last year i was eating in a fancy, large restaurant when i began to hear a rumble and the distant sound of people chanting ‘potassium, potassium’ and suddenly hundreds of people dressed as bananas flood this restaurant chanting potassium over and over and we were trapped there for a very long time because the bananas would not leave and they were everywhere
While the giant bill was fake, it represented a very real accomplishment. The group raised more than $17,000, which purchased more than $1.6 million in medical debt owed by Philadelphians, according to their nonprofit partner RIP Medical Debt.
This is a great way to undermine the system that we are trapped in
The fact that this can be done at all shows how utterly bullshit the entire system is. There was literally no reason for that medical debt to exist in the first place.
Let’s say you owe a private hospital ten thousand dollars, but you have very few assets, so they’re pretty sure they’re never getting any of that back. There’s ninety nine other people who also each owe the hospital ten thousand dollars. (It doesn’t have to be a hospital; any debt can be sold this way.) The hospital has shit to do and the low chances of you paying them mean it’s an unnecessary drain on their time and resources to hound you all for it. But they can get *some* money, by selling your debt to a third party.
Let’s say the sell each ten thousand dollar debt for ten dollars (I’m making all these numbers up for simplicity). So a third party gives the hospital one thousand dollars, and now all hundred of you owe that third party ten thousand instead! You’re in the clear with the hospital, you owe it to these guys now! And their job is to hound and harrass you for the money you owe. If one of you pays up more than a thousand dollars, you’ve covered their initial investment. These guys are gambling on the likelihood that enough of you can pay your debts that you make it worth the time they spend tracking you and harrassing you.
Or, instead of trying to get the money out of you, they can just… decide you don’t owe them. Why not? They own the debt. They can fork out a thousand bucks, buy a million in debt, and forgive it. That’s what these guys did. (This is also a favourite move of John Oliver; if you ever see headlines about John Oliver forgiving debt, this is what he’s doing). A small payment can take a massive weight off the shoulders of a lot of struggling people.
Again, I made up the numbers to simplify the math. But this is how the process works.
seventeen thousand dollars to buy SIXTEEN MILLION DOLLARS OF DEBT. Absolutely FUCKED at how cheap our misery and servitude is.
thing is, the debt companies *hate* this, because it means that it gives hope to people saddled with unimaginable debt that someone will come along and buy that debt and cancel it. So more people don’t pay their debts, and they lose money. Debt buying companies do their *damnedest* to keep people like these philadelphhians and john oliver from doing exactly this.
you can do this too! Follow OP’s link to https://ripmedicaldebt.org/ and donate whatever you can. For every $1 you donate, they buy $100 of debt and cancel it. I donate $10 each month just to get that amazing email that says I’ve been personally responsible for cancelling $1000 of medical debt - it’s genuinely the best $10 I spend each month 😊
as photomatt deletes everything, me and a few others are trying our best to compile screenshots to spread the word of the situation. most of the screenshots in the dropbox feature a comment by one of our helpers containing context. if you have any screenshots you’d like to add, please dm me. there is a high chance this account will get banned, so please save this dropbox and the screenshots included and continue to spread the word.
thank you!!
edit: thank you to all the people sharing and reblogging this! please note that this dropbox is being constantly updated (as i type this, files are being processed) so be sure to check in frequently for updates.
edit 2: as this gets more popular, i’m getting more and more worried about the probability of getting banned. to send me screenshots, please feel free to add me on discord (@mit_skies). i’ll try to keep everyone updated on there + it’ll be easier for me to see and document screenshots.
photomatt did in fact delete everything, so keep circulating the tapes
With less than 48 hours left to back the social-media fueled, Persona and SMT-inspired TTRPG HELLSITE, I have some exciting news! The incredible @nn-ee-zz will be contributing character designs and illustrations for two of the mysterious and powerful Avatars in the game (the two images here are some of their past work- I can’t wait to see their designs for the game)! Check out HELLSITE on Kickstarter before it’s too late, and please check out NEZ’s other amazing work!
HOW REAL LIFE SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTS GAMEPLAY AND SUMMONS DEMONS IN HELLSITE- A TTRPG LIVE NOW ON KICKSTARTER
In HELLSITE, players take on the role of Summoners- everyday people who channel their emotions through their social media feeds to summon powerful supernatural Avatars and manipulate the world around them (find out more about creating your Summoner here!)
To use one of the abilities granted by an Avatar, the Summoner pays an emotional sacrifice by channeling emotion through the first post on their Twitter/Tumblr/etc feed. The more positive/banal the emotion of the post, the higher up the list/the more “positive” the available actions to choose from will be. The darker/more intense the emotion of the post, the lower on the list and the darker the available actions will be. Over-reliance and trauma from using the Avatars will also cause Summoners to accumulate Stain, which further darkens the available actions when summoning.
The quantity of crowdsourced emotion in a post, measured by reposts, likes, etc; determines the strength of the action. A post with few interactions will result in an underwhelming summon action, but a wildly viral post may result in a summon action that is too powerful to be meaningfully controlled.
Ready to create your Summoner, summon your Avatar, and change the world? Or will you become overwhelmed with Stain and fall into a fate worse than death? Find out by backing HELLSITE on Kickstarter!
