"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:

@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.

Tofu Golem

@wdlindsy
More on the conversation in general. I'm seeing so many people saying "I don't approve" or expressing sympathy for the family.

Tofu Golem

@wdlindsy
That is just irresponsible to say. This man was killing people for money, and there was no reason to believe he would ever pay a price for doing so. Killing him was literally the only way to get him to stop.

There's no reason to put caveats like the opening of your sentence there.

William Lindsey :toad:

@tofugolem We see these issues different, obviously. For my part, I see it as beyond irresponsible to celebrate violence and death. You're free to see things differently, of course.

William Lindsey :toad:

@tofugolem And we should not nurture our quality of sympathy for families of even despicable human beings, when they lose a family member? I refuse to descend to the level of barbarism of those whose barbarism I want to keep decrying.

[email protected]

@[email protected]

So, if they do find the guy, I wonder how successful the subsequently legal-defense crowd-funding campaign will be (and which platform will refuse to demure on hosting it).

William Lindsey :toad:

@vansice @Nonya_Bidniss @TheEffekt Perhaps because I don't give much attention to official "news" — I tend actively to avoid corporate media sources for news — I am not seeing a lot of incredible sympathy for this CEO. I fully understand the revulsion many of us feel at the inhumanity of our for-profit healthcare system and those who reap its financial benefits. I personally am not comfortable about descending to the same level of viciousness inhabited by those whose viciousness I decry.

William Lindsey :toad:

@skydog @Nonya_Bidniss @TheEffekt As I see things, when collectives nurture viciousness, it's my responsibility as a human being to look critically at that psychodynamic — e.g., "Mass deportation now!" — and do all I can to encourage those around me to choose a better path than viciousness.

[email protected]

@[email protected]

You don't need all of them to wake up. You don't even need most of them to. If there's enough willing to take direct-action (and, unless yesterday was a false-flag, that may already be happening), something's gonna have to give.