Over on liberal utopia, they're celebrating the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Why? As Taylor Lorenz has explained, if you have a relative who's died because an insurance claim was denied then it's only natural to want the same fate for the CEO of the insurance company. Plus, Thompson had gotten rich by denying people health care, so there's a hatred of capitalism at work as well.
Zenyep Tufeckci — yes, that's her real name — is a professor of sociology at Princeton as well as a New York Times columnist, and she joined Taylor in examining that public display of glee over a cold-blooded murder of a husband and father.
Tufekci writes:
I’ve been studying social media for a long time, and I can’t think of any other incident when a murder in this country has been so openly celebrated.
The conditions that gave rise to this outpouring of anger are in some ways specific to this moment. Today’s business culture enshrines the maximization of executive wealth and shareholder fortunes, and has succeeded in leveraging personal riches into untold political influence. New communication platforms allow millions of strangers around the world to converse in real time.
…
A recent Reuters investigation identified at least 300 cases of political violence since the 2021 assault on the Capitol, which it described as “the biggest and most sustained increase in U.S. political violence since the 1970s.” A 2023 poll showed that the number of Americans who agree with the statement “American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save the country” was ticking up alarmingly.
And the fraying of the social contract is getting worse. Americans express less and less trust in many institutions. Substantial majorities of people say that government, business leaders and the media are purposely misleading them. In striking contrast to older generations, majorities of younger people say they do not believe that “the American dream” is achievable anymore. The health insurance industry likes to cite polls that show overall satisfaction, but those numbers go down when people get sick and learn what their insurer is and is not willing to do for them.
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Or, you could just dismiss the psychos celebrating a murder as such.
Weird how this once instance where a bunch of online psychos are happy about a terrible thing is the one where we need to soberly pay attention to the nuthouse. This shit reads to me like "The rage on January 6 proves we need to reform our election system." https://t.co/omyaPJq8ba
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) December 7, 2024
Friendly reminder the media is loathed a thousand times more than any CEO.
— JWF (@JammieWF) December 7, 2024
Funny how all the masks are just completely off the garbage people like you
— Boo (@IzaBooboo) December 7, 2024
The problem is that too many people that feel that resentment - and trust me I understand the rage of dealing with health insurance - live in a fantasy that medical care can be cheap, unlimited & immediately available
— Recovering Woke (@dnvr_is_burning) December 7, 2024
Similar fantasies illuminate many of their other critiques
We were assured that Obamacare had cured all of the problems with health insurance.
Are you subtly advocating for more assassination attempts against corporate CEOs?
— The Goat (@Pebo4Real) December 7, 2024
It can absolutely be dismissed as such.
— pure integer of life and crime (@1_Person1_Vote) December 7, 2024
Your piece is why it rings alarms.
— Molly Jong-Slow (@MollyJongSlow) December 7, 2024
I wish you guys looked into background of the killed. Apparently very humble roots, self made. Bet his killer and those celebrating came from much more affluent places
— Red Head Sophia (@RedHeadS0phia) December 7, 2024
It was journalists, university professors, and online edge-lords. A laundry list of the most mentally unwell among us.
— Larry Hockett, baseball lifer (@LarryHockett88) December 7, 2024
As we reported, university professors were well represented by the "he had it coming" crowd:
Today, we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down.... wait, I'm sorry - today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.
— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) December 4, 2024
Assassinating people is bad. This despicable act changes nothing except Thompson's wife and kids.
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