Why Many Americans Are Celebrating the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Murder. The assassination of Brian Thompson—and the reaction to it—suggests Americans are fed up and feel powerless.
https://newrepublic.com/article/189121/unitedhealthcare-brian-thompson-shooting-social-media-reaction
24 comments
I can’t believe he was assassinated by the invisible man. Will be impossible to find since nobody will find him. Guess we should give up
It’s also about what the US classifies and prosecutes as crimes.
Robbery? A crime. Wage theft? A civil matter.
Kill someone with a gun? Prison. Kill someone with paperwork? Business as usual.
There’s a nationwide manhunt going on for the guy who shot the UHC CEO. I keep waiting for a nationwide manhunt for the insurance companies that kill their clients through denial of care.
“Celebrating” sure is a loaded term here that many publications are choosing to use.
It seems like a shallow interpretation of people’s reactions to me.
It’s not a celebration, it’s more of a realization that karma may be real.
They shoulda voted better. It’s only going to get worse
We live in a time and place where not only is justice often denied, but service we’ve paid for is systematically denied too. This is an eye opener for everyone in the US – the positive aspect is that people viscerally understand this situation for what it is, vigilantism due to justice denied for systematic violence. I do not condone violence and I hope this does not happen to anyone else. I think people are waking up to the fact that the bullshit issues dividing us are much less significant than the daily injustices inflicted on us by the ultra rich ruling class… And even the recognition that such a class exists may be a new realization for people.
We’re here squabbling and fighting over distractions while the real and most compelling problems are intentionally concealed to the greatest extent possible. The billionaire controlled media desperately trying to shape this narrative as a tragedy and utterly failing due to people’s gut reaction is a good step forward.
My biggest takeaway has been that this confirms for me that the Harris campaign should have put on a lot more focus on healthcare. Not just abortion, healthcare in general.
Yes, talk about abortion, absolutely. But also talk about healthcare in general, because there is clearly a lot of anger that Kamala could have channeled, if her campaign had been a bit smarter.
And what strikes me most of all is that this anger doesn’t seem to be limited to people who identify with the political left. From what I’ve seen, even people who identify with the political right seem to sympathize more with the shooter than with the CEO who got killed. There was a real opportunity here that Kamala could have exploited.
Look at these headlines using his name, trying to humanize a monster.
Classroom of kids get gunned down and we should move on. Millionaire gets shot and we should mourn? Maybe people just don’t give a fuck anymore.
When was the last time so many Americans voiced support for a vigilante killing? Seriously, I’m drawing a blank. It’s quite telling, and I hope the oligarchs and other CEOs sit up and take notice.
Because he was a mass murdering monster.
>Nothing actually changed, except for Thompson and his family.
This is the final sentence in the story and i would argue that this is emphatically not true. A conversation, long overdue, has begun in this country. The conversation is about Healthcare and the way we all get shafted all the time by an industry that shouldn’t be answering to shareholders but the people who pay those premiums. But is has also begun another conversation that has been bubbling underneath for quite some time about how our political systems and our justice systems have failed us time and time again. Hopefully that conversation will continue and hopefully it will last longer than the time it takes authorities to find the perpetrator of this crime and will force our political “leaders” -at the state, if not federal level, to begin to address some of these inequalities.
[removed]
People: *start shooting*
Civilized society:
>You can’t just shoot evil people, we have a justice system that will take care of them in an appropriate and civilized way!
People: *use the court system*
Court system:
>Lol no
People: *start shooting*
Civilized society: *Pikachu face*
Fed up and frustrated– where were 100M voters on Nov 5?
Americans aren’t just angry about the health care system. They’re also very, very pissed off about the vast amount of local, state, and federal resources being used to solve the murder of a very wealthy man.
healthcare needs a shakeup. i get benefits from my company which include insurance but if I were to ever get laid off or fired those benefits are gone. Well, they aren’t gone but I’d still have to pay out of pocket monthly for COBRA which would bankrupt me.
Just don’t understand why it’s linked to jobs. I went through a wild stretch where I was on and off of jobs and thusly on and off of insurance. I basically had to avoid getting treatment for my ankle because I was not employed, it’s dumb
Brian Thompson, and others like him willingly and enthusiastically brought harm or death to hundreds, if not thousands of people in the pursuit of profitability and shareholder value.
While I disagree with his violent end, I shall shed no tears for him.
“oh if only a good guy with a gun were there to stop him”
HOW many fucking kids have died to senseless violence?
“Thoughts and prayers”
You’ve desensitized us. Do better. Media and healthcare and government. Our country’s really starting to suck shit.
The problem is that Americans are dumb as shit, in general. Everyone agrees the system is messed up. Everyone agrees it needs to be fixed. But every time a politician comes in who makes healthcare a primary focus, Americans ignore them. Don’t show up. Their words and their actions are not in sync here.
Americans have the power to change this, but they are literally too stupid to help themselves. I say that as an American. It’s frustrating as fuck.
Ever angry men start killing CEOs instead of school shooting just watch how quickly we get gun control
Maybe its a reaction to America being an oligarchy. Idk.
Damn straight we’re fed up and feel powerless. Almost all industries in our country are designed to extract as much money from our people as possible with as little return as possible.
We’ve also been spoon fed that gun violence is just part of daily life. But somehow when it affects the oligarchs were supposed to care.
“—suggests Americans are fed up and feel powerless.”
Read the room. That was sixteen years ago.
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