Brian Thompson's case shows systemic vs direct violence: one hidden as "civilized," the other viewed as evil.
Technology and bureaucracy weaponized for murder and suffering on a massive scale, yet his killer is condemned for directly responding with the same violence Thompson’s actions produced. I only feel sorry for the people who are suffering or have passed away due to the healthcare industry.
I've heard the term "social murder" recently I'm relation to this. He might not have personally used a weapon against them but anyone who had died as a result of denying coverage for a life-threatening condition has been murdered socially.
but did you hear he's a husband and father?
Edit: was*
Edit: In case it wasn't clear, this is a joke. Obviously.
Which means he should've had more empathy for the families he's denied medical care for, right?
I saw someone post a pic of his family trying to get people to empathize with him, and to be honest it just makes me think even less of him.
I don't really know how someone can love their kids, but deny healthcare to other children. He'd be less of a monster if he was just completely devoid of humanity all the time instead of when he's just clocked in for work.
I'm a husband and father. I wouldn't disappoint them by killing thousands of people and getting shot for it. It's a reason to not do evil things.
The wife chose marrying a psychopath. She's no better. The kids will be somewhat better off being raised by only one piece of shit instead of two.
Did his wife and children know what he did for a living?
If anyone doesn't know what the point of my question is, I can only direct them to go watch The Zone of Interest (2023).
Man slaps dead parasite sucking the blood of humanity
My condolences to his family, even though no insurance company ever gave my family condolences when they let my mom die
fuck it we ball
It's such a weird place to be.
We are all trying to be respectful. A person has died, and that is a horrible thing. But this guy runs a company that has cause so much suffering to so many people. He may not be directly responsible for pain, suffering, and likely death, but if he had run his company more fairly, none of that would have happened.
When people made jokes about trump nearly getting killed, people kicked off and said it was abhorant to wish death upon him (despite him being a foul human being)
But I really want to just say this guy deserves it and tell people to fuck off trying to make me be respectful of this terrible person.
Somebody validate my anger.
Somebody just tell me i can hate this individual and not be bothered that he died.
Fuck that dude. You can be happy when bad people die. It's normal to laugh and even cheer when someone that has caused the death of many people gets what is due to them. You just feel odd about it because we aren't used to seeing rich and power people face consequences.
I wish more of these public and mass shooter actually use their energy and focus on a positive act for change. Our collective empathy has been stolen in this current system. We aren't supposed to bat an eye when kids get shot in school, but NOW it's a problem and we shouldn't joke. Fuck off with that noise.
Somebody validate my anger.
I work at a children's hospital, a couple times a week United Healthcare denies treatment that could allow some of my pediatric patients with severe mobility issues to do things like run, or play outside with their friends. All because having a somewhat normal life isn't medically necessary, or isn't a covered benefit, or were not a preferred provider....and the nearest in network provider is 6 hours away.
Every time I have to explain to a parent that Medicaid would have paid for this, but mom and dad worked a little too hard and so they don't qualify for state care.... I die a little on the inside.
So I for one don't really care about being respectful, and can reassure you that you shouldn't feel the need to either. People who show no humanity towards disabled children are not human in my book.
Today has been cathartic and I'm going to have a little pep in my step on my walk home.
I have as much sympathy for him as his company has shown me
We are all trying to be respectful
Speak for yourself, I and many others are doing our best to make it clear we offer 0 respect at all
I already have been called evil for simply not having any empathy toward this man. Apparently there are some that believe even the worst people deserve empathy despite being shown time and time again they don't care about the sick and dying over making a profit. I never advocated for violence or murder, I never cheered or claimed more should die. But I'm the evil one for not caring about this guy somehow. I honestly don't know if humanity has a chance with all of this corporate dick sucking.
It is because they are insulated from the damage these people leave in the wake of "doing their jobs". If I or you sent their family into financial ruin by extorting their health/existence they'd be whistling a different tune.
my only concern is that this will embolden trumpers attacking libs.
Most of us couldn’t care less about this guy! I for one thinks he deserved it and let this be a warning to other corps doing the same shit! The people have to take the power back and I support these actions!
fleeing on a rented e-bike
"Thheeere goooes my hero, Watch him as he goes"
Perhaps the 9mm pistol is the guillotine of the next American revolution.
TBH I always wondered why people were shooting up malls and schools instead of the people who actually cause the societal conditions they're upset with
Edit: to be clear I'm not promoting this, it just never made sense to me
Billionnaires control the medias and social medias. They are purposely creating divides between the population to avoid being the target.
It's called stochastic terrorism or stochastic violence. Essentially people are made increasingly angry and violence prone. Either the object of their anger is inaccessible or too diffuse to actually target.
As a result, random acts of semi-targetted violence become increasingly common. If your objective is to create an atmosphere where people have a higher baseline level of fear, which can drive irrational reactionary behavior, it does wonders. It's also great at increasing violent acts against people you dislike without explicitly calling for it.Because that gets more attention and takes less effort.
Shame that only damage from the first bullet was covered. Every shot after that was a pre-existing condition. Maybe he would have made it.
If they find the guy, I hope the jury nullifies.
He's not going to be arrested by the cops. He's going to be killed by the cops.
While I agree that is a likely outcome, he has the advantage of being white. Historically, as long as the gunman got away from the scene ✅, isn't actively brandishing a weapon ❓, and is white ✅, the
copsracist thugs with badges just arrest them, and possibly buy them McDonald's on the way to the precinct.As someone who visually presents as much whiter than this guy, I don't like that is where we are at. I just recognize that my "natural camouflage" has allowed me to verbally berate
copsracist thugs with badges all over this country without me even being arrested. This is just the reality of how the thugs with badges operate.
His company is offering a reward of one free appeal of a claim denial for information leading to his arrest!
$10k is nothing compared to medical bills.
First thing they're gonna do is trace cellphones connected to nearby towers and cross-reference any new signal.
Hellova task in Manhattan to begin with. And people doing this job are likely not going to be clvery motivated.
Hope he was smart enough to not bring smartphone.
Everyone's assuming that this was a patient who was denied coverage or family member of a patient who was denied coverage, the thing is this sort of person will have made enemies in the corporate world as well.
For all we know this was a professional hit.
Unlikely. Dude literally went to a Starbucks before the shooting and wrote a message in the bullets. That doesn't scream "professional" too me
Detectives investigating the shooting reportedly found shell casings with the words 'depose', 'deny' and 'defend' inscribed on them.
Maybe we could have patched him back together, but all the nearby hospitals were out of network.
🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽
Deserved.
Well surely the response from the rich that control the police, work, deliveries, and hospitals is going to be flowers and free health care for all not a violent draconian response that will further make people sick and die under a regime hellbent on revenge.
Clearly this will work as intended.
It will eventually.
I'M SPARTACUS!
I read that in carol channing's voice...
I AM SPARTACUS
Wow, I really hope this isn't the moment it starts and a bunch of copy cats spring up targeting all the parasites. That would be terrible.
Bombs being thrown into boardrooms is certainly something nobody wants.
The preffered nomenclature is:
surprise C suite appreciation pizza party
Well no, it's a nice table.
The fact that the man got away (and had a silencer) goes to show that it's more rich targeting the rich. Likely not a peasant. The billion-dollar question is: Why?
Suppressors, like anything else gun related, aren't that hard to come by. You can even make your own pretty easily. They won't hold up over 1000 rounds at the range but they would be more than sufficient for something like this.
You're right that we don't know why this happened. I'm just saying I don't find the possibility that a suppressor was involved to be particularly indicative of anything other than the fact that the shooter wanted to be harder to catch, which yeah, you would expect to be the case.
As long as we don't make the killer out to be a hero.
Of which they can be.
It's simple, just get the company to create a list of all the people in the last 3 years who died after being denied healthcare. And then stare in horror at the list and decide that maybe the world is a slightly better place this afternoon and we should tear down the whole company and all their ilk.
I rarely enjoy Youtube comments. today they're quite good though
It would be the funniest thing if a bunch of terminal patients submitted confessions just to tie up resources. A real “I’m Spartacus” situation.
It was me. I shot Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare.
I'm not even terminally ill.
The guillotine "jokes" aren't really jokes.
The joke is using a guillotine and not something more modern, and American. Like a gun.
Yeah because guillotines are dangerous! They're very sharp and because of that, we can't have them in our household near our kids.
More modern and American than eating a big mac in a ford f150?
No, this belongs more to a collapse or civil war thread than it does here.
This is not an endorsement, this is observation of basic, predictable human behavior. The working class is squeezed financially to the nth degree. There IS a breaking point. That sense of impending “something” many people have been feeling since well before the election has not gone away, and the squeeze is a source.
And here it is. What is probably the first shot fired on someone in charge of that ongoing financial hardship, that squeeze.
The scariest thing here is that there’s social contagion to these behaviors, especially those squeezed hard enough they feel they’ve little to nothing left to lose.
This is a domino.
The scariest thing here is that there’s social contagion to these behaviors, especially those squeezed hard enough they feel they’ve little to nothing left to lose.
This is a domino.
Here's hoping. We're WAY overdue for guillotine day.
We’ve been seeing ‘first dominoes’ fall for over a decade now. I’m at the point where I don’t think it’s going to be as big and flashy as people hope. If electing a genocidal rapist as president TWICE didn’t stir the world into action, I don’t think the pitiful death of some no-name ceo is going to do it. Things like this will keep happening, but in the grand scheme, nothing is going to change.
As a person past that breaking point, I gotta say that I do endorse this. Whatever his motives may be, the shooter is a hero. America is desperate for justice, we need so much more of this.
I wouldn't call the shooter a hero (not that they don't deserve a positive title), they are a victim unfortunately and I wouldn't want people to start calling me a hero if I had to go through that (killing can't be easy mentally or emotionally).
I'm just waiting for the whatever (individual/group/notsurewhatthefuckwouldwork) that fixes the problem on a more permanent basis (they're just gonna pay the next CEO more now). If this actually becomes a trend I could see it being effective (fear is a powerful motivator), but even with things like school shootings it doesn't actually change anything. The richer CEO's and others of that class will just laugh at the poorer CEO's who actually have to go out in public like that.
...............good
Yea the tariffs will probably be seen as some sort of breaking point together with this some years from now.
womp womp
Does anyone know how many people his company screwed over by denying insurance claims or how many suffered and died due to not paying enough or not reading the fine print, i won't celebrate his death but i can't say i'm sad that he's gone or anyone like him for that matter.
The writing has been on the wall since the ACA got rewritten by these same companies. Instead of reforming the system to making it more fair these corporations were prioritized over us and our health.
There is no path to justice, all the evil shit they do has been deemed lawful, so it's not like a lawsuit will do anything and it's certainly not going to change anything for anyone else.
And now with the incoming administration teasing to remove even the smallest of teeth from the aca, it really does feel hopeless. The government is protecting profit over people and I'm surprised it took so long for somebody to finally snap. In an ideal society we would have reforms before stuff like this started happening
It's one of those situations where big money will use illegal or unfair means to sway or change law, then tell the people to "play by the rules" or "do it the right way" after having changed it to be heavily in their favor. Most people will try to do it the "right" way too as it's the only realistic option. Until it is so unreasonable that other methods end up being more palatable.
Right, like this person could have been a great dude on a personal level but his position at United health care is pretty evil and implicates him in that evil.
Would certainly be exciting if the USA kicked off a movement here.
Well, I don't think you can separate his "personal" and "business" lives. I don't think you can be a great dude and go to work instituting policies that kill people for money.
Maybe he was funny and kind to people he knew, but he wasn't a different person from the person he was professionally.
What I saw online (take with grain of salt) is UHC has 29,000,000 customers, and a 32% denial rate (the highest in the industry), so that gives us a possible 9,280,000 people denied if there were 1 claim per person a year.
That is obviously super rough guess, cause not every customer makes a claim a year, some may make none and some multiple for the same thing that could repeatedly get denied.
It's a Hydra. Cut off one head, there's 5 waiting to take this guy's place.
Well that just sounds like a direct wealth distribution method.
Eh, hydras aren't made up of individuals who have a desire to be alive.
Not that I'm advocating for it, but I imagine if you kept killing folks then you'd eventually get to someone who liked "breathing" more than "money."
"Cut off one head, two more shall take it's place."
Neat
I swear I read "finally shoot" and was like based CNN!
I refuse to celebrate the man's death. That just doesn't sit right with me.
However, I'll climb on my soap box long enough to point out that first, an insurance business model is fundamentally incompatible with healthcare. It does not work on basically any level and the need for profit will always be in conflict with the need to provide high quality healthcare.
Second, this conflict between the need for profitability and providing healthcare means that most of the health insurance industry is built on a foundation of ethical compromises. For profit health insurance companies like UnitedHealth are just straight up immoral. Any business that has to give loyalty to shareholders at the expense of anyone's life and health is immoral. Not to mention the incredible amount of work health insurance companies have done to effectively rig much of the American medical system for their own benefit.There are lots of corporations that do lots of bad things but I would classify for profit health insurance as a special kind of evil.
As much as they like to pretend they're the good guys, the good guy doesn't make it their sole mission to extract as much money as possible from their customers before they die while doing the bare minimum to keep them from dying.
Long way of saying, my condolences to the guys family. Having your husband/father/etc. assassinated in the street has to be awful. At the same time, screw UnitedHealth. They're a bunch of worthless blood sucking vampires.
How evil does a person have to be before it is acceptable to celebrate his death? This man devoted his life to profiting from human suffering. The fact that the law was on his side does not excuse his actions; it simply means that he worked within an evil system.
I don't celebrate that this needs to be done, but I do celebrate it being done. When they destroy any sense that the justice system will see justice done to them, it requires people to seek justice in to her means. It's their fault. They can choose to repair the system and remove their advantages whenever they want. Until them, I welcome justice.
My condolences to the victims of the victim. Sorry but I couldn't disagree with you more. The rich represent despotism with no recourse for all the injustices they inflict upon the rest of us, and it shows why the cycles of Anacyclosis are real and persistent throughout human history. Business leaders have no virtues, only greed and profit motive. Given the context of history and what happens to despots as they get worse, they'll be lucky if there aren't mobs beheading them and leaving their heads on spikes adorning the walls of Wall St for all to see.
That's where this goes next if the greed and suffering continues.
My feelings are exactly what they would be if the head of a vicious mafia was just assassinated. Probably because the head of a vicious mafia was just assassinated.
I'll celebrate for the both of us.
I'd put money on it not being a "member" of the Healthcare company.
It'll be like that town that got together to kill that one asshole and no one would say shit about it. That dude got murdered by a whole town, this dude got murdered by a country.
That's a shootable face if ai ever saw one
Oh so chatGPT did it? Actually that makes sense they were announcing some new features
My money is on Millhouse
I'm fairly sure Tito Puente did it. Has Tito been dead for 24 years? Yes. However, would death stop a man from killing people with the power of music? No.
Tito Puente did it.
Oye como va
I am Spartacus!
I shot the sheriff.
all employees have been warned to keep quiet about their employment there, as they are concerned there could be more targeted attacks on anyone working there. they have all the names and addresses now, so it wouldn't be out of the question.
I'm not sure what the point of keeping quiet is, if they already have all the information they need to target people. but i was told this by an employee of the company
LinkedIn....
DRAIN THE SWAMP! DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!!!
This sounds like the plot of Cory Doctorow’s story “Radicalized”
