1mo ago

I would wonder.

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Nobody says "Won't someone think of their kids?" when celebrating a mass shooter or a drug kingpin or a foreign dictator being deposed. It's a shitty argument here, too.
- Nobody says "what about their kids" when a poor single parent stealing food to live ends up in jail and their kids in foster care.
  
  They are absolutely thinking of the children. They are thinking about how much more likely they are to end up in the system, more slave labour from the next generation.
  
  Those criminals would have raised their kids to be criminals, too. It’s good the kids will be taken away to be raised by a system that will [checks notes] orphan them, abuse them, and raise them to be institutionalised. That will totally fix the problems of generational poverty and waste of societal potential, preventing those kids from becoming adults who have to steal food so their own kids can live.
- Yeah I never heard anyone say "won't someone think of Osama bin Laden's, like, 30 fukken kids?" Genghis Khan had so many goddam kids that we're still finding bits of Mongol warlord genome stuck in random places like it's craft glitter. Fuckin' Leopold II had four kids, went off to make people-hand soup down in the Congo, and then had three more kids while he was doing it! This is not necessarily an indicator of virtue, folks!
  
  fukken
  Short for 'fukkeng', obviously; whatever the hell that means. Sounds like a city in China.
- The reporting on Brian Thompson feels similar to as if Igor Kirillov (Russian general killed in the scooter bombing) was being reported by Russia Today on how his two kids and wife love him and anonymous staffers praising his work.
- Nobody says “Won’t someone think of their kids?” when celebrating a mass shooter or a drug kingpin or a foreign dictator being deposed.
  I've heard it said unironically a few times about dictators we're allied with who have a sudden fall from grace. The Shah of Iran, the Batista Regime in Cuba, and the brief failed Jeanine Áñez coup in Bolivia all leap to mind. I'm sure we'll get some kind of "President Yoon was a cool dude with a family why is everyone in South Korea so mean to him?" Op-Ed sooner or later. We just stuck the head of Al Qaeda in Syria in charge of the country and I don't doubt we'll get a bunch of "Damn, what a cool guy I can't believe he got got his family will be so sad" stories if he ever accidentally swallows a hand grenade in a power dispute.
  And I can't count the number of articles, TV Shows, and movies that try to lionize the CIA. They're some of the biggest drug runners on the planet. Hell "Charlie Wilson's War" might as well have been "Dr. Heroin the Child Rapist or how I learned to stop worrying and love the Mujaheddin".
  And then you've got the real heavy hitters like American Sniper and Rambo II. Talk about celebrating mass shooters.

If you don't want people to celebrate your death, don't live in a way that makes people want to celebrate your death.
- What's the saying? You shouldn't say anything about the dead unless it's good. So he's dead. Good!
  
  You shouldn’t say anything about the dead unless it’s good. So he’s dead. Good!
  this sounds like a joke from an 80 year old jewish man.
- Thing is that cuts both ways. Lots of us would be happy if certain politicians came to an "untimely end," and just about as many would be pissed as hell. "Doing good" is too often up to the eye of the beholder.
  
  True. There are plenty of people getting ACA benefits who would kill the guy who forced the country to adopt Obamacare.

I mean, I can feel bad for his kids (especially if they're too young to understand, no idea how old they are) and still be of the opinion fuck that guy. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Grief is not a conscious decision and we do not get to choose who we will mourn for and because of that, I do feel for them, but the rest of us are under absolutely no obligation to mourn along with them.
- It's hard to grow up with no dad.
  It's also hard to grow up with a dad who's a bottom feeding scumbag.
  Brian Thompson was a scumbag. We can't say whether it will be better or worse growing up without him. We can only say that if he wasn't a scumbag, he'd probably still be here.

Truth is, people celebrated before we had any idea who this guy was. He wasn’t famous or a public figure before he was killed. People didn’t hate the man that died, nor his kids.
People cheered because of what he represented. People didn’t celebrate his death, they celebrated that it made his type of person look like they aren’t untouchable.
Anyone who has kids and wants to leave a good legacy for their kids will now have to take into account whether they want their kids to end up like this guy’s kids. I know I won’t be accepting any c-suite jobs any time soon, but I’ve turned down jobs in the past because they didn’t align with my morals.
- people like him are not like most of us. The amount of wealth they've acquired is absolutely an indicator of that. There are many legitimate reasons to hate the man.
- Same, I turned one down earlier this year. No amount of money would make me hurt people like he did.
  
  There are a lot of situations out there where people, myself included, say one thing but when it comes down to it, they'd do the same thing if given the chance. I try to be cognizant of that but this is one time where I can absolutely say I wouldn't be in that situation. I've turned down jobs for much less. Granted I wasn't offered anywhere near the kind of money this jagoff was making but money isn't a factor when it comes to something like this.
- Are you the Roofer/ Stormtrooper-unsympathist from Clerks?
  
  So I turned the job over to a friend of mine . . .

Could not care less about some trust fund kids.

There are more people who can say "Brian Thompson killed my father", than there are "Luigi Mangione killed my father."

Hell, my father died and I was excited and happy as a clam, and he was just a normal dickhead.
For all we know, it was the guys kid who made several of the first memes about it!
- If my biological father could just go ahead and kick the bucket, the world would be a slightly better place.
  
  Mine died this year. I was like huh, damn I guess I better go to the ceremony. He told me so many times over the years that he had something saved up for me and my brother when he died, as he brushed close to death right after my brother was born and a few times since. I'm not complaining because I don't care, he was an asshole, but either he was lying about that too or his disgusting wife just got it. She's so terrible I thought she was Jewish the first two years I knew her. It turns out that she just did a "funny" Jew impression and then turned that into her entire personality. My dad had a legit full auto Thompson he promised me as well. I imagine she already sold that.
- When my step grandfather died, we had a party. Most of the folk there showed up to make sure he was dead and maybe piss on his grave a little.
  
  We do that for people we like. We call it a Wake.

Their dad didn't give even a single thought to the people who died because of him, why should his priveleged-ass kids get even a seconds thought from me beyond potential future followers in daddy's shoes?
- He made life changing mind and his kids will get it all. I doubt they give any fuck how he made it.
  They will live large while rest of us are at risk of getting screwed by the health insurance industry when we are most vulnerable.

this hypothetical pondering isn't reality. mega wealthy people don't care if poor people suffer or die. they don't see us as humans. we are just parasites that cost them money. it literally doesn't matter that we generate all the money for them--we are repulsive to them, and the celebration over CEO extermination just pushes us even further into "other" territory
this is how kids are raised in billionaire households. you think that asshole's kids plays with poor kids? or even has any kind of meaningful interaction with them? hell fucking no. they go to private school with other rich kids, get chauffeured everywhere, vacation in places only they can afford, and on and on-- how else would all these kids grow up to be exactly the same as the assholes who raised them?
to hell with the lot of them i say
- The news of course mentioned they go to public high school. I'm sure they never go hungry at school.
  
  is it this high school? https://www.woldae.com/portfolio/wayzata-high-school
  i won't dig up pics of schools in poor neighborhoods
- I'm more inclined to believe these ceos have convinced themselves they are helping rather than hurting. Theres also some evidence c-suite people in general have a lower IQ than non-c-suite folk, so thats possible too.

Paul F Tompkins is great!
He's a principal on my beloved Thrilling Adventure Hour, a new-time stage show and podcast in the style of old-time radio. I've seen them live twice.
His very excellent improv comedy podcast SPONTANEANATION! with tons of great guests. Link to a live show video.
He had his own fake news show with puppets briefly, No You Shut Up!
He was main cast on Bajillion Dollar Properties, a fake reality show about Hollywood real estate agents.
PFT was in Tangled with a minor part as Short Thug, a passable rap name.
He and his longtime friend Tawny Newsome (who plays Mariner Beckett) co-host the official Star Trek podcast.
Plus he's basically the king of podcast guesting. He has been in everyone else's show. And who can forget his impeccable style.
- I love Paul F. Tompkins. He pops up EVERYWHERE.
  For example, did you know he was in There Will Be Blood!?
  
  I did not! Did you know he's the MC in Tenacious D: The pick of Destiny?
- He is, to quote Dan McCoy, a prolific motherfucker! I always enjoy his work.

Is this a crossover episode?
- This whole thing has me thinking about the gun control episode of Bojack a lot.
  The moment rich white guys felt threatened (by women in that case) guns were completely outlawed, and I think this is the closest we'll ever get to that in real life. If a few more CEOs are knocked off I could see it being discussed. If 10 or 20 more are killed I think we would actually see severe restrictions put in place.
  
  This is literally what Reagan did as governor of California when Black Panthers were arming themselves.
  2A is unassailable ... until the wrong people decide to embrace it. Be one of those people.

Paul F. Tompkins is excellent and 'No You Shut Up' should have gone on for 20 more seasons
- Whatever, piss pig
- I miss Dead Authors Podcast but I'm happy for his success.

Thompson's children, like every other human, aren't just neutral moral agents. Like their father, their position depends on our monstrous system. Sure they could overcome this and adopt good politics, but it will be harder for them than people who earn money honestly.
Remember that the capitalists are always class-conscious and usually show class-solidarity.
- Thompson also please guilty to drunk driving in 2017, spent a couple days in jail, became CEO the same month.

Also, what does it have to do with whether he was a father or not? If he had had no kids, would that change anything? Can it be more acceptable to kill someone who hasn't had kids? What's the point in that?
- I mean, if it's not obvious, the point people are making is that his kids are innocent and that celebrating their father's death increases their suffering.
  I agree with the logic, but I don't think it's enough to shut down the conversation.

I am not at all worried about his kids. His kids are set for life.
I am worried about other kids- and adults- suffering due to a much less discerning and less accurate copycat vigilante. It hasn't happened so far, but it is something that greatly concerns me.
- Thompson was divorced. My understanding is he had either limited or no contact with his kids.
  I wonder if he updated his will since the divorce

This is just racism against rich people.
No, I will not be explaining my thoughts further. I will simply be collecting my check from the WSJ.
- Sir this is a class war.
  
  Their weapons: the entire apparatus of the state
  Our weapons: enough people to have some willing to fight a class war

What about Hitler's kids and kids of his family members?
Ah, they made their choice to never have kids.
I kinda think they don't need to do that, they are different persons with different backgrounds who'd act differently being knowledgeable of what Germany did there.
But I want this question to hang over the heads of these CEOs, their peers and families. I want them to question themselves.

Kid probably happy too, since, odds are, the dead person was shitty to the kids.
- Geneally, you don't become a CEO without being a shitty person, and therefore a shitty parent.

Osama bin Laden had kids. Heck one of his kids was shot in the raid that killed him too.
Not one of these news outlets called for a moment of remembering the humanity of them, right?
Murder is wrong, murdering a murder isn't good, but let's not pretend to have principles on the matter if we don't have them

Literally fatherless behavior

This assumes the kids didn't already hate his guts.

Not one of the people cheering for Thompson’s death had actually heard of Thompson before this.
They are cheering because of his job title. This has nothing to do with Thompson’s character or who he was.
This man is an asshole
- It's funny. When I started reading about him, I found him to be just exactly the sort of person to be running the worst health fund in America

Not a meme.
- What is a meme?
  
  By Dawknin's original definition (cultural) memes are ideas, behaviors, styles, or practices that spread within a culture by imitation (Greek mimema, meaning "imitated") and carry symbolic meaning. Some examples would be the "Keep Calm And Carry On" posters during WW2, the concept of the "American Dream" or toasting with glasses.
  However in this context we're talking about internet memes which is not synonymous with cultural memes. An internet meme is a picture or video that is funny, ironic, or relateable.

Or... maybe, just maybe, people can have the opinions they want and have their reasons for them.
The idea I have to consider my parents' role as my parents undermined if they did something scam-ish is arguably appalling.
This is turning into a collective shame kind of culture.
- Yeah. Kids are allowed to love their parents. My parents are flawed. They're not evil, but they're the kind of people I wouldn't spend time with or associate with if they weren't my parents. We simply have different values and opinions.
  But I still love them and love spending time with them, and they feel the same.

What Tompkins is failing to realize here is that the people who are elated know absolutely jack shit about who Thompson was, and Thompson’s own kids know a lot about who he is.
- I don't know much about who Irmgard Furchner was but I know she was a piece of shit because only a piece of shit would do that job.
  Tompkins was a garbage human and the species is better off without him. If his kids didn't think poorly of him for having that job they could not have known him.
  Just because a monster goes home to a family and manages to keep them in the dark about the horrors they willingly commit for money... Or worse, maybe the family is aware of and approve of the inhuman way he takes your money... Having a family does not make a monster less monstrous.
  It doesn't matter how many Little League games he went to, how active he was in the PTA, whether he volunteered at his local church. He was a terrible no good very bad person. And I don't need to have sat down and played Canasta with him to see that.
  
  I think you meant Thompson, hopefully not Tompkins.

Man. Keep the kids out of the discourse. Have a little class.
- I'm sure that seems like the right way to feel. But honestly his kids will grow up to hurt poor people just like their dad.
  
  Jfc. You people are gaslighting his children, whose father was murdered weeks ago.
  Get a fucking grip.
- Nobody cares about his kids and they were not a topic of discussion until media pulled them in.
  If you gonna do this moral grand standing, talk to the big media.

The thing is that tons of strangers are celebrating his death and they know nothing about him bar a job title and a ton of misinfo. So if I were a kid I wouldn't think I'll of my father I'd just think worse of the general pop.
- What misinfo exactly? The dude absolutely sucked.
  
  There is a lot of misinfo going around about how many claims are denied and other things relating to United Health care.
- Congratulations, you share an opinion with Donald Trump.

100 comments