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[-] 2kool4idkwhat@lemdro.id 3 points 12 hours ago

From the article:

In other words, it’s fine to defend vigilantes when they kill unarmed Black people or anti-racist activists, but when a CEO’s life is taken, we must solemnly stay silent on the reasons why such a person might be targeted or why bystanders might not be crying.

[-] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 6 points 20 hours ago

I'm so tired of seeing this ugly bastard.

[-] foggy_sunrise@lemmy.world 7 points 23 hours ago

My sympathy deductible hasn't been reached, darn!

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

unfortunately being an asshole is a pre-existing condition and as such cannot be covered at this time.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Why would I have sympathy for a mass murderer? The man is burning in the Pit of Hell right now.

Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin - An Accounting of the Victims of Brian Robert Thompson.

[-] underwire212@lemm.ee 24 points 2 days ago

You guys aren’t reacting to the way we want you to react!! Stop it now!

[-] fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 days ago

Thoughts and prayers :

  • I think it should happen more often.
  • I pray it does (instead of school shootings, let's say).
[-] sndmn@lemmy.ca 84 points 2 days ago

Billionaires deserve to live in fear for their lives.

[-] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 days ago

I would like to know how we can all do more to bring this about.

[-] 4lan@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

Advocate for their killing, far and wide. Eventually someone without anything to lose will get the job done

[-] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 days ago

Or we all end up patriot acted away into oblivion.

I get what you're saying and I'm all for it, but I also wonder if there is a more sneaky way to achieve the same end result.

Maybe we need to democratize Adjustor targets. Start a worldwide coalition with some sort of anonymous forum and voting system.

[-] stringere@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago

Dark web crowdsourced CEO bounty hunting?

Now we're delving into the cyberpunk world I can get behind.

[-] sudo@lemmy.today 14 points 2 days ago

Or not.

Live, that is.

[-] Cerbero@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago
[-] 4lan@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

Find me one ethical billionaire

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

The ones that donated all their money away (while living) so that they would no longer be billionaires, would be as close as you could get.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

proving the only good billionaire is a dead billionaire.

[-] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 14 points 2 days ago

Behind every great fortune is a great crime

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 133 points 2 days ago

Brian Robert Thompson murdered 51,000 innocent human beings.

[-] irreticent@lemmy.zip 57 points 2 days ago

Please cite a source. It's gotta be much higher than that.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 53 points 2 days ago

It is a reasonable first order estimate. See a comment here. I think I will organize this a bit better and make a blog post on this tomorrow. But suffice to say, 51,000 is a good baseline number, based on UHC's share of the private insurance market and the length of Thompson's tenure as CEO of UHC. It could be as high as 100,000. But really, at this scale, it ceases to matter. You can only really comprehend it in comparative terms. And his number of victims was order of magnitude greater than that of Osama Bin Ladin.

[-] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 4 points 2 days ago

Osama bin Laden was a chump compared to these guys. Osama was already wanted by the US for a crime he did in 1993 and had his Saudi citizenship revoked and he was a stateless runaway doomed to live in hiding and squalor no matter what.

He wasn't even the mastermind behind 9/11. Hell, he even had a hard time controlling Mohammad Atta, the ringleader of the hijackers, who wanted the operation to be more about him and his final end more than anything else.

[-] TerkErJerbs@lemm.ee 29 points 2 days ago

I'm no math wizard but I've read 68k people die per year from preventable shit due to denied claims. Brian worked at United since 2004, CEO since 2021 so he contributed directly or indirectly to that number of deaths per year, at least the portion United is responsible for. United has double the industry average of rejected claims.

It's def higher than OP states.

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[-] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 days ago

Not OP, but it's going to be really hard to assign a hard value to that. There are plenty of obvious examples where they denied a life-saving treatment. But many of them would've died anyway.

Then there are cases where they deny preventative/early treatments. Some of these eventually led to more serious and fatal conditions, some did not. How do we count these?

Then there's quality of life denials. These don't directly lead to fatal conditions, but can affect morale and the like, thus allowing more serious conditions?

All of it would be compared to the unexplored alternatives (where treatment was authorized). This is inherently an unknown.

I'm not defending him by any means. It's just that his body count is, at best, a rough estimate.

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Whether they would have died anyway isn't a measure of whether it is ethical to deny someone care that was the only chance they had. Removing the possibility is still murder.

[-] Modva@lemmy.world 68 points 2 days ago

Message control.

This is why they bought the media in the first place, so what they say is loudest.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

it's happening on here too. I've had numerous people argue that his death changed nothing.

bots must be cheap.

[-] NutWrench@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Sympathy? Hmm . . . let's see . . . sympathy . . ok. I'm sorry he didn't contract a really ferocious strain of ass-cancer that his insurance didn't cover.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 34 points 2 days ago

All we could do for pity is to throw a fire extinguisher into his grave. Where he is, he will need it.

[-] Sabata11792@ani.social 8 points 2 days ago

Sorry, fire extinguishers are wasted on dragons.

[-] Chozo@fedia.io 98 points 2 days ago

We've received your request for additional sympathy. Our advanced AI systems will now determine your claim's eligibility.

...

...

Oh, sorry, looks like it's been denied.

[-] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

That costs money.

Also: no.

[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

Thank you for calling sympathy customer service. Your call is important to us, a representative will be with you shortly.

We are currently experiencing unprecedented call volume at this time. Please wait for the next available representative.

the worst music ever at the highest volume possible starts playing

[-] trumpetmouth@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

i don't cover that - sorry!

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 84 points 2 days ago

Demanding sympathy is the height of pity.

Pathetic. Maybe figure out why no one has any sympathy for the guy.

[-] bizarroland@fedia.io 50 points 2 days ago

"I demand you respect me!" said the person who is fundamentally undeserving of respect

[-] ccunning@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago

“You can consolidate wealth or consolidate respect, but not both”

@ccunning@lemmy.world (just now)

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[-] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 6 points 2 days ago

I will not show them the single touch of sympathy or pity or anything. Why should I? People like that would not only never show me the slightest sympathy, but they would also go out of their way in order to fuck me over and waste my time and money and then act like any reaction other than cock sucking them is criminal violence.

[-] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 58 points 2 days ago

People you fucked over don't sympathize with you?

Boo-fucking-hoo.

[-] PunnyName@lemmy.world 66 points 2 days ago

There's no prior authorization for thoughts and prayers.

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 days ago

my beliefs prevent me from providing prayers.

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[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 44 points 2 days ago

Thank you for needing the working class to exist. We have received and reviewed your request for sympathy towards your continued indifference to human suffering. Unfortunately we must reject your claim…

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 28 points 2 days ago

We should offer to help them stand with him in solidarity, so to speak

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago

The persecution complex is going to get even more people killed as CEOs grow more paranoid and bodyguards more trigger happy.

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[-] Embargo@lemm.ee 19 points 2 days ago
[-] Rooskie91@discuss.online 14 points 2 days ago

Sure, just as soon as they meet our demands for better compensation.

[-] Reality_Suit@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Fuck the American oligarchy!

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this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2024
526 points (98.7% liked)

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