The only thing that surprises me about someone assassinating a CEO of a company that regularly ruins lives is that it’s not more common.
Expect it to happen more often. I think we’re entering that stage of civilization.
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Yeah, generally it leads to societal and economic collapse. Things sometimes improve, but it sometimes takes decades, and usually a shitload of people die as collateral damage via starvation, extrajudicial killings, etc. normal people, not these solid gold assholes.
We one time had an exchange student whose father lived through one such event and nearly starved to death in the fallout after it had run it’s course. He said his father’s strongest memories were that he was so hungry, for years. :/
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Removing the ruling class always leads to societal collapse.
Generally speaking, normalizing extrajudicial killing of people that aren’t liked tends to trend in a bad direction.
When a society is incapable of peaceful reform then they’re destined for violent overthrow. Those that make that reform impossible are the ones that are truly culpable.
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Never was
Everyone thinks any change is good change. I say this with my straight white male privilege (as I pass as)… do you like your retail delivery? Your job assuming you’re not breaking bricks? Your creature comfort? Your family’s safety, old and young. Ask people in Ukraine how fun civil unrest and war are in a modern Western community just like yours. I wanted that when I was 15. Now I have empathy that the countrymen and women for whom I want justice, are not cannon fodder for overly academic jerk off fantasies about socialist revolution.
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My point was the way of life for someone used to 2020s creature comfort in Western liberal metropolises. Nothing to do with the polisci behind why the experience is happening. And a civil war would be even worse which I thought was implicit but apologies I’d it wasnt
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Substitute the women in Iran in the '70s if you want.
The point remains the same. Living through your society falling apart is not nearly as fun as the post-apocalyptic fiction would lead you to believe.
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No, it’s called revolution. And it doesn’t usually end well. It all depends on who ends up standing stop the heap that’s left over with the fighting is over.
Yeah, especially in a country with so many guns, that are so easy to obtain.
Who knows what the future brings
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I guess we’re reaching a stage were most people are both aware of the harm those people do and believe Ju$tice will never do anything about it, quit the opposite.
The way this article seems to go out of its way to humanize this guy before remembering to mention the ways this guy has hurt so many people by chasing profit at the expensive of people’s lives is kind of wild.
“Killing one person is wrong, but causing millions to suffer and many to die due to lack of healthcare is obviously OK if you’re doing it for massive profit!“
“I Worked It Out. You Have Killed Two Point Three Three Eight People,” said the golem calmly.
“I have never laid a finger on anyone in my life, Mr Pump. I may be–– all the things you know I am, but I am not a killer! I have never so much as drawn a sword!”
"No, You Have Not. But You Have Stolen, Embezzled, Defrauded And Swindled Without Discrimination, Mr Lipvig. You Have Ruined Businesses And Destroyed Jobs. When Banks Fail, It Is Seldom Bankers Who Starve. Your Actions Have Taken Money From Those Who Had Little Enough To Begin With. In A Myriad Small Ways You Have Hastened The Deaths Of Many. You Do Not Know Them. You Did Not See Them Bleed. But You Snatched Bread From Their Mouths And Tore Clothes From Their Backs. For Sport, Mr Lipvig. For Sport. For The Joy Of The Game.
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
GNU Sir pTerry.
No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, until the clock wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life is only the core of their actual existence
I feel Sir Pterry will outlive us all
GNU Terry Pratchett
It’s worse than that. It’s not “lack of healthcare”, the people who were victimized had health insurance, they were just lied to. It’s people paying, thinking they’re covered, then UH’s algorithm denies their claims (90% of them) to increase their profits. While people die and families are bankrupted.
They had health insurance, which is not health care.
Clearly. Edited to echo what you’re saying.
No. If it’s done “legally” then it’s OK. That’s why cops can murder people and it’s OK. As long as you can buy a politician or two to legalize the suffering you cause, you’re doing just fine.
You’re forgetting that if it benefits the elite by causing the poor and or minorities to suffer, it is automatically legal!
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That’s the corporate press for you.
They’re hoping the humanizing also protects their CEO, who is a different variation of corrupt and harmful to society.
But we are capitalists, chasing profit is the highest morality and human calling. It is killing without direct investor profit that is immoral.
You need to remember that ALL media outlets are tools of the rich to keep the poor in check. They will ALWAYS spin these things to make the rich person look a good as possible.
Maybe because he was a human???
He was a human.
A sociopathic one. An arrogant one(I can’t imagine ever walking around without security if I got rich off of deciding who gets to live and die, but then again I’m not evil or stupid enough to do any of that).
He was human, but that doesn’t mean he should have gotten a free pass to be evil. The “justice” system was obviously never going to deal any justice for the millions of families who lost a beloved one to this mans’ sociopathic decisions.
Sometimes when you do evil things, you win evil prizes.
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Systematic (and alleged automated) denials of claims are highly immoral, unethical and possibly illegal thing to do. I just think this doesn’t solve the root problem and just adds one more death without fixing it. I don’t think this is both a sensible way as well as right way to fix this. Also, I don’t think you can just stamp each CEO as immoral automatically. General thinking for specific groups of people is frowned upon based on ethnicity, origin or gender, yet when we look at socioeconomic groups it suddenly becomes right? I think the freedom of movement should exist for even those in power and political//legal issues should be handled the right way. Peaceful protests and movements for a healthcare reform are the only right way long term to support this if you’re American and really care about the issue. Short term violence LARPing just causes polarization and makes the people fighting against this system seem crazy.
Systematic (and alleged automated) denials of claims are highly immoral, unethical and possibly illegal thing to do.
Immoral? Yes. Illegal? Obviously not, considering the amount of people who have died due to these exact kind of denials.
It’s not illegal because the same people making money off of denying claims and killing people are using this vast wealth to lobby and propagandize against any step towards universal health care.
I just think this doesn’t solve the root problem and just adds one more death without fixing it.
I think you are probably right, but I think it at least sends a message to the people who can fix it. I don’t think it’s going to make the root problem worse, either.
So we’re the thousands who died due to his greed. I’ll try to remember to shed a tear for him after all the rest.
Economic vigilantism is really dangerous and if this isn’t a one off it’s likely an indicator that people feel like justice is unattainable.
Justice against these people IS unattainable. Nothing fucking touches them, case and point Trump can lead a violent insurrection and nothing happens
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I don’t disagree that society has been unjust in actuality for quite some time.
I think public sentiment has been shifting so that more people are aware of how tiered our justice system is and that change in perception is what’s interesting.
I think Trump has shown people that they don’t need to hide the tieredness of the justice system anymore so it’s not surprising that more people are aware of it.
Trump is fucking bizarre. In pre-Trump times, the Jan 6th rioters would have been thrown to the wolves even by the politicians aligned with them because, you know, fuck the poor.
The fact that Trump may pardon them is quite surprising.
a few inches one direction and we wouldn’t be saying that.
Well, it’s too late now thanks to the asshole with the aim of a stormtrooper. The criminal won and all of his freaks and monsters are burrowing into America’s chest like some drug-resistant, flesh-eating bacteria. Best case scenario, we live with lots of necrotic tissue and deep scarring. That infection started spreading as soon as he named Vance as his successor.
it’s likely an indicator that people feel like justice is unattainable
I’m sorry, have you not been paying attention?
You could look at this as a one off, or if you want to start looking at assassinations in total then you get to include the two trump would be assassins and make a damn strong argument to your point that this is exactly what a society that refuses to hold people accountable looks like. Honestly its the same concept as when the Black Panthers started giving free breakfast to kids, if no one else is going to solve the problem, people will do it themselves.
Are you saying that this is proof of concept?
We have concepts of a revolution
it’s likely an indicator that people feel like justice is unattainable.
I think you mean, ‘people are starting to wake up to the fact that justice is unattainable’.
Where have you been the last decade or 3? If you’re rich and not going after other rich people, you’re practically untouchable. Bernie Madoff didn’t catch jail time because he defrauded Anne and Bill out of their pension, he defrauded people who
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In the absence of justice, people settle for revenge instead.
Idk it sounds like someone else got a lot closer to getting justice than I’ll get.
And since it is not, there are no alternatives but to switch diets.
Trump has proven this, and the fact Elon (the richest manchild in the world) is literally in his cabinet now only exacerbates the situation.
I don’t think things are radically worse, that’s the interesting thing… It’s the fact we’ve discarded any semblance of justice at the highest levels. Like, nobody is even pretending now. The highest office in the land is about to be occupied by an openly corrupt idiot.
When people lose hope in their leaders, they realize it’s up to them to change the world. Great acts are often done in the fallout of such times. Both acts of great kindness, and great violence.
Injustices become things to act on when you have zero hope of change from the people who should be enacting change.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) is offering a £7,800 ($10,000) reward for information leading to the suspect’s capture.
I wouldn’t narc on this guy for any amount of money.
$10k reward?
I don’t think the NYPD even wants to know
Right? This is the most capitalist thing I’ve ever heard of… He had a net worth of 50 million, but the cops are only offering 10k for info?
That’s like the equivalent of throwing your employees a pizza party because they increased profits 200%
That’s not a reason they would throw a pizza party. Parties and company shirts and hats are for when you get the signs that people might be quitting or not motivated. And according the HR’s data, it always makes them happy and ready to get back to work and stop asking for more money and benefits.
I don’t think the NYPD even wants to know
I wonder who their group policy is with?
And how many of them have been fucked over by that insurance company?
it was this guy
I think they should lock up Rudy and then if no other CEOs get murdered then he’s guilty.
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Oh I thought they were caught at the scene for some reason. Now this is a victimless crime.
Damn, they’re even being stingy with the reward money.
I bet its that lack of coverage again…
10k is low, that wouldn’t cover a few years of health insurance deductibles for me. BCBS is like a $3,500/yr deductible.
Instead of money they should offer some decent health care coverage.
But that could cost way more than $10K
And $10,000 is just another insult to the peasants, frankly. I wouldn’t narc on this guy for anything either, but really? At least try, guys.
I wouldn’t narc on this guy for any amount of money.
There is a threshold where you can afford multiple hitman to keep his legacy going. Just saying.
So she knew he was receiving threats because of lack of coverage and still had the audacity to refer to the shooting as “senseless.”
I guess there are consequences for your actions. Who would have thought.
But that’s only supposed to apply to poor people!
That’s just one rare case. There’s plenty of others that go unpunished.
hours before he was set to address an investor meeting about UnitedHealthcare’s 2025 financial outlook, which projected revenues exceeding £375 billion ($450 billion).
Man, good thing Biden said we didn’t need to fix our healthcare system. Otherwise that would be worrying…
Revenue is not profits. The profits are $28 billion, that’s only 6% which is actually low.
$28bn is A Lot Of Fucking Money, my dude. Like…a lot.
At a rate of $20 an hour, it would take a person almost 160,000 years to earn that kind of money.
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$28, 000, 000, 000.00 is low?
lmao
How many people did they kill for that $28B?
Yep, 28 billion isn’t much profit. How will he be able to afford his 300th yacht now on his measly salary?
OK,
The company expects cash flows from operations to range from $32 billion to $33 billion.
Exactly, so they need to always have cash on hand to cover the insured.
IDK how this is run, and I find the existence of private health insurance despicable.
But for a capitalist system, where health insurance is run like a business, 6% profit on revenue is not a lot.
It’s not the 6% that is the problem. Because an insurance company needs to have profits and a healthy cash flow, to be able to cover the insured.But allegedly the company used AI to make decisions on coverage, if that’s true, that may have been a way bigger problem.
I would be very surprised if that cash was included in profit.
The words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” were discovered by detectives on the shell casings found at the scene where Brian Thompson, the CEO of major insurance group UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down, police sources told ABC News late Wednesday evening.
Maybe it is it not a good idea to deny coverage…
Now that’s a manifesto.
According to police sources, the three words “deny,” “depose,” and “defend” were carved into the live rounds and shell casings
…
The three words bear a striking resemblance to Jay Feinman’s [20]10 book Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claim and What You Can Do About It.They are also words you find all over letters from insurance companies when they are denying you coverage. Which lead to the title of the book.
There are only 12 people who will need to hear this, but on the off chance that you are one of them: Jury nullification is a thing.
Well, what the fuck else could anyone expect? History is full of lessons for those willing to think about what happens when the powerful drain all hope from the peasants.
We at the third box now.
Fourth. Soap, ballot, jury, ammo.
You know? I’m gonna leave my mistake to throw off the trackers.
Bitches better damn well learn.
I mean, not surprising. He was a massive scumbag. His policies led to the deaths of thousands of people. I’m sure he got lots of threats.
“Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a God.”
- Jean Rostand, Thoughts of a Biologist, 1938.
I read this in Megadeth, which is where I first heard it
For me it was Blade 3
Hah, same here
Well yeah. Your company kills people for profit, what you think their family is gonna feel? Don’t be an evil killer, my friends.
Paulette Thompson probably sucks, did you see who she was married to.
You finally broke the world billionaires… Time to go get the cans of beans rotated out in your bunkers. Tell your Paulettes to fuel up the tactical SUV and stick the tear gas perimeter dispensers. You’re about to get really fucking paranoid… Is this next horrible heartless decision your last… Yes, it probably is - does that change any in the decision you’ll make?
