Brandon's Impotent Rage
29th May 2014, 19:29
This is a youtube vid I got off of JoeMyGod. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPO5wausim8#t=2798) It's a collection of news reports that show the first ten years of the AIDS epidemic, from before it was given an official name to it becoming a National health concern.
Amongst things featured:
-The first years of the epidemic, when it was still called 'gay cancer' or the 'gay plague'.
-The death of actor Rock Hudson.
-The controversy over American student and HIV/AIDS victim Ryan White.
-A group of conservative Republican politicians attempting to make AIDS a political issue (including noted scumbag Newt Gingrich).
-The attempt by Lyndon LaRouche and his followers to legislate a quarantine law.
-The first AIDS Quilt.
-The years-long silence of the Reagan administration, including revelations that Reagan had utterly ignored his Surgeon General C. Everett Coop.
-The heroic actions of LGBT activists, including more radical direct-action oriented groups like ACT-UP.
The thing you realize very quickly is that fear and paranoia was able to spread so quickly, because the Government and Medical Establishment completely failed in its responsibility to educate the public in a timely matter, more interested in playing politics than protecting its citizens. Right wing politicians in particular were absolutely shameless in their willingness to exploit the AIDS epidemic in order to further their careers.
It's all really quite infuriating, in hindsight.
Amongst things featured:
-The first years of the epidemic, when it was still called 'gay cancer' or the 'gay plague'.
-The death of actor Rock Hudson.
-The controversy over American student and HIV/AIDS victim Ryan White.
-A group of conservative Republican politicians attempting to make AIDS a political issue (including noted scumbag Newt Gingrich).
-The attempt by Lyndon LaRouche and his followers to legislate a quarantine law.
-The first AIDS Quilt.
-The years-long silence of the Reagan administration, including revelations that Reagan had utterly ignored his Surgeon General C. Everett Coop.
-The heroic actions of LGBT activists, including more radical direct-action oriented groups like ACT-UP.
The thing you realize very quickly is that fear and paranoia was able to spread so quickly, because the Government and Medical Establishment completely failed in its responsibility to educate the public in a timely matter, more interested in playing politics than protecting its citizens. Right wing politicians in particular were absolutely shameless in their willingness to exploit the AIDS epidemic in order to further their careers.
It's all really quite infuriating, in hindsight.