If you don't know who Chad Henderson is, well, you're probably a happier person than I am. But you missed out on a fun little story.
To recap: The launch of the website that allowed people to sign up for Obamacare was disastrous and no one was able to sign up. Except for Chad Henderson! Henderson was touted by a bunch of news organizations (the Washington and Huffington Posts, Politico, etc.) as the only person on the entire planet who was able to enroll in Obamacare. But then little details began to emerge about Henderson. He was an Obama for America Volunteer. Or maybe he was an actual employee; he claims he was getting paid. His spiel was getting shakier.
And then, around midday Friday, Henderson's whole story fell apart:
In an exclusive phone interview this morning with Reason, Chad's father Bill contradicted virtually every major detail of the story the media can't get enough of. What's more, some of the details that Chad has released are also at odds with published rate schedules and how Obamacare officials say the enrollment system works. ...
details of Chad's story proved difficult to verify. And in a phone interview conducted this morning, Chad’s father Bill contradicted major details of Chad’s story. I reached Bill Henderson by following a series of links at Chad's Facebook page, through which I was able to speak directly to the father.
Bill Henderson told me that both he and his son were interested in getting coverage, but that he had not enrolled in any plan yet, and to his knowledge, neither had his son. He also said that when they do enroll, getting the most coverage for the least money would be the goal, and that he expects that he and his son will get coverage under the same plan.
There's a whole post to be written about the failure of the media to sniff this out. I'll let others handle that. What I'm most struck by is the fact that Chad Henderson is the perfect example of how terrible millennials are.
The dude lived his life on social media, posting on Facebook the news that he had signed up for Obamacare (as if anyone really should give a damn about someone's health insurance status). He, like many other idiotic young people, volunteered for a president who is happy to impoverish them. And, most revealingly, he simply refused to admit that any of the mixups in his absurd little tale were his fault.
Indeed, Chad Henderson was doing us all a favor by either lying to reporters or being too stupid to realize he hadn't enrolled in Obamacare. "If I've done anything it's that I sure have made reporters make sure they ask more specific questions," he tweeted before locking down his Twitter account.
If there's a purer distillation of the millennial mindset—I'm special! Pay attention to me! Nothing's ever my fault! I'm actually helping you all out by messing up! This is your fault, not mine!—than Chad Henderson, I dread meeting him. Chad Henderson is everything that is wrong with the millennials. And there are millions more (almost) exactly like him.
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