UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

Post by sbalough » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 6:18 AM UTC

sleight42 wrote: post #431

ryandrake wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. With as many guns and victims of corporate greed that we have, I'm actually pretty shocked that we don't see this happening as routinely as, say, school shootings. I wonder if we'd see slightly more ethical behavior from corporations if their C-level staff and board members had to routinely practice lock-down drills because they were getting offed once a week.

See "cyberpunk", Gibson et al. The rich will isolate themselves further behind even more surveillance technology, more physical barriers, and, because that is never enough, inordinate amounts of paid thugs.

Post by slt2021 » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 6:26 AM UTC

sbalough wrote: post #449

Clubber wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I love ACA, but I hate Obamacare To be fair, ACA passed, and here we are. Healthcare companies are making more than they ever did. Have you considered that powerful propaganda machine works both ways? https://www.axios.com/2024/08/08/insurer-profits-health-care...

I think a main root cause of high insurance costs is failure of govt to break up health company monopolies and other impediments to a competitive marketplace like no individual mandate which should make it hard for smaller players to take on risk that they can afford to manage.

Post by sbalough » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 6:28 AM UTC

EA-3167 wrote: post #264

toomuchtodo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the comment that has been in my head since the news broke, and I feel like we are only at the beginning, like the pause before the first drop of a rollercoaster with the forward looking macro (political and economic tension, broadly speaking). Laws and rules only matter so long as we're all willing to believe they do.

Relevant XKCD https://xkcd.com/1958 I think people skip over this a LOT, but it's the basis for society and was long before we had the means to track down most killers and bring them to any sort of justice. Most people, even when given freedom from consequences and ample opportunities, are not murderers.

Post by sbalough » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 6:49 AM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #381

shadowgovt wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People do value their lives and liberty and (for all the memes to the contrary) the police are very good at hunting down murderers of high-value targets because most challenges the police face are challenges of focus and resource-allocation and cities tend to authorize a spare-no-expense approach to something perceived as a direct attack on the fundamentals of the status quo. Consider the full-scale house-to-house ma…

Are they? I thought homicides committed outdoors, with a gun, between people of no or distant social connection were basically unsolvable. Even for a rich white victim. Unless this guy dropped his wallet, used an exotic caliber, or is somehow connected to a prior threat, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he is not found.

Post by dredmorbius » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 8:54 AM UTC

s1artibartfast wrote: post #273

ryandrake wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of the so-called "Four boxes of liberty[1]". When the soap, ballot, and jury boxes are no longer effective, we should not be surprised when people increasingly reach for the ammo box. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_boxes_of_liberty

There is a big moral and social difference between an overwhelming majority of the people and a dissatisfied group. The ammo box is not justified and should not be tolerated simply because someone doesn't get what they want. That route is a quick decent to societal collapse. That is how you end up with your incels, anarchist, communists, and Christian fundamentalists shooting anyone who doesnt agree with them.