Reek, my name is reek: 

Fair attack: the bill strips millions of coverage: Unfair attack: It was written by white men in suits and they rejoice at hurting the poor

Yes. The most important thing in the world is to be fair.

We mustn’t unfairly attack this bill, or its authors.

We must strive to be dispassionate. We must consider each line of argument coolly and with great deliberation.

Fairness, after all, is the most critical aspect of health care policy debate.

It’s more important than the facts of the bill.

It’s more important than the motivations of its authors.

It’s more important than health care itself, is fairness.

More important than chemo.

More important than a newborn baby’s incubator.

More important than Grandma’s new hip.

It’s more important than antibiotics for strep, stitching up Dad after he fell that time, putting a cast on Cousin Billy’s arm. It’s more important than removing Aunt Sally’s tumor. Certainly far more important than anyone’s little sister’s brain surgery.

We must be fair.

We shouldn’t call the authors of the American Health Care Act evil. Just because they aim to strip insurance coverage from millions, just because they shook off concerns from veterans and grandparents like so much rainwater, just because they THREW A FUCKING PARTY to celebrate eliminating regulations to require pre-existing condition coverage, we shouldn’t call them evil.

That’s not fair.

And our fairness, the appropriateness of our tone, trumps any action by anyone else.

They can act with impunity. We must police every word we say.

We must greet our murderers with gentle words, tea, and supplications for permission to critique their destruction of our society. Anything more strident invalidates our point. We must be quiet and calm at all times.

They’ll still kill us, of course, but at least we’ll have been FAIR.

A.