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

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    6 days 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 days 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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      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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        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.

  • blindbunny@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

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

        • taiyang@lemmy.world
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          It won’t happen but that’d be such a fucking what the entire establishment would melt.

          I’d pardon him for the lols, at Bidens age you gotta live a little.

              • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                6 days ago

                think you’re confusing federal prosecution with federal crimes. I assure you the gunman definitely violated multiple federal laws during the shooting for which biden could pardon him. now stfu and enjoy the joke and stop analyzing everything to death. you’re no fun at parties im sure.

                • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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                  I’m pointing it out because shit like this is why Trump got elected. People keep expecting the Democrats do things they don’t have the ability to do because they don’t understand how the government works.

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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        The assassin is the one who did the shooting. The one who got shot is the mass-murderer

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        No, he didn’t assassinate anyone, just caused them to die. He would have had to know who they were and cared enough to specifically target them for it to be assassinations.

      • Bronzebeard@lemm.ee
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        5 days ago

        Assassination implies a targeted strike.

        Systematic Mass killers are not assassins.

  • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 days 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.ee
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      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.ee
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          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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            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.ee
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              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 days 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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          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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        7 days 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.ee
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          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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          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.

  • sudo@programming.dev
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    5 days ago

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

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    6 days 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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        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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          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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            In Russian it’s called “расстрельная должность”, which means position, where firing squad eventually visits you.

            • Disaster@sh.itjust.works
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              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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                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

  • inv3r510n@lemmy.world
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    6 days 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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      I do not understand this phrase. All elites are authoritarians. Explain what a liberal elite is…? Truly what do you mean by that?

      • sudo@programming.dev
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        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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          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.

          • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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            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.

          • sudo@programming.dev
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            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.

          • ohitsbreadley@discuss.tchncs.de
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            5 days ago

            Citizen: can we get universal health care?

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

            Basically this.

            • Doom@ttrpg.network
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              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.

      • inv3r510n@lemmy.world
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        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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          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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            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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              You are extremely twisted up.

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

              • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
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                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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                  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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                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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                  Nope. You completely don’t understand classic liberalism and modern liberalism or neoliberalism

          • sudo@programming.dev
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            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.

  • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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    6 days ago

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

  • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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    7 days 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

  • unphazed@lemmy.world
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    Got no hate. Just zero sympathy. Live life at the expense of others, but don’t be surprised if they fail to care for you in return.

  • FahrenheitGhost@lemmy.world
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    7 days 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.

  • atro_city@fedia.io
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    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.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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      ~20% of eligible voters voted for this.

      More people didn’t vote than voted for either candidate.

      ~150M voted with a 2M difference ~90M didn’t vote

      I’ll bet the vote count that actually matters is more like <10% of the country.

      • Mac@mander.xyz
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        just as neglecting to make a decision is still a decision, neglecting to vote is still a vote.

        • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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          You’re ignoring the many people who have been disenfranchised, their registration purged from the rolls at the last second, votes thrown out, intentionally giving certain areas only one voting location for many many people. There’s tons of reasons why someone might not vote that are out of their control.

      • pookie
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        6 days ago

        Now we know who killed the CEO!

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      That describes both parties. There’s a reason none of the dems are taking advantage of this moment to show the overwhelming majority that they want the same things.

  • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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    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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    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.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      Things will change for sure.

      First, they might wear body armor now. Next, they might rethink walking the streets alone, and instead have bodyguards.

      Since those cost money, everyone’s benefits will be cut and they’ll have to raise rates all across the board!

  • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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    If governments should be afraid of their people, and we’re governed by oligarchs, then the oligarchs should be afraid of the people.

    QED