Fuck the healthcare industry and fuck the healthcare system here. I have "decent" insurance and I spent something like five months negotiating away deductible-and-copay fees from a basic-screening procedure that was absolutely covered by my plan. Which, in the end, it was. But these fuckers just try to wear you out and confuse you. On purpose. So you'll pay. And that's a relatively benign scenario I'm describing.

You couldn't pay me enough to accept that dead guy's job. I couldn't look in the mirror and would blow my own brains out.

I also wouldn't cry much if this killer (and, based on that silencer, he's probably either a hired pro or elite military) took out the CEO of every other major insurance company. (I would, on the other hand, feel terrible for those people's families, from an emotional if not financial standpoint. Most of them probably had no say in their loved one's chosen career.)

But the system here is ridiculous. Always has been. Obamacare did not do much to solve it. (In fact, it was largely redundant in NYC and just made things more expensive.) People don't need health insurance, they need basic healthcare.

That said, crazy-ass vigilante behavior is never a great sign. Whether that's assassinating this dude or bombing an abortion clinic or blowing up a block in Oklahoma City or targeting shit over lefty causes a la San Francisco in the 1970s. It's usually counterproductive in the end. A bit like the death sentence, really.

That said, this did send a message of sorts. But let's see if it has any actual real-world effect and if people are even still talking about health insurance a month from now. It's a short, shocking news cycle we live in. And health insurance bores most people.

You know what might really make the insurance industry wake up? If consumers stopped paying their premiums en masse for a fixed period of time. Put the slug in their bank accounts instead.

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2024 11:38 am You couldn't pay me enough to accept that dead guy's job. I couldn't look in the mirror and would blow my own brains out.

And that, is that.

A_Man_Who_Tries wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2024 6:39 am

Gramsci wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2024 4:58 am True. But the system we live in gives them every incentive to keep the system functioning as it is. It tells them they succeeded because of their hard work and they are being rewarded for it. The entire culture pumps this out 24/7.

Something I’ve also noticed with capital L liberals, basically centrist, is they really see no alternative. Things like taxing wealth or genuine changes to capitalism seem just invisible.

It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

No sympathy for any of it. So there's a tough decision and your life will be harder, for a greater good. Well boo fucking hoo. You just do it.

Or you don't - fine - but then you've waived your rights come any reckoning.

Cunts.

Yeah, I’m just trying to come up with reasons for people to not murder people.

Honestly, gods bless the fucking NHS in the Uk. Are there big problems, yes. Are they resolvable, yes. One of Britain’s most redeeming achievements is locking in a society wide consensus of “over my dead body” regarding moving to a paid insurance based model. Even Thatcher didn’t privatise it. I think even the Conservatives know that even if they disagree on ideological grounds in practically private, insurance based healthcare is dysfunctional and bad economics.

I’ve been undergoing some of the most expensive medical treatments beyond hard organ transplants and money has never been mentioned. The one time I was asked if I had private insurance I asked my doctor what the difference would be. He laughed and said “we’d be sitting in a room upstairs with more plants”.

In the UK private insurance will speed up access to primary care but the second it gets serious they bounce you back into the NHS.

The US system, which I studied at university, is a choice. Your politicians are stooges to the medical insurance industry.

Spanish health care system must be the best thing we have here in this country. One of my coworkers has a VERY weird sickness, has to take some ultra expensive pills (10.000 € PER MONTH). Never had to worry about it.

The US is uniquely fucked compared to other western countries. I don't know if a place like Russia has a national healthcare system, but it's probably no worse than here.

Any American with a cancer diagnosis knows this was self-defense.

The NYPD is offering a $10k reward.

Over half of Americans have at least $10k in medical debt.

It barely breaks even to give a shit about this guy.

Krev wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2024 1:03 pm The US is uniquely fucked compared to other western countries. I don't know if a place like Russia has a national healthcare system, but it's probably no worse than here.

Cuba has a significantly better healthcare system than the US.

I lived in Brazil four years and used the public SUS system the whole time. It gets a lot more complicated in big cities but we had zero problems in a smaller town. The government are very good at preventative care, public health education and vaccination programs. Brazil’s AIDS prevention program was an astonishing success. The most successful poverty reduction program Bolsa Familia which was direct cash payments to mothers required children to be fully vaccinated and attended regular doctors checkups. It both stimulated the economy and reduced healthcare costs down the line.

Most of our friends had private plans but they saw the same doctors as us at the local SUS clinic.

The US is uniquely fucked.

Bernie is right.

Fuck him. Fuck these systems that allow assholes like him to exist. In a world where people like him are allowed so much power to cause so much mass suffering, what else can you even fucking do? The law freaking protects assholes like him. Speaking as someone who is currently the target of a genocide and has watched my own loved ones suffer and die agonizing deaths due to systemic violence, I hate how people only suddenly give a shit if someone is killed by another through direct physical means. This guy’s demise was downright *merciful* compared to the shit his company put scores of people through on a daily basis. It also is downright insulting and frankly, childish, to compare this to murdering someone that actually does shit to help people. “Killing Hitler makes you as bad as him!”-ass logic. People like that would rather allow me and my entire family to be tortured in prison and/or die than to support anyone fighting back (and unfortunately there’s a whole lot of you like that out there).

I don’t want anyone to suffer. I don’t want to cause more pain than is necessary to destroy these horrible systems of oppression. This guy was taken out quickly and cleanly and a message was sent that people like him are hated and not invincible and need to stop fucking people over if they want to have any peace of mind. That’s why I’m glad this happened and hope the trend continues.

glee is just one step removed from wishing you had killed him yourself. as i have aged, i am more aware of my own ability to do evil and so i'm trying to resist it.
if you are a powerless kid, glee does not evoke such ethical dilemmas. it's easy to cheer when other people are doing the dirty work.