2mo ago

How embarrassing

192 comments

Can't remember the last time that a headline about someone being shot and killed brought a smile to my face, but here we are. Brian Thompson deserves no sympathy.
- Comment's still up after an hour, yup, looks like the mods here are pretty good. I like this place. Over in /c/news the modlog is insane, looks like it'd be easier to just remove themselves from the Fediverse rather than try and remove all the comments that might hint at "celebrating violence".
  
  Hopefully it stays that way! Most communities here seem to have a fucked up version of moderation where going "I'm glad Hitler is dead" yields a ban for celebrating violence lol
  
  The thing is that none of us celebrate violence and certainly not murder, but when this is the closest thing to justice that we get for people like him?
  
  Id like to formally propose !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world as the new /c/news lmao
- I have an old friend named Brian Thompson who is 100% not this Brian Thompson.
  I feel bad for him having this guys name today and how much shit he'll hear about it.
  
  My college buddy has a last name of Epstein. He did not have a good time for two months straight. And my poor friend Karen now goes by Karey.
  
  Brian Thompson is such a nothing name, I was wondering who it was by the time I got to your comment.
- The NPR article right now on this guy is disgusting
  
  Huh, from your post I'd assumed it painted a brutal picture of him. Instead, it's basically just his family and company saying "he was such a nice man".
  I expected better, NPR.
- I made almost verbatim this same comment in c/news and mods deleted it, instance level tos violation.
  EDIT: Oh, interesting, looks like my 24 ban to all of world got lifted, after I made a thread elsewhere showcasing myself and a bunch of others getting their comments deleted and temp banned.
  Guess lemmy.world uses the old school twitter / twitch approach to moderation.
  
  You can get instance wide ban? How have I not gotten one yet I’ve been really pissing off the libs since they lost the US election by being insufferable
  (Coming from the left)

FBI searching for the killer: United Healthcare denied 2.8M insurance claims in the last year and most of those people have families, so it looks like we have around 10M suspects.
- Thoughts and prayers to the victims of the victim.
  
  Are you a Republican politician?
- From this year.
- Love the name

Thoughts and prayers are considered “out of network” on this one my dude
- Thots 'n pears
  
  If you're gonna use thots in your comment, might as well go with players.
  Thots 'n Players

Bulletholes are actually a preexisting condition. Claim denied.

One thing that should scare the shit out of these fuckers is that nobody is blaming it on their political enemies. Both the left and the right secretly hope it was one of their guys that did this.
- Pick any rural county, and you can find a bus load of people who’ve been screwed over or denied care by health insurance. And for those who do not have a specific, personal grudge, healthcare options in the sticks are increasingly geographic monopolies run by a single provider, with a Byzantine network of in/out network insurers.
  Someone driving their mother four hours for biweekly dialysis or cancer care because the local provider is not covered is going to be pissed. A parent buying their child because the local provider ‘streamlined’ care while slashing nursing headcount is going to be a lot more than pissed.
  
  I knew healthcare was messed up but I legit didn't know how messed up until it happened to me. My daughter got put on a specialty medicine because of a relatively rare kidney condition. It had to be compounded, because she is a small child but the medicine only came in adult doses.
  Aetna denied coverage, stating I had to get the medicine from CVS (which is owned by the same parent company of Aetna). CVS does not compound medicine, so we couldn't get it from them. I spent almost a full year on the phone arguing with them and around $6000 paying out of pocket before I was able to switch insurances.
  I consider myself reasonable. Even in a functioning system, mistakes can happen and need to be resolved, and I spent the first month or more assuming this was just an innocent mistake. What got to me was the total lack of recourse. Day after day on the phone with people, some of whom genuinely seemed to care but could do nothing. They intentionally separate the patients from the people making decisions so that all the decision makers get is a few fields in a form, not the whole story. The people in charge are even more separated so they never have to hear anything about the people they're screwing over. And if I couldn't afford the extra $6000 burden, I just wouldn't have gotten the medicine and in the best case she would have spent that year in and out of the hospital and in the worst she wouldn't have survived the year.
  I tend to think most people are decent. But the system we've built makes sure to separate people by impenetrable layers of bureaucracy to ensure that the decent people either can't do anything or never know there's a problem, while the indecent never have to be confronted with the damage they do. It's insane.
  
  Reason #2193 we should have switched over to universal healthcare decades ago. For profit healthcare and services undermine the very thing they are supposed to provide
  
  Pick any rural county, and you can find a bus load of people who’ve been screwed over or denied care by health insurance.
  Any examples of country with public transport and without UHC?
- Yeah, the sentiment in comments I’m seeing are taking this as the working class fighting back against the ruling class. They should be scared of the 99% waking up to the fact that the 1% are not invincible and their fortunes and bunkers won’t save them.
  
  It was me. I shot Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare.
- In reality it is probably just a guy whose wife's cancer treatment was denied.
  
  I'm guessing it was a child more than a spouse. Could be a spouse. But kids are next level assholery.
- saw someone post about how the post that is mourning the CEO in facebook got ratio'd hard by laughing emojis, a platform that is largely conservative boomers.
  even though conservatives don't like socialized healthcare, they seemed to hate private insurances more.
  
  Maybe this is the event that unites the working class 🥰
- Reminds one part of this video(5:10).

I didn't even know who this guy was until a few hours ago, but holy shit I am glad he got what was coming to him, and I hope the shooter never gets caught and lives a long and prosperous (and most importantly, free) life.
- Jury nullification exists for this very reason.
  Did the shooter do something illegal? Yes
  But was it wrong? If I was on his jury, I'd acquit.
  
  If I was the defense attorney, I think this would be the test case for instructing the jury on jury nullification (which will get you sanctioned at a minimum and probably disbarred if you're the attorney that tries it). I think defendants ought to be entitled to instruct the jury about the possibility. I personally would never disclose that I believe in it during voir dire and also would never vote to convict on some crimes.
- I hope his list is just as long.
  1% death squad Santa.
  He's making a list.
  and checking it twice.
  
  I hate that I hope the same thing.
  
  *Click clack
  You've been very naughty this year haven't you, Brian?

Proceeds to play the worlds smallest violin.
- Here, you can borrow mine

Watch this be the catalyst for stricter gun control
- Lol thoughts and prayers.
- The point of having guns is to defend yourselves, Americans.
- NOTHING will make them give up their guns
- I'll take "Things that won't happen" for 100, Alex.
- All these doubting replies don't know how the rich responded to the Black Panthers.
- Shooter wasn’t black

Perhaps the 9mm pistol is the guillotine of the next American revolution.
- NGL if there were copycat crimes targetting other health insurance CEOs, most people would probably herald the vigilantes.
  Yeah murder is bad and all but these guys are responsible for so much death and pain and suffering for making a profit.
  Killer here is a legit antihero. Like Dexter Morgan. In the earlier seasons.
  Really I'm just picturing the scene in Dogma where Matt Daemon and Ben Affleck drop in on a Mooby's board meeting and kill nearly all of them.
  
  Let's not limit ourselves here. The Koch Bros are killing lots of people too.
- Makes sense. 9mm is protected under the second amendment. And our incoming VP says that shootings are a way of life.
  
  They are if you are an asshole. Someone should take the clue.
- It's unfortunate that in Canada they have a handgun freeze that means all current handgun owners in Canada cannot get new guns, and if you get a firearms permit, even a restricted one, you can no longer buy new handguns.
  There are alternatives... but I am not talking.
  
  A pipe with a nail I'd all you would need. Shit. Humanity overthrew leaders and governments without firearms for most of our history. A few CEOs aren't the governments. So....? I am not implying any violence should be taken against any single persons. There are limits to freedom of speech (imo).

Didn't trump claim he could shoot someone in the streets of New York and get away with it? Maybe it was him.
- It's hard to imagine Trump riding a bike.
  
  Suspect fled the scene on a rascal scooter
  
  It was an e-bike though. Automatic pedal
  
  The perfect cover?

Now his life insurance should consider pre existing condition of being a shitbag CEO to deny it.
- lol the irony would be MASSIVE

After being denied .... everyone else's premiums increased by 20%

This is HORRIBLE news! I'm talking about the News about ONE person dying not the MILLIONS he Kills each year!

They gave him a reward, crimestopper!
- Doesn't look like anything to me.
  
  Very weird to share a screencap of an empty store.
- Jury nullification, also known in the United Kingdom as jury equity, or a perverse verdict, is when the jury in a criminal trial gives a verdict of not guilty even though they think a defendant has broken the law. The jury's reasons may include the belief that the law itself is unjust, that the prosecutor has misapplied the law in the defendant's case, that the punishment for breaking the law is too harsh, or general frustrations with the criminal justice system. Some juries have also refused to convict due to their own prejudices in favor of the defendant. Such verdicts are possible because a jury has an absolute right to return any verdict it chooses. Nullification is not an official part of criminal procedure but is the logical consequence of two rules governing the systems in which it exists:
  Jurors cannot be punished for passing an incorrect verdict.
  In many jurisdictions, a defendant who is acquitted cannot be tried a second time for the same offense.
  A jury verdict that is contrary to the letter of the law pertains only to the particular case before it; however, if a pattern of acquittals develops in response to repeated attempts to prosecute a particular offence, this can have the de facto effect of invalidating the law. Such a pattern may indicate public opposition to an unwanted legislative enactment. It may also happen that a jury convicts a defendant even if no law was broken, although such a conviction may be overturned on appeal. Nullification can also occur in civil trials; unlike in criminal trials, if the jury renders a not liable verdict that is clearly at odds with the evidence, the judge can issue a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or order a new trial.
  
  Unfortunately, the justice system works very hard to make nullification seem like a non-option and to only select jurors that agree that it isn't viable.
- Hey, he looks like my friend, John Doe

It's a start
- Propaganda of the Deed is coming back baby

Not as embarassing as being worse than even Russia. American tourists will receive more healthcare in Russia than american citizens in America. I don't know what you need to create universal healthcare system. Medics, academics, ministers of healthcare, communists, all above, books, equipment - anything can be provided, just please make universal healthcare in your country.
Hopefully at least this will cause some positive change to happen.
- Yeah nah. As long as money is in our politics, insurance companies will continue to lobby for keeping the system how it is. They'll never change it because it's a racket. Who the hell thought healthcare should be publicly held and done for profit is the closest thing to pure evil I can imagine.
  
  It's interesting what begins to happen when the political remedies are deemed hopeless.
- Hopefully at least this will cause some positive change to happen.
  Maybe if at least 10 more were to be assassinated, in very rapid succession so they don't have time to catch on to the plot. And throw in some anti-healthcare politicians too.
  I doubt that will ever happen. Tbh, I'm an observer anyway. But one who thinks the country has potential to be so much better, given all the things it's already great at.

I really wanted this headline to be real, but I can’t find it anywhere. I think it’s a photoshopped headline about the real event. Hope someone proves me wrong and provides a link.
- Seems to be fake. Author Phil McKracken seems to be badly spaced and is a name often used for practical jokes, and doesn't appear to have written any other articles.
  Fake image, but the story of him being shot and dying from it is real.
- Photopea was used in this instance
- One way to tell is that people don't get denied medical care because they don't have insurance, they get denied care because the hospital doesn't think they'll be able to pay. It doesn't matter to the hospital if the money comes from insurance or out of the patients pocket. Unlike most patients, this guy can afford 7 figure medical bills.
  
  I assumed that, if it was true, it was because they didn’t know his identity at the time.
- Seeing as the author byline is a dirty pun and the title's punctuation doesn't make sense, I'm pretty sure it's a fake headline.
  
  I didn’t even notice the pun after searching for “Phil McKracken” for at least 30 minutes.

Should have bought working class insurance.

Dececmber? Is that before or after Smarch?
- I don't know, maybe we should ask the author, Phil Mckraken.
- Bthoth, due to the cycylic nature of the caclendadar.

Not guilty.
- Jury nullification

Would the CEO have lived if he had had a gun?
- That requires a good guy with a gun, so no.
  
  and in this case, the good guy did have and shot the gun

Real life Aiden Pearce took him out. This is usually a plot line in Watch Dogs lol.

At least he didn't have to play a game.

One post above I saw an article claiming he got killed. One of these two articles is clearly lying.
The post: https://lemmy.world/post/22772381
- What's embarrassing was seeing lemny try to censor commentary and discussion of events whilst reddit just let things rip.
  I thought this was the free speech platform but reddit put this place to shame. What a let down.
  
  .world instance != Lemmy (lemny) The instance has some rules for content, and discussions around celebrating a murder are getting caught up in that.
  There might be some overstepping of moderation in places, but it must be a bit of a minefield for the mods.
  The best thing for you to get the experience you want from Lemmy is to engage in those discussions in an instance that suits your moderation preferences.
  
  Just like on Reddit, that depends on the moderators of the sub/com. It really couldn't work any other way. .world seems to often err on the side of being inoffensive for the sake of broader appeal. (And probably also not getting in hot water with their hosting partners, acquaintances, etc.)

Funny how even though I have had many fights with health insurance companies I never wished for the death of another human being. But those who think that they are virtuous have no problem celebrating this guy being killed calling it karma. And this comment will be totally downvoted because how dare someone point out their hypocrisy.
- I never wished for the death of another human being
  Neat. I'll bet Brian didn't either.
  The policies under his leadership caused the deaths of many human beings, and prolonged the suffering of many more. Not because he hated them or wished them death, he'd have to care enough to know their names for that, but because denying their valid, good faith claims on buried technicalities as a matter of policy made him and his profiteer shareholders moar profit for their ego score hoards.
  Capitalists don't kill out of hate, their victims are just nameless speed bumps to glorious profit. They kill with a sociopathic shrug, in volume. Their piles of corpses labeled "externalities," aka everyone else's problem but theirs.
  
  That last bit is the truth. I grew up in a wealthy family and saw it from the inside before becoming the radical leftist I am today. Rich people don’t hate you—they literally don’t think about you at all. You are so far removed from their reality that when your complaints occasionally reach their ears, they assume you must be lying. They fundamentally can’t accept that their lifestyle and the way they wield power has consequences for other people.
  That’s why people say “why is this happening” on the way to the guillotine.
- Not having sympathy for the death of another/Saying karma bit them in the ass != Wishing for another's dearh
  
  Why not tell that to the News mods who took down my comment that simply said "and nothing of value was lost" and claimed that was celebrating and promoting violence and a violation of the Terms of Service of lemmy.world.
  (I'm joking about telling them, obviously. Arguing with mods is more pointless than arguing with other commenters, which is already pretty pointless.)
- You've never wished for the death of serial killers? Rapists? Pedophiles? Dictators? Animal abusers? The odd mime?
  Somehow, I don't believe you. But, on the off chance that you're telling the truth... this is for you:
  
  can i get an award too please
- Well aren’t you pious
  I’m ready to go out and celebrate with some drinks over this fucking asshole getting what he deserved. How many millions have him and his ilk killed by denying them healthcare?
  Fuck him and fuck all his bootlickers.
- But those who think that they are virtuous have no problem celebrating this guy being killed calling it karma. And this comment will be totally downvoted because how dare someone point out their hypocrisy.
  "Virtue" is a relative thing. What is virtuous to one person might not be virtuous to another. You, for example, seem to believe that celebrating the death of someone is unvirtuous, even if that person was a monster. This is pure speculation on my part, but I'm also guessing that you hold the belief that nobody deserves to die.
  These beliefs are not universal. While you would be a hypocrite for violating your own strongly held beliefs, it would not be accurate to apply that label to someone who doesn't hold those beliefs. For example, I believe that death is the worst punishment you can give to a person. I also believe that some people absolutely deserve it. I would not find it virtuous to falsely pretend otherwise. I have no moral qualms with celebrating the death of someone who I think deserves it. Similarly, I have no qualms about celebrating good things that happen to a person who I think deserves them. In both cases, I consider those things to be the universe working out as it should.
  
  Not the OP, but I appreciate your ethical explanation.
  I agree partially with you. I don't have a moral issue with the killing of individuals who have engaged in particularly heinous acts: murder, rape, torture, extreme child and spousal abuse, white collar negligence/willfully allowing death to occur through inaction for pay, etc.
  I just don't trust the US or the states to ethically carry out executions, especially given their track record of executing innocent or low IQ individuals. So I'm anti death penalty. Life is cheaper than execution anyhow.
  That being said, I don't have a problem with certain kinds of vigilante justice or vengeance either. Especially vengeance for a loved one. FWIW, I'm not seeking vengeance, but I absolutely get it. Jury nullficaton should always be a right.
  Anyhow, the news isn't in, but I'm rooting for an ethical vengeance situation. He killed a fucking vampire, I hope he's a hero with respectable views. Even more, I hope they never catch him. Either way the fucker is dead, and good riddance. I hope the other CEOs squirm, they need to either get right or go to prison.
  We should be having this discussion in News.
- I think callus indifference is apropos
- And who are you that we should give any shits about your call-out?
- I used to be that way, but post the first Trump administration, I’ve learned that you can’t suffer some witches to live.
- Celebrating someone death does not mean you cant be virtuous. Even killing someone can be considered virtuous in many different cases. Killing out of mercy, to protect others, or to change things for the better can be considered virtuous in many way. Revenge, jealousy and hatred are bad, but a murder comitted over revenge doesnt mean it cannot be celebrated as an opportunity for change or awareness... Victim murder may be wrong even if he was a shitstain for the society, but from his murder maybe good things may happen, maybe its successor may think twice on deciding on the balance between profit and client wellness...
- Terror or not, the Jacobins did nothing wrong and the French Revolution was the right thing to do. (Offlaga Disco Pax, Robespierre)

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