Weird. The only thing I can think is that we should string these motherfuckers up asap.

"Mr. Trump said that if it was up to Mr. Miller there would be only 100 million people in this country, and they would all look like Mr. Miller." - NYTimes

There's no need to be fair here. Insulin is absolutely essential for diabetics, and the head of the FDA trying to proclaim that cooking classes are a viable alternative is nonsense. For type 1 diabetics, no amount of healthy eating is going to get their body to produce insulin. For type 2 diabetics, it is possible to eventually get to a point where you can be stable without insulin, but not for everybody and not right away. Insulin treatment is the only way to survive with diabetes for an extended period of time, and the focus needs to be on ensuring that insulin is both affordable and accessible.

Yes, there are things to improve in our food supply, but don't let that distract from how egregiously insane his comments are about diabetes.

To be fair

Well there's your problem. Never hand it to fascists (or grifters, or cult leaders, etc. — basically any kind of bad faith actors).

"Try not being so fat, you fucking fatties" is a reaction I have heard from people who are themselves overweight. It's genuinely maddening to see how many Americans are sold on the most superficial understanding of "healthy" as "fuckable" rather than "capable and resilient".

So much of the Trump attitude towards health seems to be geared towards eugenics against old ugly poors.

Killing people is a core tenet of the Republican party.

No! Stop acting like they're all stupid, that's what they want you to think.

He was a pancreatic surgeon at Johns Hopkins. It's literally impossible for him to not be familiar with diabetes unless he has experienced serve memory loss recently.

He's pushing eugenics and wanting to kill off people with chronic illnesses

Time to go all Wilford Brimley on his ass.

Yeah, I’d say yes. It's a primer and warning shot. They’ll roll it out in phases.

It gets a reaction out of us. And not always a logical one. A lot of people’s gut instinct is just to deny whatever “they” say. That does two things:

First, it gets their base thinking and talking about how many T2 diabetics are supposedly just consequences of lifestyle.

Second, it pushes the left into reflexively denying that even though it’s partly true. So now, when any real conversation comes up, there’s already a schism. And they can use that to sneak more garbage through, stuff that benefits them and their friends.

Can we head them off at the pass?

No. Never.

They're not going to fund anything. Nothing is free.

It's a great idea, and they'll just talk about it while killing the presently funded programs, then do nothing.

Maybe we can compromise and say that you have to attend 4 hours of free cooking classes every month to receive your free insulin for the month?

Means Testing your Insulin by telling you to spend hours in your car, away from your family, attending state-mandated privately administered lectures put on by the lowest bidder.

There are several types of diabetes. It's a disease that keeps your body from turning sugar into energy or fat so it floats around in your blood corroding your organs and fine blood vessels, and can outright kill you with shock if too much sugar builds up in your blood. (very simplified.)

Type 2 is the most common, this where you don't produce enough insulin, the chemical that turns your sugar into power or fat storage. You have to both take care with your diet and constantly monitor your blood sugar, and you have to often take insulin daily to balance it. Some people have reversed type-2 with very rigorous diets and exercise, and some people at risk can avoid it altogether by keeping blood sugar low throughout their life, but if you have a predisposition to type-2, you may end up with the disease for life even if you do everything right.

Type 1 is where you body produces NO insulin of your own. Totally broken. This was typically a fairly certain and swift death-sentence before insulin was developed. People with type-1 are not people who have dietary problems or bad habits, they have organ failure which can be caused by a variety of things, usually genetics or other diseases.

These diseases effect all ages and all walks of life. Beware the next wave of propaganda that will depict diabetes sufferers as some kind of slobs who can't take care of themselve and it's their own fault for being sick. This is already how many people see diabetes. It doesn't help with the fascist goals that often people of color and non-white ethnicities and poor people are particularly susceptible to diabetes.