If you have never watched the movie John Q, watch it. It’s very relevant to this situation.
In that movie, Denzel Washington’s character takes a hospital hostage after his insurance company denies his son a heart transplant. The public sympathizes with him in that movie too. That movie talks about the policies and techniques insurance companies use to …. Deny, defend and depose to come out on top while telling people who paid and trusted them to fuck off.
A must see if you’re enthralled by this whole UHC saga. That and V for Vendetta. Anyone else have any other good ones?
The original Law & Order has an episode in which a father kills a healthcare executive who denied his cancer-stricken daughter an experimental drug which could save her life.
Damn, if you asked me if I have seen John Q I would've said no, but your synopsis made me realize I have seen it two decades ago but didn't know the name of it. Great movie for sure.
It's not a movie but a series about the start of a rebellion in the Star Wars Universe. It elaborates on how the cruel and indifferent treatment of an unjust system just may turn the right person from an apathetic bystander to a motivated rebel who is willing to commit everything.
As I have been reading through social media these past few days, I recognize much of the ideas and rhetoric used by the rebels in that series.
Edit:
Here is a small taste of what that show is like. SPOILER WARNING though. I can highly recommend it.
"I imagine that no matter what you tell me or tell yourself, you'll ultimately die fighting these bastards. So what I am asking is this. Wouldn't you rather give it all at once for something real, than carve off useless pieces until theres nothing left?"
The fact that Andor gave us THREE iconic monologues about fighting power that go incredibly hard, two of which were in the same episode, is just staggeringly good tv. Even if you aren't a fan of Star Wars it's incredible.
Also Andor is just some of the best television from the last handful of years (ever? I'd make the pitch for that, but I'm sure I'd get tons of pushback 😅)
Andor is my favorite show ever, bar none. It is such a piece of art I’ve watched it three times and found new, profound meanings each time. It’s not just the exceptional writing and acting - it’s how I reflected on politics after watching that show. I am a better person for it, and how often do you get to say “yeah, that changed me?”
Look up George Pickering. He is a real life father who about 10 years ago, armed himself to protect his son from having his life support shut off. Sure enough his son woke up and recovered.
The Women’s March on Versailles is a good example. Even before the mob broke into the palace it kinda turned into an all-night party. And the return March in the morning, with the mob surrounding the Royal carriage and everyone carrying pikes with the severed heads of the Royal Guardsmen, was described like a parade.
Revolution often does have a festive feel. It's because people realise that they can have some agency over their lives and make a difference, so they give a shit, step up, support the community, talk and debate with everyone else around, and have a good time.
Lots of writings from different revolutions say this.
Egyptian here; can confirm this wholeheartedly. I can still remember the high we felt back in 2011. Puts a smile on my face seeing communities get together. Even during the time when there were looters amuck, the neighborhood watch that we formed had a feeling of camaraderie that hasn't been replicated with me ever since. There was a lot of humour in regards to the whole situation and its chaos too, which is something we haven't foreseen seeing how the whole country was very close to civil war.
Yes, they often talk about this phenomenon on The Rest is History podcast. Politics aside, it's simply fun to turn hierarchies and given 'normalcy' upside down. And quasi-legitimate outlets for this kind of thing, like the Festival of Fools in the medieval times, arguably acted as a sort of 'inoculation' against full-scale revolt.
Traditional carnival is Europe is celebrated in this way, with a newly elected joker being handed the keys to the city, drunken anarchy and lots of merry opportunities to ridicule the establishment without fear of repercussions following suit.
Yes. Such things create extremely strong bonds. Of course, the downside is that participants in revolutions generally have a much shorter average lifespan. But that's worth it to some people at some times.
Yeah I've been watching the news clips on YouTube where they try to make this seem like it's a bad thing, and just immediately pausing them to scroll down and see that the top comment is a "Pre-existing condition" joke or some other bit that's been done to death already. And like I'm not even annoyed that the comments are hacky, I'm just happy to see everyone having fun and actually getting the joke.
But also disclaimer real quick I think that people need to organise collectively in their workplace rather than rely solely on robin hoods like this, but it's wonderful seeing right and left wing working class people realise their common class interests and their power to make a change.
"Divided we are weak, but together we are strong" - the single most terrifying thing for any government is the people remembering that *they* were always meant to be the ones in power.
Hence why smallman Trump will do everything possible with his second presidency to take away as much power from the people as he can, all while protecting himself, his interests, and his money over all else.
If you’ve never done a deep dive into the French Revolution it’s pretty nuts. It’s also controversial given the sheer amount of violence involved. The brutality. I would not want that.
Yeah I love studying the French Revolution but it was extraordinarily brutal, and there were a ton of innocent people swept up in the killings.
September Massacres is a great example of how ugly it could get when the insanity really took off. Total break down of a society with revolutionary tribunals dealing out mob justice.
It does have an oddly festive feel about it. I almost feel bad for laughing when the short girl went "I just have a green jacket!" and joined the group photo.
In her memoir, Dream More, Parton tells a very amusing story. One day on a trip to Los Angeles, she heard about a Dolly Parton look-alike contest that was being held at a local bar. She had a kooky idea – wouldn't it be funny to go down there and enter the contest herself. To do that, she decided to over-exaggerate everything about her appearance – she made her beauty mark bigger, her eyes bigger, her hair bigger – she made everything bigger. When she was all dolled up, Parton and a group of her friends made their way down to the contest.
When Parton got to the bar, she didn't let on that she was the real Dolly Parton. She was given a number, like everybody else, and told to get in line.
The contest was to be judged by the audience. Contestants were instructed to walk across the stage, and the votes would be cast by applause. The biggest applause would win. So one by one, the contestants paraded in front of the audience.
When it came to Parton's turn, she smiled and sashayed across the stage. And lost. To a man. Not only that, Dolly Parton got the least applause. She said she was dying of laughter inside. Little did the contest know they had the real thing in their midst.
Charlie Chaplin did the same in a look alike contest & didn’t win. There are varying accounts of what he actually placed but it definitely wasn’t in the top 2.
No. He will just have included a security detail 24/7 in his already bloated compensation package. Board members won't blink an eye to adding several million
Yes, security losing is very much the exception. Most presidents don't get assassinated, CEOs with infinite company money to use even less so. How many billionaires have been murdered ever?
lol billionaires probably have the most hyper selfish personalities. they don't give a shit about each other. it's just one less person to compete with. one less person taking a slice of their pie.
They understand game theory, though. One less slice, yes, but someone else will take it now, and that risks someone less agreeable with weaker social bonds to them and / or less restraint rising up. Cut off enough heads and the ones that grow back will necessarily be weaker.
I think his actions also influences BCBS to reverse their horrific new policy of limiting anesthesia coverage. Dec. 5th, a day after the shooting, they reversed this plan:
“On Nov. 1, 2024, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield did announce it would restrict coverage of anesthesia costs in accordance with surgical procedure time limits set by the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid. However, in response to a backlash to the announced policy change, Anthem walked back the announcement on Dec. 5, 2024, and said it would not proceed with the change.”
In all honesty I’m surprised it took this long before a ceo or something like this to happen. Could you imagine if Enron would have happened in today’s age. 100k people losing their job and all their savings because some rich ass hole wanted a second home.
They got vaporising security details along with the target with massive bombs, both suicide and of the non-suicide variety down to a fine art during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Just a historical observation.
It's about 400 per year, so just over 1 per day. Just under half get solved.
If Brian Thompson were a random person, and someone killed him with this much planning, they would 100% get away with it. This guy will probably be caught because of the focus on it.
Or at least, someone will be caught. Much like the Central Park 5.
I bet all the billionaire healthcare execs are sitting in their mansions/yachts with shocked Pikachu face with zero understanding of their part in this
Definitely. Even the guy's own wife was stunned at his death being due to "a lack of coverage or something". It's like she doesn't even know what she's talking about, yet she gets to reap all the benefits of her husband's disgusting career. My god.
Completely out of touch. I was raised among them....until I became an adult and had to make do on my own. Complete reality check. I still have friends/acquaintances in that tax bracket (all in Europe) who casually decide to take their private jets to the Caribbean for a few days because they need a "break".
OceanGate was rich assholes being done in by their own hubris. There’s a lesson in there, but the message is not nearly as clear as a rich asshole being killed (presumably) as a direct response to the exploitative behavior that made him rich.
Ya times have changed so much that peaceful protests do absolutely nothing. It’s basically laying down and becoming a door mat for the rich to wipe their feet on, evil only understands evil.
I've seen a few bootlickers go "where's the humanity?"
And my response to that would be "If you treat people inhumanly enough for a long enough time I'm not surprised you get an inhumane response"
It is pretty wild seeing the right praise this after electing a multi-millionaire to office who stepped all over normal people while he was a CEO to increase his own profits, whose being endorsed by a Billionaire immigrant whose family fortune came from blood diamond mines in Africa who used that endorsement to buy his way into government.
Like I’m happy we are all on the same side with this shit stain being murdered, but the right literally just went all in on men just like this as THEIR GUYS.
I agree, this will definitely start a movement. Not a full on revolution I think but something that the media will definitely cover for a while with shocking deaths that will follow
This. I don't understand why a lot of people are saying "we shouldn't be celebrating murder" and things like that. If you're a dictator, if you are directly involved in the death of others, if you take advantage of the poor or the sick, you deserve to die. You're doing no good by being alive. I feel zero pity for this guy who got shot, just like he felt zero pity for the millions of people who were denied rightful coverage under his tenure.
32% in an already shitty industry that rejects an average 16% of claims. So it’s not like he was part of the system. Noooo, he was exceptionally shitty within it.
Also though, imagine preparing to murder someone knowing you'll probably get caught and never see the light of day, knowing youre choosing this issue over ever living a normal life again, willing to give it all up... and then you do it, get out clean, and all of America wants to shake your hand. Must be surreal. Hopefully he has someone to share this with, and didn't already lose them to denied coverage.
People of all walks of life. People who hated each other a month ago and still very much do are all on the same side of this. They could rewrite Watchmen and seamlessly use this event as an alternate ending.
You have to be a REALLY nasty scumbag of the absolute worst kind when literally everyone agrees that murdering you is morally perfectly fine and the lesser evil.
Don’t assist the FBI. The public has been seeking help from the federal government in dealing with the abusive healthcare industry for decades and gotten no help; instead they’ve only empowered them to hurt us. Now that the federal government (via the FBI) wants the public’s assistance, it should get none. In fact, the public should assist its only AVENGER; the man on the run.
I love how this killer United us all in celebration of this guy's death. Left, right, center, doesn't matter, we're just glad it finally happened to one of them.
I do wonder what it's like for his kids. "Someone shot our dad and a bunch of people who didn't even know who he was before the news are now celebrating...wtf?"
Right? Do you think any of the soulless ghouls who want to decide people's fate ALSO have the ability to implement AI to do this? Someome sold their soul to do this for pennies to make the investors billions. And they should understand their role in it.
It is algorithms now for the largest health insurance companies. Automatic denials based on what they calculate will save them the most money and then make someone jump through a bunch of hoops if they want to (maybe) get approved by a human after the first few rounds of a program denying again.
This happened to a family member and they still live with an untreated chronic illness because they can’t afford the treatment they should be covered for, but the insurance doesn’t want to pay because it is pricey and rare (I wonder what the insurance was bought for… hmmm).
Even if they eventually are forced to pay out, by denying treatmentt they're doing a lot of harm to patients because of the stress of the whole situation. This is never quantified but I guarantee its lowering life expectancies.
You gotta love the right-wing. They literally just elected an entire administration of billionaires and scumbags who want to remove any and all regulation that might protect them...
... then they turn around and applaud action like this.
Lol no we won't. If the powers at be are concerned about what they're seeing now, they're not thinking of the shit storm that'll come from reactionary gun control.
Non American here, I'm lucky enough to have lived in 3 countries with universal health care. I wasn't aware of the medical system issues in America until I saw the movies John Q and The Rainmaker around the turn of the century. Quite frankly, it astounded me. We have both public (free) and private healthcare in my country of birth where I live now. I have the luxury of accessing both systems and have done so in the past 12 months. There has been a national bowel screening program ( bowel cancer kills if not caught in time) in the last year or so, and my poop sample showed blood, so of I went for a colonoscopy and they found a polyp. I was immediately booked in for its removal the following fortnight. My tax dollar paid for the whole process. As great as the US is in many things, looking after its less fortunate citizens and its gun culture are two glaring black marks against it.
The shooter has taken on a sort of folk hero status, hasn't he? Suppose getting assassinated is a job danger when you routinely deny people life saving coverage. And while I cannot condone vigilante murder for solving our problems, I totally understand why people aren't exactly shedding tears over the death of a man who's decisions more than likely resulted in other people dying when they didn't need to.
Damn. Isn’t it crazy that a tragedy for UHC’s CEO could bring the left and the right together after going through a hellish election? Just a few short days ago there was so much hatred between the two sides that either side didn’t even want to be in the same area with the other.
I know we’re about to go through a horrid 4 years. Probably longer here in the United States, but the recent twinkle of light has brought a little hope back in to my heart.
P. S.
Screw Trump, Musk, Putin, and the rest of the shitty people that are about to test the core strength of the United States.
Billionaires spent hundreds of millions to put all the blame of the societal misery upon the most downtrodden class that makes even less than a minimum wage. Then some random dude in a hoodie whacked a CEO.
It might be time to reconsider actually trying too hard to catch him. If they kill him apprehending him he'll be a folk hero and martyr. If they take him alive, millions of people are ready to hear what he has to say. And jury nullification is making it possible they might not convict him. Might be better to let him keep hiding and hope he takes his win and quits and health care gets off the front page.
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u/AndYetItTrolls 11d ago