Dated: 2024-12-05. Added: 2024-12-05. Alternate title: “After UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Killing, Americans Express Frustration With Health Insurance Industry”.

  • blindbunny@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    This assassin has created more solidarity over working class issues then the Democrats could, even with 1.5 billion dollars. Fascinating

  • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    C’mon man, the hate was obviously there before the killing, it’s just that it took a murder to get the hacks at the NYT to cover it.

    • Dagwood222@lemm.eeBanned
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      5 months ago

      That’s not true.

      I hated the insurance companies yesterday, but I wasn’t posting about actually killing anyone.

      People have been talking about guillotines in the abstract. Now they are talking about it in concrete terms.

        • Dagwood222@lemm.eeBanned
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          5 months ago

          Here’s the thing. The French and Russian governments were unprepared for massive civil unrest.

          Here in America we have companies like Blackwater [or whatever they are calling themselves this week] Staffed by ex-CIA hotshots with access to a massive data base and lots and lots of money.

          I’d bet anything that they are already planning to capitalize on this attack.

          • kmaismith@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            This whole story-arc gives first move advantage to the opposition, the oligarchs are being forced to react instead of execute plans as they wish

            • Dagwood222@lemm.eeBanned
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              5 months ago

              No.

              This is a blip on the radar. Gamestop didn’t destroy the stock markets and this isn’t going to do anything but get people riled up.

              9/11/2001 gave us the Patriot Act. You can bet that Trump will push through a law letting any CEOs body guards shoot at will.

          • inv3r510n@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Some of us have nothing left to lose. Fuck the private military contractors. Guns and drones are the great equalizer. They’ve waged war on us for decades it’s about time we fight back.

        • prole
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          5 months ago

          Read up on what happened in France after the guillotines… Maybe not the best idea to repeat that error.

      • friend_of_satan@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Ex US attorney Preet Bharara says that an important boundary is when a fantasy “graduates”, going from protected free speech to credible threat.

        • Dagwood222@lemm.eeBanned
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          5 months ago

          Which is very elastic.

          Think of it this way; no one is threatened by the sight of Al Yankovic coming down the street in a tank. People run for cover when Joe Pesci walks into a store and asks how much for a chainsaw.

        • inv3r510n@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Thought crimes don’t exist. One has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the thought crimer is taking actions to carry out real crimes.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    But that did not stop social media commenters from leaping to conclusions and from showing a blatant lack of sympathy over the death of a man who was a husband and father of two children.

    Don’t be clueless, NYT. Similar to the blatant lack of sympathy shown by corporate execs over the damages their policies cause in the pursuit of infinite increases to the bottom line? I mean, after a few tens of thousands of collective years of life lost I guess human suffering is just a statistic… The C-suite is well paid enough to not waste too much concern over it. In fact, they probably get paid more for less money spent on those liabilities. All those people denied care were wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, daughters, sons…you get the idea. His life is NOT worth more than those he traded for shareholder approval.

      • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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        5 months ago

        Well to be fair, the advertisers have always been the real customers. Most media loses money in distribution.

    • Disaster@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I more or less stopped paying attention to NYT in 2002-2003 when they so gleefully cheerlead the Iraq2 campaign. And I feel dumb it took me that long. They don’t exist to do anything except manufacture consent.

      • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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        5 months ago

        I will never forgive their complicity in the Iraq war and I treat anyone who reads the NYT without simultaneously harboring a constant distaste for it as fundamentally unserious in their practice of educating themselves about reality.

  • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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    5 months ago

    Messages that law enforcement officials say were found on bullet casings at the scene of the shooting in front of a Midtown hotel — “delay” and “deny”

    That’s next level

  • FahrenheitGhost@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The hate for our abusive and predatory “healthcare” system has been omnipresent for a very long time. This just gave us all a shared focal point to collect around. I hope this keeps building steam. This one act could lead to collective actions to make these companies scared. These CEOs, politicians, and billionaires NEED to know they are not untouchable. I supported a girlfriend through terminal cancer and saw how “selective” insurance companies can be on what diagnostics and treatments they’ll allow. That shit radicalized me permanently.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Good. We pay more for healthcare than any other nation on the planet and the quality is lower than in many other nations. That’s a proven fact.

    I hope they’re scared. They should be.

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Probably something provided in Europe for free. At least for citizens. I heard americans have to pay even for cast when they break bones.

        • AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I had a hernia and spent a third of my income on health insurance but still has to shell out 16000 from my own pocket for non emergency hernia surgery.

          I hope the copycats make the job of “C-Suite executive at HMO” an unfillable position, but more likely this will finally get the GOP interested in gun control.

          • uis@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            In Russian it’s called “расстрельная должность”, which means position, where firing squad eventually visits you.

            • Disaster@sh.itjust.works
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              5 months ago

              Generally in English they’d usually be called “A Patsy” or “Strawman” - someone disposable to do the unpleasant work, whom nobody will particularly miss.

              • uis@lemm.ee
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                5 months ago

                That’s not what I meant. Position, not person, which everyone leaves by being killed(in soviet times) or imprisoned(now).

                EDIT: or falling out of window

  • atro_city@fedia.io
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    5 months ago

    Look at who the USAmerican people voted for despite all their hate for the health insurance industry: a bunch of crooks that make the industry profitable on the backs of their voters.

    People can’t help themselves but vote against their interests.

  • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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    5 months ago

    That hatred has always been there. Media is just focusing on it because someone actually did something about it.

  • inv3r510n@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I have a blatant lack of sympathy for the smug liberal elite at the NYT when the guillotine takes off their heads too

    • HasturInYellow@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I do not understand this phrase. All elites are authoritarians. Explain what a liberal elite is…? Truly what do you mean by that?

      • inv3r510n@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        The NYT leans heavily liberal. As does most of the pearly clutching mainstream media.

        Also, slightly unrelated, let’s not forget who published known lies leading to the Iraq war, cheerleaded it and slandered anyone who questioned the WMD narrative. They’ve got ~200k lives on their hands.

        Would be a shame if someone deny delay desposed their CEO.

        • teamevil@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          The billionaire owned media…yeah the only thing liberal about the media is the right wing owners screaming about it. There’s no liberal media

          • inv3r510n@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Liberals love capitalism. They love dropping bombs with rainbow and BLM flags on them. They’re fine with imperialism so long as it’s the first black Indian woman president doing the bombing.

            The NYT is overwhelmingly liberal. They have some conservatives in their editorial staff but the majority are liberals. Most of the MSM is. But all the MSM protect their class interests.

            They protect their socioeconomic class at the expense of the working class. They are the servants of the billionaires. The republicans are no better, that goes without saying.

            Liberalism is a right wing ideology. You’ve almost got the point.

            • Doom@ttrpg.network
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              5 months ago

              You are extremely twisted up.

              Liberalism is not right wing, and what you’re talking about is neoliberalism. Which is different.

              • JoeBigelow@lemmy.caBanned
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                5 months ago

                Overton window around here is so far right you think you’re the one correcting him… Fuck damn.

                Compared to monarchy/fascism, liberalism is farther towards the center but it does not often cross that line.

                • Doom@ttrpg.network
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                  5 months ago

                  Hahaha imagine being this arrogant and immediately shooting yourself in the foot.

                  No Liberalism is left leaning. It is a center ideology 100% but liberalism is left leaning. The concept of liberalism literally became in existence opposite of a monarchy right wing style, placing it to the left.

                  Now since then the term liberalism has been abused especially in the US but you live in a world that was ruled by kings and still is in many ways. But you think globally that means liberals are right leaning?? Outside of your mind.

              • inv3r510n@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                No. You’re completely wrong. Liberalism is a right wing ideology. Neoliberalism is even further right. The entire US political spectrum save for a tiny handful of elected officials (Bernie and the squad, most of whom are centrists at best) are right wing to fascist.

                • Doom@ttrpg.network
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                  5 months ago

                  Nope. You completely don’t understand classic liberalism and modern liberalism or neoliberalism

          • sudo@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            You seem to have some completely backwards idea that liberals are anti-billionaire socialists when liberalism is pro-capitalism by definition. NY Times is the mouthpiece of american liberalism.

      • sudo@programming.dev
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        5 months ago

        The Bourgeoisie are the elite in liberal democracies, and liberalism is their ideology. Hence the name “liberal elite”.

        Do not confuse liberalism with progressivism or leftism. It’s dead centrist at the moment.

        • crashoverride@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          There’s no such thing as liberal elite. If you’re a liberal and you don’t believe in anyone who is elite, it goes against the ideology.

          • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            You should try explaining this to the liberal elite. They absolutely believe in it.

            Just look at how they talk about people who live in rural areas.

          • ohitsbreadley@discuss.tchncs.de
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            5 months ago

            Citizen: can we get universal health care?

            GOP: no Dems: no #BLM #LGBTQIA+rights ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏿🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

            Basically this.

            • Doom@ttrpg.network
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              5 months ago

              I mean I agree with you that happened but also you know there are people in the democratic party who try/are trying. What you’re saying is funny and easy to say but in this conversation it’s just not true.

          • sudo@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            Ahistorical nonsense. They don’t believe in a nobility by birth, but they absolutely believe that some people “are just better than others” and who should rule. Its so foundational to the ideology that its written into the US Constitution. Anyone who believes that capitalism is a meritocracy (ie Liberals) believes there should be a liberal elite.

  • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    A longtime employee of UnitedHealthcare said that workers at the company had been aware for years that members were unhappy. Mr. Thompson was one of the few executives who wanted to do something about it, said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the company does not allow workers to speak publicly without permission.

    In speeches to employees, Mr. Thompson spoke about the need to change the state of health care coverage in the country and the culture of the company, topics other executives avoided, the employee said.

    The speeches:

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    A national response of apathy hatred over the cold-blooded murder of a corporate medical business leader may be a reason to take a closer look at our corporate medical system.

  • sudo@programming.dev
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    5 months ago

    This guys roughly as popular as Bernie Sanders was in 2015 and the NY Times somehow can’t connect the dots.

  • DancingBear@midwest.social
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    5 months ago

    The killer apparently used a fake id at the hostile he stayed at, and as well intentionally dropped a burner phone in the alley as he left the scene of the crime

  • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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    5 months ago

    The jokes, etc comments aside, the worst thing we can do to health insurance companies is reform our system so they can’t profit off of denying the care our doctors prescribe for us.

    They’re nothing but middlemen, and this system simply doesn’t exist in other developed countries. They all have better care and they pay less than us for it. I realize this might be literally impossible to implement during a Trump/GOP presidency, but we as country can do the best thing for ourselves, while also giving the insurance companies the finger by passing some form of single payer/universal health care.