Major media outlets are giving wall-to-wall coverage to UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder while taking millions in health care industry advertising. They’re silent about the real story: how profit-driven health care kills 68,000 Americans every year.
  • Maeve@kbin.earth
    30·
    12 days ago

    “There’ll be a lot of hand-wringing over whether or not [Thomson’s assassination] was justified,” Miles Gray said recently on The Daily Zeitgeist podcast. “[But] the real issue is that we have completely normalized and we celebrate this system of squeezing profits out of people to the point of financial and emotional bankruptcy. The real discussion needs to be around whether or not our greed-based system of care is justified.”

    • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
      11·
      12 days ago

      It’s almost as if the wealthy and powerful have never read a history book. This only ends one way for them. Each time the financial and political systems were completely overwhelmed or thrown out. And those in power always end up with their heads on a pike.

      • pdxfed@lemmy.world
        11·
        12 days ago

        There is a short story by RL Stevenson, The Bottle Imp, about a cursed bottle whose owner can make wishes but they must sell the bottle for less than half of what they paid for it or they will be damned to hell. The new owner must also enter the contract fully aware of the curse and risk of purchasing the bottle/genie. The original price paid was quite high, but as time passes and the list of owners grows, our main character comes across it and buys it for only $50. While he eventually sells it, had the next person not felt their value from a genie was worth eternal damnation our character would have been screwed.

        I mention the story as I think that’s where we are with US capitalism. Everyone knows it’s fucked and are just trying to get out with theirs before the heads fly because the rewards for screwing others are still so great and people can mostly remove themselves from it’s consequences. For the ruling class, this assassination was a good reminder the stakes of the game they’ve wagered and that the clock is ticking.

        That said, even with so much information available, and despite the data it’s horrible for their personal outcomes, Americans are still deciding it’s what they want. Which, like the owner class, if they ever read any history would understand when you give away all your power and rights you’re going to be screwed by the kind of people who want to lead that sort of system.

      • roofuskit@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        8 days ago

        The problem with the that solution is that lots of innocent people get swept up in the killing. The chaos of a violent revolution is always a great time to kill the people who have slighted you and get away with it. And then there’s no guarantee that what comes after is any better at all.