Radicalized by pain? Maybe what did it instead was an understanding of the murderous effects of greed.
Below is the short manifesto written by Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last week. To our knowledge, no major news outlet has published this in full, found in his backpack when Mangione was captured in Altoona, Pennsylvania. We believe it’s newsworthy enough to share here and insightful about Mangione’s potential motivations.
“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
Boo! Hiss!
Crossing this here hope that’s ok.
Yeah, him and several million other people, including my niece and about twenty other people in our family.
What I find fascinating about the response to the healthcare CEO’s murder is that there’s substantial sympathy for the killer, across the political spectrum, which suggests that both left and right recognize that health insurance companies are immoral/evil/should-be-illegal, but there’s not equivalent support for the one actual solution to the problem, socialized medicine. Americans, especially conservatives, have been brainwashed so badly that even when they recognize a problem, they can’t recognize the obvious solution - which means all they can do is be mad about it and lash out. The archetype of the “vigilante hero” who enacts simple solutions is so ingrained in the culture’s fiction, that becomes appealing in reality, but it leaves the problem entirely untouched. And I think that’s part of Trump’s appeal - people see him, perversely, as a vigilante hero, but instead of solving the problem, he actually makes it worse (which just makes people more angry and in turn more likely to vote for Trump or other authoritarians posing as populists).
Yes. They tend think the problem is some greedy, corrupt fat cats, not the existence itself of health insurance. The system just it what it is to them, like water coming out of the tap or roads somehow gwtting fixed and repaved.
And of course, most Muricans know so little about other countries that they have no idea how much worse our Healthcare system is, in large part because of insurance (and of the privatization and financiaization of so much else in that system).
^^^all. of. that.^^^
i don’t know if it is the decline in education, the rise of right wing propaganda broadcasting, or some combination with bad faith actors wanting to see just how far this dystopia can be pushed. you (and @Shuck) have got it right… the magas don’t know what is making them soooo angry, but if the bad faith actors tell them it is “teh libruls”, or you, or me… well, then that’s who “done 'em wrong”.
they won’t know what hit 'em when it - inevitably - crashes down upon all of us!
Just moments ago I checked out the Midnight Pals to see if Luigi had turned up there yet. Alas, no.
That’s it, isn’t it? I make the mistake of assuming the right views the problem the same as the left: as a systemic problem, where people are reduced to lashing out at the symptom due to the inability to address the issue through an uncorrupted, representative government. Instead they think it’s an individual problem, where if only the CEO would settle for slightly less money, it would all be fine - and they completely ignore what a health insurance company is and does, fundamentally. Ugh, it’s just layers of ignorance, each of which seems impenetrable.
Lakeland woman threatens insurance company, says ‘Delay, Deny, Depose’: police
A Lakeland woman was charged Tuesday after police said she ended a call to an insurance company with the words, “Delay, Deny, Depose.”
In an arrest affidavit, the Lakeland Police Department said officers were contacted by the FBI on Tuesday, Dec. 10 regarding an alleged threat made over the phone.
I’m going through a minor kerfuffle over an insurance claim myself. I think I missed my chance to call my ins rep sounding suitably outraged and have it do any good though.
Following President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter, AI appears to be the source of some posts that incorrectly claim former presidents also pardoned relatives.