Barack Obama

Can One Facebook Status Change The World?

By Michael Scherer | @michaelscherer | September 3, 2009 | +

If you are not familiar with this phrase, you probably have not been checking your Facebook and Twitter accounts today.

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, join us in posting this as your status for the rest of the day.

Call it a victory for electronic chain activism. (Even Zach Braff is on board.) But where did it all come from?

I’m not sure the first poster, but the language is not hard to track. For weeks, Obama has been using the phrase about going broke for getting sick. “Insurance companies will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or lifetime, and we will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses – because no one in America should go broke just because they get sick,” Obama said on August 14, in his weekly radio/Youtube address.

So who started it? Not clear. Groups like MoveOn.org–when not distancing itself from protest finger biting–are clearly pushing it forward. But then that’s the thing with this sort of viral marketing. Once it gets going, it doesn’t really matter where it began.

In the meantime, we can look forward to more. Something about Van Jones, perhaps? Pass it on.

UPDATE: Via Jonathan Singer at MyDD, those who want to watch the activism virus spread can go here.

Related Topics: viral, Barack Obama

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  • fourlegsgood

    The best thing about this? it has the benefit of being true.

  • palininatowel

    Oh my god! Zach Braff is on board?

    You better go change your shorts, Michael.

  • trifecta55

    Zach Braff? Pffft! Stephen Baldwin has signed on to go to Glenn Beck’s 9/12 teabagger celebration.

  • dfh

    Just read this and went to update my facebook status. All of my friends have already done the same.

  • nflfoghorn

    BO’s spreading a socialistic message say Repubs…now school system leaders are cowering. This is beyond pa-the-tic.

    “…Some [parents] have threatened to keep their children home from school, a move encouraged by conservative commentators such as Glenn Beck on Fox News.”

    http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/09/03/0903obama.html

  • pirate wench (demwoman)

    Don’t have facebook, bu’ put it on me myspace.

  • mikew67

    It’s morally wrong to leave 100 million Americans un or underinsured, 1 illness away from financial ruin. And it’s wrong to burden small business with the outrageous insurance costs also — found a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth

  • nflfoghorn

    yarr.

  • dunedweller

    I just read this and put it on my FB. There were lots of others — many of which are conservative / republicans. Maybe it can’t change the world, but I’ll settle for a glimmer of hope to reach each other and unite on this issue.

  • http://thebluetwin.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/my-fb-status-and-lots-of-others/ My FB Status – and LOTS of others’ « The Life and Times of Organic Mama

    [...] Can a FB status change the world? Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)The Doctor Is In: Distorting the facts on health care [...]

  • deconstructiva

    This idea has been around awhile. In 2007 Cenk Uygur posted a HP blog including the line, “There are some things we should not base on your salary, and whether you live or die is one of them.”… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/socialized-police_b_55698.html …I had posted this before way back and this started winning me over to public options…but to little response (none from KT / other swamp posters + most of the “inner circle”). Also.

  • bethnva

    Good blog post, M.S. I participated with this electronic chain activism. Pretty sure that’s the first political post I’ve made on Facebook–it seems so obviously true. Perhaps that’s the problem with this debate so far–the obvious, true statements are lost among all the ridiculous extreme falsehoods and conjectures that dominate the news so far.

  • rustyreturns

    Why is Van Jones part of the Obama Administration?

    Why is Van Jones, an avowed Communist part of the Obama Administration?

    Why is Van Jones, the “Green Jobs Czar”, who also signed “the 9/11 truther” petition part of the Obama Administration?

    Why would Obama have someone like Van Jones as part of his Administration?

  • freeinpa

    Are they trick questions?

    It is because they think alike and share the same goals.

  • Rorschach

    Do you ever stay on topic? Ever?

  • freeinpa

    Judging by the next article he seems to be clairvoyant.

    Try to keep up

  • deconstructiva

    …more silence…adios….

  • junkmailqueen

    Ah, but none of these very moving statements address the real point: Do you believe private insurance companies can fix this, or do you prefer the government to do it?

    The GOP , with a few notable exceptions, pretty much agrees with those statements. It’s just that they want their insurance company donors to be allowed to reap even MORE profits as we try to achieve health care reform, instead of less. I don’t think most Americans believe that the insurance companies are warm and fuzzy entities that only want the best for us. But when the GOP gets to frame the debate as a battle between scary “socialism” and patriotic “free market enterprise,” people willingly swallow it whole and before you know it, health care reform has become “unAmerican” and “treasonous.”

    I wish the reform talking points would address that real issue, instead of letting the right obscure the reality. And these statements do nothing to achieve that.

    So I think I’ll change my FB status to something like “The private market and insurance companies don’t give a damn about your health care problems. Don’t be fooled by people who want health care “reform” that gives them even more power over your life.”

  • latinasoccermom

    Yes it is true, cute, easy and it makes everyone feel good that we did ‘something’. But it is of no real use if we just put it on Facebook without ever writing to a Senator or Representative to let them what we think.

  • linkmeister

    WaPo’s Stephen Pearlstein used the phrase “no one should go broke because they get sick” in a Live Online discussion after his August 7 column was published. Unfortunately, that transcript is missing from the WaPo site.

  • http://mani7c.cz/?p=409 Mani7c's Doomsday » Blog Archive » RN: Může status na Facebooku změnit svět?

    [...] rychlém prolétnutí archivem Time jsem narazil na zajímavý text: Nikdo by neměl zemřít jenom proto, že si nemůže dovolit [...]

  • http://fiestamovement.com/agents/view/58 agent58

    Facebook, has the ability to change peoples opinions.
    http://fiestamovement.com/agents/view/58

  • mekalek

    I’m just trying to learn how to use italics

  • http://Frankelstache.wordpress.com Frankelstache

    Obama is just a beast with the way he uses today’s media channels. Brilliant – whether you support this or not.

  • bendintheroad

    To me, if one facebook friend sent it out it would have been more meaningful than having the same phrase over and over. To me I found it manipulative and obnoxious. Before this viral status update hit, I was a neutral party. The propoganda was just a little too much. So, it moved me to form an opinion, but not the way the original author wanted me to.

  • mcgabriel

    No one should have to betray their beliefs because the government wants to control health care. No one should have to wait for treatment because the government needs to sign off on paperwork. No child should die because Obama’s advisor wants to control the population. No woman should suffer because Planned Parenthood has the president in their pocket.

    If you want health care for everyone then let us choose which health care provider we want! stop letting insurance companies have monopolies over entire states!

    a free market that promotes choice and competition will create the best health care … not government regulated health care!

  • http://amar4505.wordpress.com Amar

    yeah there is a good and a bad side to everything..

  • theprettyproject

    GREAT USE OF TODAY’S SOCIAL MEDIA! :)

    http://WWW.THEPRETTYPROJECT.COM

  • mansbestfriends
  • gabeibrahim

    yea no one should die because they can’t afford healthcare but no one should go broke because someone else can’t afford healthcare. AND doctors should have incentives like better pay if they are willing to stay in school longer than any one else.

  • http://www.myspace.com/thefaithclub craftybooks

    yes unemployment is down in Flint MI because everyone has left town (& the state) along with all the jobs. Businesses tore down or boarded up.

  • http://simplemarketingbr.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/can-one-facebook-status-change-the-world/ Can One Facebook Status Change The World? « Simple Marketing Brasil

    [...] “Can One Facebook Status Change The World? [...]

  • http://apostpartisan.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/the-health-care-plans/ The Health Care Plan(s) « Post-Partisan Politics

    [...] get sick. If you agree, join us in posting this as your status for the rest of the day.” [1] For a little background, I lost my mom because she suffered from cancer and didn’t go to the [...]

  • http://ccvoice.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/liberal-health-co-op/ Why I Favor a Liberal Health Co-op « The Conservative Constitutionalist Movement

    [...] If liberals truly care about the poor, I’m sure they will jump at the opportunity to provide a private co-op that covers poor people at no cost.   If nothing else, millionaires and billionaires like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, George Clooney, George Soros, Michael Moore and others could boast how much better and moral they are than the rest of us for providing free healthcare to the poor.  After all, don’t they want people to have free healthcare?  No one should die because they get sick.  No one should go broke because they don’t make enough money.  Isn’t that how it goes? [...]

  • http://procrastinationgods.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/999/ 9/9/9 « Ministry of Nation

    [...] through town hall discussion, the people’s voice also shouted in electronic viral marketing way via FaceBook. Stats like No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke [...]

  • luthersetzer

    It is morally acceptable to allow one’s neighbors to die because they cannot afford medical care, and it is morally acceptable to allow one’s neighbors to go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your Facebook status for as long as you like. Health care is NOT and should NOT be a right or an entitlement!

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