I really don't get why you don't see shooting a CEO as 'doing something' It's done more to punish that guy in specific than congress has done or will do. It's gotten more people talking about regulation than there's been in a decade. When they killed Bin Laden, people didn't ask why they didn't work from inside Al Qaeda to slowly reform them. They shoot peace activists and protestors and labor organizers because it works. When people are dead they stop doing things and the people around them get scared and sometimes change their behavior. We all protested for months to cut police budgets and after all that, I don't even know if the guy went to jail. It accomplished nothing. This was something. A concrete action happened. Justice was served. It didn't fix the system, but to be honest I see America collapsing before we get single payer and this guy got us a Win while Biden was giving corporations another trillion dollars.
This is one of the stupidest things I have ever read bin Laden was the spiritual leader of an organization dedicated to global jihad he had a direct line of tutelage to Hassan al-Banna millions of extremists hung on his every missive Brian Thompson, on the other hand, existed within a public corporation with officers, advisors, investors and Robert's Rules of Order. He'd been voted CEO by a board of directors in 2021. Prior to that he'd been in charge of United's government contracts (medicare, medicaid, VA) for fifteen years where - lemme speak from experience here - he was at the top of an organization that's no better or worse than the other seven companies we deal with that administrate Medicaid. But again - you are so far up your own ass that shooting one of a dozen functionaries heading public corporations that you own stock in is somehow as virtuous as taking out the guy who orchestrated 9/11. You're going to do me a favor. You're going to step away from the keyboard, you're going to walk into the bathroom, you're going to look at yourself in the mirror. You're going to make eye contact with yourself, so that you're really seeing yourself, and you're going to say "the assassination of an insurance CEO is every bit as virtuous and justified as the assassination of Osama bin Laden." Then you're going to report back. How do you feel? Answer carefully because this might very well be the last exchange we ever have.When they killed Bin Laden, people didn't ask why they didn't work from inside Al Qaeda to slowly reform them.
Look, you caught me - I wont say that Brian Thompson is personally more evil or more of a leader or more valuable a target than Osama. But I am willing to say that UHC and Private Insurance in general has done more harm than Al-Quaeda. Obviously the board is just going to replace him with another guy that does the same thing. Maybe that guy will remember that he too, is mortal. Something billionares seem to forget. I'm pretty sure you agree that the point of protests isnt to stand around in a large group so that people will look on and see 'wow, if I do this thirty thousand people will be very sad'. The point is that these people WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS. And it seems like it's been pretty internalized lately that this just isn't the case, you just arrest the leaders and the group disperses eventually and the world moves on like normal. So fine, obviously this assassination won't end up affecting things as much as Osama and the guy deserved it way less than Osama (but crucially, did deserve it some). If you can't see why it at least makes some sense though I don't know what to tell you. I hope that's enough of a compromise, I always like reading your posts and I promise you I do give everything you write a lot of consideration. But if not, that's OK I can leave the site if I'm not wanted here. It's pretty much just you and Am_U left and I don't want to be somewhere I'm not welcome.
I wanted you to pause for long enough to hold one of your arguments up to the light and decide for yourself whether it was one that you naturally wanted to make, or whether your internal feelings were getting away with your reason. I don't have the time or patience to write this today but I'm going to. Because I wouldn't shout until I was blue in the face if it didn't matter. And because I see something really common - hang on there's a graphic for that. It's from here, BTW. The first thing I want you to notice is that everyone's expectations are wildly out of line with reality. We've all been sold a massive bill of goods. Obviously the younger you are the worse it is - millennials make about 2/3rds that average salary and GenZ makes half (the average GenXer makes $126k as of 2022). The next thing I want you to realize is that those expectations are choices. The younger you are in America, the more you're choosing to be dissatisfied. We have a patient. She's on medicaid. She needed some tests run that aren't available to be scheduled in the next six months. So the neurologist we sent her to said "just go to the emergency room and hand them this note." THAT is a protest. She did one better, though - she lost her car keys and didn't feel like looking for them so she called an ambulance. If she were insured? It prolly woulda cost her about $25k. But she isn't so for her it was free. Now THAT is a protest. She'd probably much rather not have to deal with labs at all. Should millennials be satisfied at $40k a year? Abso-fucking-lutely not. But by assigning a mental goal of "I won't feel successful until I have five million dollars in assets" they're guaranteeing they'll never feel successful. Much like you and your sister: you've set the metric for success at "overturn the system" and you're salty that it's out of reach. We're here because I said "just another TESCREAL dipshit" and what you said next was remarkable: You didn't even begin to investigate the situation before shooting your mouth off. You are so deep in your "nothing can be done" frame of mind that an Ivy League scion of a multimillionaire family that owns a half dozen medical facilities is justified in shooting a bitch. your level of satisfaction is thoroughly unattainable, so you wallow in helplessness. Now in the first place, don't fucking feed the accelerationists. This is you and Steve Bannon, nodding and stroking your chins in sync. 'member Fight Club and how the hare-brained scheme was to take down the credit bureaus? There's a lot of air between "take down a credit bureau" and "shoot the CEO of a credit bureau" and you know it but as penance watch a trailer: You know at a cellular level that the British East India Company was terrible. You have absolutely no idea who the kings were during their heyday and you don't even know how to look up who their executives were, though. So poof. You've got a time machine. You want to make the world a better place. Is your first thought "I'ma go shoot the CEO of the British East India Company?" Because corporations, since 1600, have been about absolving individuals of guilt through collective action and restricting individuals of morality through collective restriction. Maybe Walter Raleigh? Except naaah if it wasn't him it woulda been some other schlub, just following orders, because a bunch of board members wanted the Portuguese plundered and the Irish suppressed. Brian Thompson done got got and has the world changed? But what really makes me offended is that you've convinced yourself that there's no point in doing anything short of throwing your life away and I've been out here, dozens of hours a week for like eight years now, managing a healthcare clinic that operates largely for the betterment of minorities. We fight insurance companies every.goddamn.day and you don't even realize how offensive it is for you to argue that what we're doing is pointless. You're so in love with your hopeless adolescent male fantasy of nihilistic destruction that you don't give a fuck about spitting in the face of people who are actually doing something. Now - I'm not going to argue there was no point to capping Brian Thompson. For one thing, this sort of thing gains credibility when there's violence behind it. Terrorism? Mos def. A novel way to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the system? Also that. And see, putting up a poster doesn't involve throwing your life away. Because here's the real deal, dude. Ours is a society of desperate inequality and that gets worse more often than it gets better, at least in my lifetime. And I appreciate desperate times for desperate measures. But instead of going "poof here's a time machine" I go "poof you have an ivy league degree, a state senator for a cousin and grandparents who own two country clubs and a chain of healthcare facilities what are you going to do to improve the future" and you go And fuck off, man. You can't even show me the courtesy of stopping to think before running your mouth. I deserve better. So does everyone you talk to. The purpose of discussion isn't to profess your ill-conceived emotional positions it's to dialogue and you aren't even trying to hear. It's far more important to you to wail about how hopeless everything is so that you don't have to fucking do something about it.
What could he have done to improve the lots of healthcare for those with less access?
What could he have done to improve the lots of healthcare for those with less access?
I think this will be my last post on Hubski regardless, but I figured since you were kind enough to post a long thoughtful reply that you at least deserved a response. I swear to god, everything I post here I do so because I thought it would be appreciated by either you or am_u. But even with things I post specifically for you its clear I'm only making you upset, and it genuinely feels awful. And it extra sucks because I'm pretty sure we pretty much completely agree? Or at least that's the takeaway I get so I think maybe its just that I'm bad at communicating but I think it's pretty clear that we share a ton of the same values and have similar hopes for the world. So I'm sorry again for disappointing you and I really do hope things go your way. Going through point by point: This is awesome and totally majorly improved this person's life. I think that if taking down private healthcare couldn't be done with a president and a supermajority in congress elected on the promise of taking down private healthcare, that I'm pretty justified in saying that it can't be done. I think if anything, politically we are farther from this than we've been in my lifetime, which is why I bring up the stupid things the Dems are doing as opposed to fighting private healthcare. This was the only point I was trying to make. So we totally agree, though I clearly framed it in annoying way. (I don't get what you mean by the poster, though? A poster wouldn't even make local news) I think this isn't quite accelerationism. If I understand them correctly they would work to make healthcare worse and more unaffordable to break down society or something. It's seems obviously cope for stuff that would happen anyways. And to be clear - I hope there is not a huge spree of similar things happening, to the point that the gov't, to protect the citizens it cares about most, puts up martial law or makes us more of a police state. I don't think the left is ready to capitalize on any sort of real conflict. I think this assassination was a fun treat that doesn't do a heck of a lot but is silly to be opposed to. This was the other half of my point. Again, I feel like we completely agree, just you're more upbeat about it. I say that the systems never going to change no matter what and the best we can do is paper around the issues, and you say that you can make a difference in the lives of those around you within the system and I think both are right and neither one's in conflict. Promise this wasn't my intent but again clearly I'm doing something wrong and the first thing I'll do is stop diggingWe have a patient. She's on medicaid. She needed some tests run that aren't available to be scheduled in the next six months. So the neurologist we sent her to said "just go to the emergency room and hand them this note." THAT is a protest. She did one better, though - she lost her car keys and didn't feel like looking for them so she called an ambulance. If she were insured? It prolly woulda cost her about $25k. But she isn't so for her it was free. Now THAT is a protest.
You didn't even begin to investigate the situation before shooting your mouth off. You are so deep in your "nothing can be done" frame of mind that an Ivy League scion of a multimillionaire family that owns a half dozen medical facilities is justified in shooting a bitch. your level of satisfaction is thoroughly unattainable, so you wallow in helplessness.
Is your first thought "I'ma go shoot the CEO of the British East India Company?"
If I had a time machine and was sent to destroy the British East India company I honestly don't know what the hell I would do. I don't think I possibly could. You know as much as me that one person acting alone making massive change is Marvel nonsense. I do think it's a interesting this was the example you picked though, since what little I know from history I'm pretty sure what did end up taking it down was violent revolts in every colony.Now - I'm not going to argue there was no point to capping Brian Thompson. For one thing, this sort of thing gains credibility when there's violence behind it. Terrorism? Mos def. A novel way to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the system? Also that. And see, putting up a poster doesn't involve throwing your life away.
Now in the first place, don't fucking feed the accelerationists. This is you and Steve Bannon, nodding and stroking your chins in sync.
Ours is a society of desperate inequality and that gets worse more often than it gets better, at least in my lifetime.
And fuck off, man. You can't even show me the courtesy of stopping to think before running your mouth. I deserve better. So does everyone you talk to. The purpose of discussion isn't to profess your ill-conceived emotional positions it's to dialogue and you aren't even trying to hear. It's far more important to you to wail about how hopeless everything is so that you don't have to fucking do something about it.