I had an interesting discussion with a patient yesterday who is a black conservative.

The subject came up when I encouraged my patient (who is homeless) to register for the Affordable Care Act. He was resistant to the idea, he said, because he is a conservative. He doesn't want any Democratic "handouts".

He went on to say that most black people are welfare cheats. He knows, because his whole family, except for him, are welfare cheats.

So, okay. He's good at arguing from the specific to the general. He thinks that people are poor because they don't work. He knows, because see above. His whole family are poor, lazy, shiftless, unemployed takers. So every poor person must be, too. I avoided mentioning the fact that even though he works, and is "pulling himself up by his bootstraps", he is still homeless, and that the blame lies not with poor people who take handouts, but the employers who refuse to pay a living wage.

He would have none of it. He displayed the unassailable self-assurance of someone who has never attempted to see someone else's point of view. Pretty common among right-wingers.

I ended the discussion by pointing out that the ACA would pay for the diagnostic workup his problem requires. And if he wants any of it done at all, it's either the ACA or financial aid, which would be, in his own words " a handout". I don't know what he's going to do, but I do know that every right-wing media personality would give his or her right arm to be able to put this guy on the air to validate their rather cruel outlook.

Ugh! Sick. And in need of company. Ask me anything...