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They're afraid!
I think the health insurance companies are actually taken by surprise by the amount of people who sincerely wish them death. Maybe we will see some almost-meaningful change soon?
Hmm, seems an American problem needed an American solution
I'm starting to think the whole "Violence is never the answer" is just yet another propaganda piece of the rich
Basically every large successful social change has been built on violence or the threat of it. King might have been a nice speaker and a friendly face, but violence brought people to the table.
He knew it too. When Gandhi got imprisoned, his movement turned violent. If you don't listen to the peaceful protester, you'll get the angry rioter.
"And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard."
-MLK
I strongly recommend a book called The Sword and The Shield, about the dual roles Malcom X and King played in the civil rights era. King very well understood the need for a credible threat of violence, and actually he grew closer to Malcolm X's beliefs as time went on, and that is why he was killed.
At our worst moments, when all else fails, violence is the only answer and everyone, deep down, knows that.
Edit to add: washing King's legacy via history so he appears as purely nonviolent is, I believe, a very deliberate strategy to make us easier to pacify. You'll notice that no high school curricula (barring I'm sure some notable exceptions) have ever taught Malcolm X. Only King, and only his nonviolence! Civil rights safely defanged.
This is reminding me strongly about how the Black Panther Party was vilified and outlawed. California didn't ban open carry for any other reason than to stop black people from being able too.
A critically important piece of our history, yes! The notion of gun control practically at all in this country actually came about because black people organized. Not only did the Black Panthers openly carry while carefully witnessing / observing law enforcement in their community, they also ran many aid programs and focused on the need for education and self-reliance.
And that had to be stopped, and it was.
It is 100%. Max Stirner talked about that in the 1800s.
I never understood how our country - proudly founded through the uprising of the downtrodden to overthrow their oppressor with violence - could ever honestly think that violence is never the answer. Our national anthem has a stanza specifically dedicated to the rockets and bombs "we the people" used against the British.
If this action is repeated, expect to see stringent gun control laws in record time.
I believe the answer will still be 'come and take them', and I don't think Cletus is gonna disagree.
Republicans love to forget that as governor, Reagan was very pro gun control when black people started arming themselves.
Lol inspired me to make this:
American elites when they witness second amendment used against them instead of immigrants and queers.
The reason that insurance companies currently exist is to make money. That's the ONLY reason. Until that changes, the system is likely to get worse, not better.
Unless the public kills one CEO every year or so to keep them in line.
When these claims are denied there are so many pawns in the system that it is so easy to get really angry at and have easy access to. I'm really Glad that at least this went to the top and no one closer to ground level just having to carry out uhcs terrible policies was the victim of this rage.
This, so much. If a CEO makes a conscientious decision that makes stockholders less money, he gets fired. Stockholders sue companies over decisions that are considered less profitable.
And I don't mean people who invest their 401k's in mutual funds bullshit. I mean the activist multi millionaire assholes that own full percentage points of companies. These people are the ones that lobby companies and politicians and shape the legal and market landscape.
These fucking people have zero accountability to anyone.
And they convince themselves they have every right to be that way.
I mean the activist multi millionaire assholes that own full percentage points of companies. These people are the ones that lobby companies and politicians and shape the legal and market landscape.
aka The Big Club
(NSFW - language)
Essentially they exist to make the cost of the risk they agree to bear reasonable and affordable to their customers.
The second they fail to serve that purpose they become useless.
Their very existence depends on the same thing that has made them into the shitstains they are: Greed.
Wish this happened three weeks ago when my wife's chemo dosage approval got held up.
I guess the lesson is to shoot early and shoot often.
Apply again. Terms may have changed
It actually finally went through and she had her infusion on Wednesday at an Optum facility, quite coincidentally.
It so so damn American to try to fix healthcare with gun violence
~~Soap Box~~
~~Ballot Box~~
Ammo Box < we have arrived at this point
Idk why anyone is surprised by the outcome of one political party fighting so hard for the ammo box while gutting the other boxes. Like what did they expect?
Hey man we tried to get them banned and shit, they said no so I guess we gotta do it their way
Wait until you get a $50,000 health insurance bill for non-existent procedures that the doctor and insurance company made up and no one will believe your side of the story.
So... The murder of a CEO of a horrible company leads to better conditions for everyone?
I would probably break a ton of rules on lemmy to suggest any further actions based on this result, so I'm not going to.
^But, you know...^
Unfortunately I'm afraid this will only be a very short term gain for society. In the longer term CEO-s will just muscle-up. They'll hire a whole bunch more security and bodyguards, armored vehicles, taller, concrete fences around their properties and show their faces even less in public. All on company expense, so from our, their consumers' money of course. They will become even more isolated, secluded and cut off from society, more paranoid and resentful about the rest of us, mere 'plebs'.
I'm not saying I don't understand why people are celebrating. But I don't think that this murder will help steer back society, inequality and corporate greed into a healthier, better direction. Instead it is just another step along the path to the dystopian future shown in so-so many sci-fi literature and movies. Where 99% of society has been delegated to a complete slave-like status, with ZERO financial security, self-determination, healthcare access and freedom while they spend day and night labouring endlessly, just to not starve or freeze to death. Which they still might, if they get in an accident or an illness which bankrupts them.
Meanwhile the 1% will reap ALL the benefits from the work of all the rest of us and they'll live like no king has ever lived before. Possibly their lifes extended to hundreds of years, flying around the planet between their mansions from party to party.
Murdering one or two CEO-s will not prevent this future I think. We will need a much, much wider show of rejection of this future if we want to stop it. We will need protests, demonstrations and show of unity. The rich will try to prevent this in every possible way. They will call the protesters terrorists, fundamentalists. Police will treat them as criminals and jail or even kill many of them. But if the society-wide rejection of this dystopian future is not shown in full force, it WILL HAPPEN.
Drones are cheap and no security is defending against explosives falling on people.
Why so scared guys? I thought motive was unclear.
I know folks don't want to hear this, but this anecdote is quite dubious. Big companies don't move that quickly, especially in a business as complicated as health insurance. There are various plan levels and many individualized, specifically, for certain employers, as well as many elective medications (wegovy anyone?) for this to have been done in a couple of days. There's no way these CEOs and executives said to just blanket approve all prescriptions. They would just pay a substantial amount for personal security, with company money, while maintaining their profits.
Are we expected to believe that this is actually happening?
Really...this has /ThatHppened all over it
Yea no way that's true. I mean I wish it was but these greedy fucks aren't gonna stop being greedy.
They could be more cooperative for a couple of weeks while this story dies out, if people forget, they will increase the denies even more the recuperate the missed revenue.
I'm happy that there was a change for these folks. There is not doubt about that. As someone that just sort of lived without insurance for a big portion of my life, and I still don't have a doctor/gp, and have had problems with doctors and specialists cancelling on me after ER visits I am really confused what to think.
I've got to rethink all of this violence as an option to stop the rich from playing fuck fuck. it still feels gross that CEO had to be murdered to create change. But I am happy if this post is working with facts of people getting access to medicine and healthier life experiences.
Was there ever a big societal change for the better without blood?
You know, kinda like our genetic cousins murdering the greedy guy who hogs all the bananas.
This is just trying to adapt to stay alive (the industry, not the people) when they really should be utterly destroyed in favor of single payer healthcare. Don't let up because they're behaving like they have a gun pointed at their corporate person and promising the holder anything to keep making billions.
That's how it works.
Usually the quote is about all political power coming from the end of a rifle, but I guess this time it was a pistol.
The quote I've always heard is "Change comes through the barrel of a gun" so it still works with a pistol.
Regardless of stance on assassinations, very big positives can come from this event.
Congress/GOP is less likely to eliminate medicare, and the insurance sector is behaving in "self regulation" the GOP says all companies can do.
Someone do the math on how long it takes before an other one needs to be taken down a peg again for the insurance to keep doing their job.
