"The tragic, brutal murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has elicited contempt for the unfettered greed and capitalism of health insurance companies.

William Lindsey :toad:

@tofugolem Personally, I'm never in favor of killing anyone to save lives, though I realize there are sometimes stark moral choices in which that might be an ethically defensible choice — as when Bonhöffer chose to participate in an attempt to have Hitler assassinated.

William Lindsey :toad:

@theogrin Yes, I agree — and people are making assumptions about the motive for this shooting, of course, that haven't yet been verified. But I also remind myself of that Pete Seeger song that inspired so much resistance and determination in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements: "Step by Step."

William Lindsey :toad:

@ZhiZhu Indeed. Well-stated.

William Lindsey :toad:

@tofugolem To whom are you responding when you speak of expressing sympathy? Wajahat Ali? To decry violence and killing as a solution is not the same thing as expressing sympathy for economic extortion, it seems to me.

William Lindsey :toad:

@tinydoctor Since Wajahat Ali used that word, you may want to ask him.

William Lindsey :toad:

@nceladean I'm pretty convinced that the old adage, "In the land of an eye for an eye, everyone will be blind," has a lot of wisdom built into it.

William Lindsey :toad:

@markvonwahlde Sorry, I don't see any connection between what you're saying here and the statement by Wajahat Ali to which you're responding.

William Lindsey :toad:

@havvyhh2 Yes, I think you're really accurate in describing the psychology of MAGA cult voters here.

William Lindsey :toad:

@grheavyroller That's a book I haven't read and need to look up. I do like what I've read by him previously.

William Lindsey :toad:

@HeliosPi Thanks for sharing this link — totally new information for me, which I'm glad to have.

William Lindsey :toad:

@Greengordon I suspect that arming oneself to the teeth and building walls around oneself has diminishing returns, since walls can always be breached, and the higher people build them to protect themselves, the more they invite those they're walling out to scale them.

William Lindsey :toad:

@the5thColumnist Very well-stated and insightful. Thank you.

William Lindsey :toad:

@TheEffekt You may have to help me understand what you mean by "restrict my morals." You lose me when you get to that phrase.

William Lindsey :toad:

@timo21 I'd think so. Our appetite for sensationalism seems ravenous.

William Lindsey :toad:

@phaedral Comparing acts of brutality as lesser or greater doesn't really appeal to me. I think gunning people down on the street in broad daylight should concern us — but we live, after all, with mass shootings on a regular basis, and people are being massacred in Gaza. Violence aplenty to go around, and all of it sickens me.

Nonya Bidniss :CIAverified:

@wdlindsy Maybe he means empathy. Understanding that I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not feeling much empathy for someone who led a company that refuses healthcare treatments to up to 30% of his customers for the sake of profit. That stat came from a graph comparing insurance companies' levels of denied care, which I saw here but didn't save. @TheEffekt

William Lindsey :toad:

@Nonya_Bidniss @TheEffekt I find it hard to muster empathy for almost any CEO, but especially for those in the health insurance industry, which does such damage to so many people. At the same time, I find myself repulsed by the open celebration of violence done to anyone at all. I think I lose humanity in myself when I can't recognize the humanity even of people I loathe because of the evil they do. And to say that is not at all to endorse or take a passive attitude towards that evil.

Nonya Bidniss :CIAverified:

@wdlindsy Well I probably haven't seen as many posts on it as you have. I haven't really noticed any posts "celebrating" the murder but I've seen several that express a "not surprising" attitude. And I do find it not surprising. Not to be celebrated though. The U.S. has built a sick, despicable system to monetize sick people. @TheEffekt

Stu Duerson, machina exo deus

@wdlindsy @Nonya_Bidniss @TheEffekt

There is a disconnect here, and I believe it is between the individual and the collective. I squarely side with the collective on this one. Empathy is NOT a one way street in society. The viciousness has been long earned in small degrees, and the time has come to equalize the equation.

Van Sice

@wdlindsy @Nonya_Bidniss @TheEffekt I feel like it's important to ask, how did we get here? And the split screen between official 'news', which has been incredibly sympathetic to the CEO and 100% of social media ranging from, 'sorry not sorry' to 'b**** had it coming' seems really important. I mean, I haven't seen *any* sympathy for him, here, reddit, anywhere. This extreme gulf betweeen what (*and how*) the news reports and what the vast majority of folks live generally doesn't lead to moderate means of resolution.

I don't see this going well from here.