General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI feel like there's a generational divide in how One views the "vigilante" ceo murder
I am very interested to know whether the people that are upset and believe that we are cheering on a murderer are of an older generation?
And I could be very wrong. But it feels like those of us who are Gen x and possibly younger, see this more for what it really is.
And I personally see it through the lens of rage at corporate billionaires and millionaires in general.
I personally believe that it is high time that these motherfuckers start watching their backs. I don't condone murder, however I do believe that many of these systems that are broken are not going to fix themselves - and the rich people sure as fuck aren't going to fix it for us.So that maybe a little vigilante justice in the streets is deserved.
Trump and his ilk are not going to get a race war which is what they were trying to start. Instead there's going to be a class war. Again this is just my observation and opinion, take it with a grain of salt...
Silent Type
(7,339 posts)private insurers under ACA and Medicare Advantage, but even they have not been effective.
Johnny2X2X
(21,883 posts)They've spent 60 years stopping the Democrats in Congress from fixing the health care system.
If Dems had complete power for any extended period we'd have Single Payer Universal Health Care right now.
newdeal2
(1,135 posts)Johnny2X2X
(21,883 posts)OK, so Republicans get 98% of the blame, and Conservative Democrats get 2%.
This si where we've failed, Democrats have tried to fix health care for generations, it's Republicans who have stopped it, not Congress.
Blaming it on "Congress" makes it seem like, "Well, both sides can't get anything done, no one is working for us." When in fact, if you could get just 5 Republicans in the Senate to go along with what the American Public really wants, we'd have Medicare for all.
questionseverything
(10,299 posts)Cirsium
(1,158 posts)Who could forget Max Baucus?
"We have Max Baucus, who represents a single node, as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee," Blumenthal explains. On his computer screen, lines radiate from Baucus to five of his former Senate staffers. Two of them served as chief of staff to Baucus, the top job in his Senate office.
All five now lobby Congress for various interests. Among their clients: drugmakers Wyeth, Merck, Amgen and AstraZeneca, plus the third-largest corporation in the world, Wal-Mart.
"In Washington, relationships are part of the huge game of influence," Blumenthal says. "If you don't have a relationship with someone on the Hill, then you aren't going to have the kind of access that you need for your client." And so, he says, these lobbyists and their clients have a unique brand of access to one man at the center of the health-care debate.
https://www.npr.org/2009/07/22/106655060/who-has-access-to-max-baucus
In 2009 the following Democratic lawmakers have indicated opposition to the healthcare plan moving through the House.
John Adler (N.J.)
Jason Altmire (Pa.)
John Barrow (Ga.)
Dan Boren (Okla.)
Rick Boucher (Va.)
Allen Boyd (Fla.)
Bobby Bright (Ala.)
Travis Childers (Miss.)
Jim Costa (Calif.)
Henry Cuellar (Texas)
Parker Griffith (Ala.)
Frank Kratovil (Md.)
Betsy Markey (Colo.)
Eric Massa (N.Y.)
Jim Matheson (Utah)
Charlie Melancon (La.)
Walt Minnick (Idaho)
Tom Perriello (Va.)
Earl Pomeroy (N.D.)
Heath Shuler (N.C.)
Bart Stupak (Mich.)
John Tanner (Tenn.)
Gene Taylor (Miss.)
Autumn
(46,667 posts)CEO's in charge of doling out what treatments we are allowed to have.
dawg
(10,775 posts)Don't condone it.
But I do understand it.
misanthrope
(8,300 posts)you are well familiar with the sentiment. It's been bubbling for a long time.
kerry-is-my-prez
(9,409 posts)and people protesting against the war in Iraq and creepy Nixon. I was a bit young to be a participant but loved the hippies - they were so much fun. Because they were so clever and funny - a lot of people (including middle-aged people) did a 180 and wanted to be cool like the hippies. I wonder if we had some people around that were that clever if attitudes would change.
The Wandering Harper
(772 posts)I look at the TV
Your America's doing well
I look out the window
My America's catching hell
I just wanna know, which way do I go
To get to your America?
I just wanna know, which way do I go
To get to your America?
I change the channel
Your America's doing fine
I read the headlines
My America's doing time
I just wanna know, which way do I go
To get to your America?
I just wanna know, which way do I go
To get to your America?
Go west young man, go west young man
Go west young man, go west
Don't want to crossover
Go west young man, go west young man
Go west young man, go west
But how do I keep from going under?
Where's my picket fence, my long, tall glass of lemonade?
Where's my VCR, my stereo, my T.V. show?
Where's my picket fence, my long, tall glass of lemonade?
Where's my VCR, my stereo, my T.V. show?
I look at the T.V
I don't see your America
I look out the window
I don't see your America
Bettie
(17,390 posts)too. I don't really care that the guy is dead, he killed more than one person through policies he green lit.
My Gen Z son was here today. He is a pharmacy tech in a poor neighborhood and every day he sees people who can't afford necessary medications or who get there to find out that their insurance won't cover their meds anymore for whatever reason. It makes him so angry and he wonders why people have to pay for insurance when they can just arbitrarily refuse to cover whatever they please.
Older Gen Z son is happy the CEO guy is dead, hopes it makes some of the others take a look at what their decisions do to other people. I guess he's an optimist, because I know they won't do anything different, in fact, the next guy might have an even "better" plan to deny 40% of claims instead of a measly 32%.
Klarkashton
(2,286 posts)Murdered should be taken into account when really shitty things are being planned or are done to the population at large. Maybe it would give the ones in charge of everything a moments pause.
Hope22
(3,106 posts)Impossible to draw a line. Ask the school kids how this will all work out. Good luck with that.
Klarkashton
(2,286 posts)kerry-is-my-prez
(9,409 posts)Hope22
(3,106 posts)This isnt a video game and too many people cant distinguish real life from our games and movies ..or our insane President elect who would adore a bloodbath on the streets as long as he is safely somewhere else!
FirstLight
(14,311 posts)I am not condoning that kind of behavior and I thought that that was clear. However these millionaire billionaires need to definitely think a little harder about the people that they're screwing and how it can come back to bite them in their ass
MichMan
(13,561 posts)Not clear
FirstLight
(14,311 posts)talk to text, i was just making a statement while sitting in the grocery store parking lot. sorry it was too vague
Tweedy
(1,220 posts)I should be with you by your analysis.
Murder is murder to me.
FYI United Healthcares delays helped kill my brother before he was fifty. That company should be bad faith claimed out of business and would be if our right wing courts and legislators were not hellbent on destroying the legal heritage we have! to protect us from such monstrous behavior.
LauraInLA
(1,355 posts)Here in CA, weve had their PPO. My husband says theyre a common insurer for tech companies and supposedly in the Bay Area they might be ok. But here in Los Angeles, neither my gynecologist nor my pulmonologist would accept even the PPO. The pulmonologist said he once gave a patient a physical and was reimbursed $60 by UH. They also delay repayments to doctors and do all the other bad things that make physicians unwilling to work with them. I had to have an MRI, EEG, and ultrasound after a transient eschemic event (brain scare), and I was very lucky we were able to pay the multiple $1000+ bills. My large hospital-based system and associated primary care doctor did accept UH, which tells me something.
Of course, our experience has not been anywhere near as terrible as that of your family. Again, Im so sorry.
The Wandering Harper
(772 posts)none have come out against this bit of vigilantiism,
and many in favor.
Where I stand is in line with this
https://democraticunderground.com/100219795724
and I agree it looks like many of the problems we face,
we're gonna have to step up and
take care of business ourselves somehow
DeepWinter
(591 posts)so many Democrats supporting murder "when it's the right person". Unreal. It's been very eye opening as to who exactly we are. And are not. A lot of DMs expressing the same thoughts here on DU.
Easterncedar
(3,649 posts)And that includes our sending drones to target terrorists. No assassinations. Including bin laden. Isolate, arrest, try them. No extractions for secret interrogations in foreign countries or life sentences without trial at gitmo. Hows that for an extreme position?
Omnipresent
(6,482 posts)Im hoping that these living CEOs feel less at ease about fucking people out of health care, that they are supposed to receive!
Why should school children always be on the front line to live and die this way?
Nigrum Cattus
(230 posts)The younger generation hasn't been screwed over enough to
react accordingly. Just wait, it ain't gunna get better anytime soon.
A jury just let off the NY subway strangler, the same could happen
to the CEO hunter.
kerry-is-my-prez
(9,409 posts)Since one person was a nice-looking ex-military white guy doing it against a mentally ill black guy he got off. This guy will not get off since he was an anti-establishment person acting against an establishment rich white guy and it was more of a singular act, he will not. I just remember back to when I took the subway in Chicago and there were people acting up on the train and you just ignored them - if it was one of those situations where the guy got strangled or if this person was being more threatening and could have hurt someone. If it was the former, I would have seen a lot of murders on the train. Since I worked in mental health and used to have to stop stupid fights over ash trays or people wiping down another persons table, I tend to be not too scared by people having harmless mental health episodes. You can tell the difference between one of those situations and someone being psychotic and dangerous. If someone is loudly talking to themselves and threatening to kill people, then cross the street or get away from them. If theyre grabbing people and hurting them, maybe a chokehold is warranted. I would think that you could put someone in a choke-hold without killing them though. Its possible that the strangler had PTSD since he had been in the military.
markpkessinger
(8,587 posts)Malcom X was killed by Thomas Hagan, then a member of the Nation of Islam, who stated in a 1977 affidavit that he and four others planned the murder as revenge against Malcom X for having criticized Elijah Muhammad. Doesn't seem like that had much to do with conservatives.
Bonx
(2,235 posts)Is 'what it really is'.
intheflow
(29,054 posts)He ran a company that denied valid claims at 2-3 times the rate of other insurers, and that only got worse when he decided AI would be even more effective for him, personally, since now he doesnt have to hire people to deny claims. People who want costly things like a living wage and reliable healthcare. What he did was legal, but it wasnt innocent.
Bonx
(2,235 posts)Your court of personal opinion has no jurisdiction.
intheflow
(29,054 posts)if we lived in a sane world where robber barons didnt get rich off of human suffering. Your being an apologist for heartlessness is duly noted.
Response to intheflow (Reply #68)
Post removed
SARose
(860 posts)For some unknown reason the video of this shooting brought flashbacks to JFKs and Oswalds killings. Dont know why.
I understand the anger. I do. I am fortunate to be a State retiree. We dont have near the restrictions other Medicare insurees have. Our extras are guaranteed by the State. Never been turned down for any test, procedure or surgery.
Put up with a lot of crap for a lot of years to get to this point. Was it worth it? Some days yes - others heck no!
sarisataka
(21,284 posts)[Notice the lack of a "but", "however", "except", etc.]
It is the same as when I say "I am against the death penalty". No qualifiers for extra-bad criminals, or if it is done via the state or "street justice".
Genevra
(35 posts)I'm a boomer, not by choice, of course. There's my disclosure.
I absolutely have not one shred of sympathy/empathy/compassion left to "donate" to representatives of corporate raiders who implement the greed that is diagnostic of the GOP (which I now refer to as The New Fascist Republican Party). Nothing absolutely nothing since the FDR presidency has moved or inspired the Republican gazillionaires in our country to remember that our country made it possible for them to become gazillionaires and that they are BEHOLDING to us. And Reagan was their "boy" for guaranteeing that our gazillionaires never paid taxes again. That's hyperbolic, but I think you get me.
Healthcare greed is the most egregious. Did Thompson deserve it? I have no idea. Does who he stereotypically represents deserve to be put on notice by this murder. Absolutely.
I appreciate your patience with my rant.
FirstLight
(14,311 posts)There was a kids movie decade or more ago..."A Bug's Life" and it was about the big, mean, greedy grasshoppers taking all the food from the ants...
And there's a speech by the Grasshopper in charge about "If they figure out there's more of them than us, our WAY OF LIFE is in trouble! This isn't about FOOD, it's about keeping those ants in LINE!"
so yeah...i see it the same way. whether it's outright shots fired in the street or some other movement. it's well past due.
Genevra
(35 posts)Thanks taking the time to read my rant.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,952 posts)And my fucks have run so dry its a huge fuckless desert wasteland for that asshole.
Jilly_in_VA
(11,110 posts)and I THOROUGHLY understand the rage. I've dealt with insurance companies both as a nurse and as a patient and they SUCK. By all that is holy, they suck BIG TIME. Yes, it's Congress and the RepubliKKKans' damn fault, but this asshole was the symbol of everything that's wrong with it, and while I'm not saying he deserved to die, every time I see that smarmy smiling portrait of him, I want to throw something at it. So yeah, I get it.
TheProle
(3,097 posts)and against vigilantism.
Prairie Gates
(3,570 posts)and the opening notes of The Ballad of Jesse James.
Oh, in the back? Oh, no!
maxsolomon
(35,359 posts)I'm not cheering.
GenThePerservering
(2,675 posts)and I don't really give a crap about this CEO. After years of his predation, he had a lot of blood on his hands, and if justice will not be meted out, and we know it will not be particularly under the Trumpist reign, then vigilante justice will. Maybe that's something these predators might want to remember - this is not a game.
Far better for him to be prosecuted in the courts and thrown into prison (and not a country club), but that would never happen.
Jacson6
(842 posts)NOOO You don't condone murder with that kind of a belief system and attitude.
Cirsium
(1,158 posts)Do you want people to be scared of being killed and that they had better watch their backs? That is the reality already for millions of people. Try driving while Black through many US neighborhoods. Do you condone that?
The point of all of this is that the wealthy and powerful are knowingly making decisions every day for their own benefit that terrorize millions of people and place them at severe risk. People are expressing solidarity with those victims, and not with the victim you want us to worry about.
Millions of poor people suffer and die, the wealthy who benefit from that travesty party down and its all business as usual. One CEO dies, and it's "OMG you all are condoning murder!"
FirstLight
(14,311 posts)thank you for putting it better than I did. Apparently I pissed a LOT of people off by saying what I said. Sorry, not sorry.
leftstreet
(36,417 posts)The more a person identifies with the ruling class, believes the "system" works for and protects them....
Well that's the lens through which they'll process this
Blue_Roses
(13,456 posts)n/t
Cirsium
(1,158 posts)That is clearly the case.
Mr.Bill
(24,871 posts)"They only call it a class war when we fight back."
Popular saying I've read here many times.
dumbcat
(2,132 posts).... that I am reading this here on DU.
Cirsium
(1,158 posts)I am not upset and I don't believe that you are cheering on a murderer.
Lulu KC
(5,019 posts)Perception is subjective. It can "really be" many things all at the same time.
This is what age has taught me.
kerry-is-my-prez
(9,409 posts)a person did get murdered. Sometimes I think hes a hero/martyr and then I realize hes most likely a guy with mental health issues who did something messed up. I remember before I got on Medicare and had a small business struggling to get crappy health insurance for $800 and being told I had a preexisting condition of very mild asthma.
FirstLight
(14,311 posts)but especially with healthcare, it's literally a million to one. For that person's wealth and power...how many had to die?
kerry-is-my-prez
(9,409 posts)More like the public being made more aware of how screwed up the Healthcare system is.
Festivito
(13,596 posts)But I read DU so I tend to override my complacency.
redstatebluegirl
(12,503 posts)I do not condone violence, I do however understand how people feel about these nasty insurance companies.
I has a doctor's appointment this morning. I was told that I would need to pay a $500 "deposit" in order to keep getting monthly trigger point injections for horrible back pain.
It was not the doctors fault, Medicare and the supplemental policy will only pay for three per year. Now I may need to have another back surgery since I can no longer get the shots unless I can pay for them up front.
I totally understand. None of them are any good!
Picaro
(1,846 posts)OverBurn
(1,107 posts)Hellbound Hellhound
(237 posts)The "haves" and their dishonored, lowlife, worthless Pickme enablers who decry the killing are enemies of America at large; They see us as resources, cattle to be milked, chickens to be slaughtered, on the altar of "Profit" because they got a few hundred bucks out of the killing.
Fak 'em. They've killed millions if not billions over the past few decades. They can take a few losses.
As a brief aside, he's becoming known as "The Adjustor". Rightfully so.
To quote the insurance companies, Deny. Defend. Depose.
TBF
(34,754 posts)I have been very invested in this story for someone who doesn't like violence. I guess where I would come down is that when you are truly trying to do something for the greater good - that may be the only time where violence is actually necessary. We are a very sick society that is only getting worse, as evidenced by the election last month.
I feel for Luigi Mangione, somewhere in that magnificent mind and young heart I feel he was trying to do a good thing. But on a practical note, as someone who has also worked in psych, I won't be surprised when he is evaluated for Schizophrenia because he is certainly at the average age for onset, and it would explain a lot.
LauraInLA
(1,355 posts)First off: I do not support vigilantism in any form. But we are so clearly in a very dangerous chickens coming home to roost moment. All of these events are emblematic of people feeling (rightly or wrongly) unheard and (believing they are) taking matters into their own hands. Someone else mentioned the old trope of going postal; we have seen increasing numbers of mass shootings relating to perceived grievances.
I do not know how we can effectively not aspirationally stop this exponentially increasing trend. (And no, simply saying, The wealthy/corporations/etc. need to listen to the people, is not any kind of real tangible solution.)
In closing, I think this article about Americans history of embracing vigilantism is relevant: https://www.popehat.com/p/some-other-america-one-i-do-not-know
Susan Calvin
(2,153 posts)I have the best medical insurance it's possible to get in this country. I also have eyes, ears, and empathy.
Pesky1
(24 posts)Easy on including all Baby Boomers for ridicule. I'm 100% in sympathy with the response spreading around the country blessing this guys' purpose...but maybe short of murder. Hey Democrats...ARE YOU TAKING NOTES?
There has ALWAYS been a very blue side of Baby Boomers, and there was much pushing back against a VERY red America.
Trumpists and types like in the current Repub Paty are connected by age only. Not by character or outlook.
kerry-is-my-prez
(9,409 posts)Only hardcore Republicans were for Nixon. Never heard ANYONE admit to being on Nixon/the Republicans side. And I lived in a very Republican/waspy area.
Evolve Dammit
(19,071 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(116,515 posts)I neither delight in the slaying of the CEO or are upset. I'm just out of fucks to give. I feel numb to all this,
JoseBalow
(5,652 posts)is the class struggle, as it has been all along. People are just resistant to recognizing and accepting that we are not all equal. The game is indeed rigged.
ThePartyThatListens
(246 posts)I'm having a hard time feeling much sympathy for the CEO
BannonsLiver
(18,217 posts)If youre in a situation where youre paying huge amounts for bad health insurance youre more likely to empathize with the overarching issue of how bad our system is. If you have great healthcare insurance or are on Medicare you are less likely to empathize.
ShazzieB
(18,925 posts)I'm a 74 year old boomer, and i am not shedding any tears for that guy. As I said in another post, I don't condone murder, but my emotional reaction to any specific killing is an entirely separate thing. When a classroom full of little kids is gunned down by some glassbowl with an AR15, I can and do react with outrage, but I haven't been able to work up any emotion over this one, and if someone does not approve of that, c'est la vie.
Hellbound Hellhound
(237 posts)Those defending the CEO fear their way of life ending in their death, so of course they'll speak out against, regardless of political stance. They're traitors to America and humanity as a whole.
Fuck the Repubs.
Depose. Deny. Depose.
Meowmee
(6,125 posts)I definitely do not support murdering people this way. And vigilante justice as you described it in your own post is not the right way to go.
However, I completely understand what the situation is with the whole healthcare system and what a scam it is. And I do believe they are murdering and bankrupting people every day with denial, delays, and more. The whole system is deeply corrupt. It has to be made not for profit. And the prices of everything have to be controlled, not just drugs. Universal payer.
The people saying that were supporting a murderer because we point this out are really off their rocker in my opinion. Apparently they dont care about all of the people that are murdered by CEOs and other people who run these companies because thats considered legal. People pay huge amounts of Premiums and then they are denied for valid claims, in any other world that is considered to be fraud, but the laws are all in favor of them to make as much money as they can possibly make.
Its the worst kind of exploitation to exploit people who are sick and desperate to get care for cancer etc and for expensive chronic treatments, or for any treatment. That is one of the main things that makes this country inhumane.
Bt and uhc were being investigated for hc fraud monoply and insider trading related to the announcement of that. That should be a big focus but it isnt.
Sneederbunk
(15,392 posts)Response to FirstLight (Original post)
Buttoneer This message was self-deleted by its author.
usonian
(14,630 posts)I believe that two wrongs don't make a right.
I lived through the 60's and the people who were murdered included JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Harry and Harriette Moore, Fred Hampton, Medgar Evers, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, Emmett Till, and the list goes on and on.
And jack shit is done after the mass murders of little kids.
Leaves me speechless (for a change)
🪷
RockRaven
(16,534 posts)There may be a class divide about the morality of it, or a personal experience divide.
If there is a generational divide about something, it seems to be the performative signaling of disapproval. Different generations seem to be more willing to make dark jokes or not, or demand others vocalize a condemnation or not, etc. But those things do not actually indicate the speaker's moral judgement about the act itself.
Clouds Passing
(2,716 posts)Classism is the real problem.
No one human is better or more special than any other. We are all born naked and leave his earth alone. We are all equal. This is not religion. This is universal truth.
-misanthroptimist
(1,226 posts)...have taken an extraordinary amount of shit since the Age of Reagan. Things have become increasingly corrupt. With no recourse, people will resort to violence. (See: John F. Kennedy quote)
Younger people will, for a variety of reasons, be the ones to resort to violence.
I'm old -old enough to remember JFK. Old enough to remember when corruption was frowned upon and even prosecuted. Old enough to have once respected, and even admired, the US Supreme Court. Things have changed drastically for the worst in my lifetime.
However, I am somewhat fortunate in being old. I'm not going to have to live with this corruption much longer. Young people will have to live with it their whole lives -unless they can change it. How they change it is a function of the world they live in. If they are denied due process by corrupt institutions, then violence (as per JFK) is inevitable. It doesn't matter whether I condemn or condone. It is what the circumstances dictate.
CentralMass
(15,599 posts)Scrivener7
(53,202 posts)I_UndergroundPanther
(12,952 posts)If you cant change things via court because of so much corruption and fear of rich people
Trellastic
(49 posts)The clenching of corporate America's buttocks. At the fear of loss of control and income corporate buttocks tighten like the budgets of so many across the nation.
H2O Man
(75,779 posts)While it is certain not a total divide by age, of course you are correct. I say this as an old person ..... so old my adult children frequently mistake me for a fossil and try putting me in one of my gardens. When I was young, the left had individuals and groups that engaged in various levels of violence. And they had different amounts of support among my generation, while our parents were strongly opposed to them.
Suddenly, and without warning, we are the old generation now. We recognize it is our duty to insist younger generations that the only way to make progress is to stick to what we have been doing for decades, with limited success. And to insist with utter disgust any idea that young people have.
It is important to recognize, however, that we witnessed JFK, Evers, Malcolm, King, RFK, Hampton, and Lennon. We know that our side does not come out "winners," for everyone gets hurt.