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[nenjin]

Our office manager got an email shortly before the election from our provider, warning of civil unrest and the impact it might have on our premiums.

So yes. That's real.

[hector13]

“Society is ending.

Your insurance premiums will increase 5%.”

[Frumple]

Rule of law/social structures already breaking down.  CEO of a major US health insurance company was assassinated today.

Because I'm sure that is actually going to make your health care costs go down and/or give you justice for whatever health-insurance-related harm you or a loved one suffered.

Hell, the state of the US health insurance market being what it is, I'm not sure it wouldn't. Been saying since about the point the ACA was implemented, the state of US healthcare is bad enough it would probably be see improvement if you applied the proverbial anticapitalist engineering to its CEOs. There's a lot of folks in high levels of business that are honestly making life worse for... basically everyone not them. Removing them from the equation doesn't necessarily make things better, but it's not like it'd have an easy time of making it worse, either, and maybe the shock would get the folks in question to start wondering if maybe they should throttle back the whole societal immiseration thing they've been cultivating as both lifestyle and hobby.

Not something I'd advocate for or suggest, mind, but the situation's been fucked enough for long enough I'm not particularly sure it would hurt, ha. Maybe we'll be finding out.

[JoshuaFH]

Rule of law/social structures already breaking down.  CEO of a major US health insurance company was assassinated today.

Because I'm sure that is actually going to make your health care costs go down and/or give you justice for whatever health-insurance-related harm you or a loved one suffered.

Surprise surprise, the Capitalist Oligarchs are finally going too far and people with no other recourse are finally fighting back. If the trend continues though, I think the Plutocrats will go full mask-off and hire their own personal armies to start oppressing people for real.

I honestly can't wait, dying in a revolution is so much more dignified than taking my own life at 60 because all social security and care for the elderly have been long destroyed.

[McTraveller]

I just can't get behind that worldview though. You only need violence to fight that stuff if they are violent. You can fight bad monetary and other controlling systems with other means and not incur the losses associated with armed conflict.  After all, these oligarchs aren't oppressing (these) people with military might...

[Egan_BW]

There's more than just one kind of violence. Responding to an insurance company that's supposed to help keep you alive telling you to go die with physical violence is an escalation, but it is not escalating from zero.

[wobbly]

After all, these oligarchs aren't oppressing (these) people with military might...

As someone who works a low paid job, can tell you. It's because they don't need to.

[Frumple]

After all, these oligarchs aren't oppressing (these) people with military might...

... what the blazes do you think the cops are, here? It's not the primary vector for violence being inflicted on the population, mind, but there is absolutely physical violence being applied alongside of everything else.

[McTraveller]

I guess I don't count local police as military, but that's probably splitting hairs.

I'm realizing though, that I'm far enough up the economic totem pole, or in the right demographic, that I'm not targeted by "the oligarchs." So maybe I don't believe it's as dire as people say...because I don't experience it. Reality is somewhere in the middle I suspect.

[wobbly]

I guess I don't count local police as military, but that's probably splitting hairs.

I'm realizing though, that I'm far enough up the economic totem pole, or in the right demographic, that I'm not targeted by "the oligarchs." So maybe I don't believe it's as dire as people say...because I don't experience it. Reality is somewhere in the middle I suspect.

Not targeted so much by the "mlitary" or "some conspiricy", but between what my employer pays and what the landlord charges, the only reason I survive, is because I live with family, instead of renting privately.

Otherwise I'd likely be dead, or fighting not to be. It is actually that bad.

I work full time, and I used to have a life, working the same job. I feel sorry for those of us in my situation, who .... no longer have a life.

[Truean]

Please do not quote

And this is one of the reasons why I go out of my way to be nice to people generally: you never know what they're going through. Everyone deserves better and the world is a shame for not providing it.

There must be some way to deal with this but either nobody's found it or nobody wants to do it because it doesn't make the rich even richer as much as they want to be.

Please do not quote

[McTraveller]

Eh, I don't know that everyone deserves better, but I do agree that it's better if everyone is given at least a comfortable life regardless of how much they deserve it.

The sadness comes in when the amount of effort required to give everyone a comfortable life is not more evenly distributed, and compounded by people saying some other people aren't giving "their fair share" and so they withhold things out of bitterness etc.

The way to help people is ultimately that some people, somewhere, have to simply give out of their surplus with no expectation of return. If you don't have enough people doing that, then the only other option is to force people to give some of their produce to others. This is what taxes are today, and it's definitely not ideal.  Essentially we need better social, cultural, or actually institutional incentives to give surplus to others.  In the US, at least, the predominant culture is "I keep my surplus for myself, I deserve it!" though - it's tough to break the entrenched culture...

[Eschar]

It certainly sends the message that United Healthcare's illegal algorithmic coverage denial system is not acceptable to its victims, ah, customers.

Maybe the CEO shouldn't have had the preexisting condition of cutting off people's medical care for money.

[Lord Shonus]

The odds of this being somebody upset over a coverage denial are slim. This guy used a suppressor, which is something that's just hard enough to get in the US that it is an unlikely tool for a crime of passion. He also methodically cleared the jams (likely caused by low-velocity ammunition - this makes the suppressor more effective but often won't cycle the action) without hesitation, which is not easy to do do so well even for somebody familiar with firearms. Not to mention that he seems to have fired three times (also dumping out three live rounds due to the mentioned jam-clearing) and hit with two of them. That's harder than you might think.

An angry person who wanted revenge for coverage denial would be much more likely to pull out a plain-Jane Glock or AR and dump bullets in the guy's general direction, not this extremely methodical and professional behavior.


It is much more likely that this is something to do with his financial crimes - he was under investigation for insider trading due to him dumping tons of stock shortly before the information about the data breach came out. This cost people a lot of money due to the stock price tanking, and that's the kind of thing that gets people mad. This might even have been an honest-to-god mob hit.

[nenjin]

So the "delay, deny, defend" stuff written on the bullets is a red-herring meant to make this look like a crime of passion?