feres doctrine doesn’t apply to veterans receiving care via the va. You can absolutely sue them for malpractice and people do. Mr. Nice! fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Jun 23, 2023 |
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Jun 23, 2023 16:56
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Being Rich > Having Cadillac Insurance > Having Good Insurance > Having insurance through a job that pays you a salary > Having insurance for a job that pays you hourly > Having insurance from the insurance marketplaces > TRICare as a retiree > TRICare while still in > No Insurance > Full blown AIDS > Federal Prisoner Health Care > Native American Healthcare > The DPRK > Chris Kyle > VA is your primary healthcare I will not be convinced otherwise. 
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Jun 23, 2023 17:10
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Mr. Nice! posted:I’m just irritated with QTC this morning and am seeing a nurse practitioner at a chiropractor’s office for GI problems. Thank you for correcting me. It's past the point of mattering for me, but I am glad to know I was wrong with that injustice.
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Jun 23, 2023 17:10
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Sorry OP. No leftist organizations, but we do have some AIDS for you if you're eligible.
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Jun 23, 2023 17:57
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bulletsponge13 posted:Thank you for correcting me. No sweat. To clarify, you’d probably have to follow the FTCA procedure which requires you to first file a claim against the doctor via the VA themselves, and if the resolution there is unsatisfactory, then you can file suit against the united states in federal court. LtCol J. Krusinski posted:Being Rich > Having Cadillac Insurance > Having Good Insurance > Having insurance through a job that pays you a salary > Having insurance for a job that pays you hourly > Having insurance from the insurance marketplaces > TRICare as a retiree > TRICare while still in > No Insurance > Full blown AIDS > Federal Prisoner Health Care > Native American Healthcare > The DPRK > Chris Kyle > VA is your primary healthcare Nah. The VA is pretty decent and outright better than private care at least in Florida. The only vets I know around here that have any kind of private insurance just do it for family.
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Jun 23, 2023 18:05
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I routinely say the only good thing I got from getting blown up was my Family's Insurance. Tricare, and private doctors.
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Jun 23, 2023 18:16
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Mr. Nice! posted:No sweat. To clarify, you’d probably have to follow the FTCA procedure which requires you to first file a claim against the doctor via the VA themselves, and if the resolution there is unsatisfactory, then you can file suit against the united states in federal court. You are talking about your lived experience in the capital of the least insurable state of the union, the one that routinely ranks near the bottom for a host of health metrics relating to cost and availability. I get it dude, if you live somewhere poo poo, it can be an alright option in comparison to literally dying under a bridge that moment and not the VA’s bridge at a slightly later and a way more 3rd act of Philadelphia like moment. Or if your options are absolute poo poo (Let’s say the DoD already poz’d your neg rear end, or you believe once a marine always a marine lol) I can understand choosing a VAMC over just waiting until it’s bad enough any emergency room is going to save your life and giving the ambulance a fake name when you call them from a park bench type situation. Not how I would live my life, but I get it. But call a loving spade a spade you loving stockholm syndrome suffering son of a gun: It’s the VA. It exists to give succdems and “traditional value” as well as “neo” conservatives top cover to fight hosed up wars over poo poo not worth fight for (Going all the way back to fighting either on the side of the South, or to bring them back into the loving Union. The original liberlols and cuckservatives all the way to our future war with the PRC) As the kids say: “The VA is hella sus, you ain’t gotta be simping for ‘em bruh. No cap.”
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Jun 23, 2023 18:35
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Civilian Healthcare can be a shitshow, most of my employees are Vets, and I have to harp on them that they need to establish a relationship with a PCP early so if they do have problems they can get seen quickly, since it takes 3-6 months to get a first appointment with any doctor around here. That said, the standard of care from my civilian doc is leagues above what I saw on active duty.
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Jun 23, 2023 19:53
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