Drive up and down Belmont Ave / Steve Albini Way in Lakeview/Lincoln Park and every other car is Tesla with the bumper sticker that says "I BOUGHT THIS BEFORE WE KNEW ELON WAS CRAZY"

Fucking shitlibs, man

On what fucking planet would it be a sensible idea to just not pay your insurance premium?! Thinking that will end well for anyone is more batshit that what this kid did.
They have us by the balls and there is EXTREMELY little we can do about it if we expect to have any amount of healthcare available to us. I hope all of you who are covered through work never have to experience just how FUCKED it is trying to fend for yourself on the healthcare marketplace.

A_Man_Who_Tries wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2024 11:08 am Zorg has been on my ignore list for a good while. He's a nothing. Spineless. Cowardly. Such a sloppy turd. Unfortunately, this forum doesn't block quoted clowns.

Pay him no mind. Such a weakling.

Well at least you opted out of me. I seriously have to laugh when people are muting other FMs on the PRF. There are like 15 active posters, you're down to what...like 3? sorry we can't be internet friends.

See, when you get down to it, we all wanna be “the rebel,” the badass, in on the joke, special, punk rock, on the right side of history, not part of the problem, above succumbing to the same lame failings that our foes have. We’d all like to think we’re potentially the life of the party, the voice of reason, the hero in the 11th hour, unflappable, stylish, conscientious, unique, smart, one of the good ones who can enjoy some of the fruits of a corrupt world without literally or figuratively buying into all of it.

Where the killing of this CEO is concerned, what I find interesting is whether different attributes would change others’ perceptions of the assassin . . . or if they wouldn’t make much of a difference after his apparent motive has been revealed. I’m not sure people have avoided projecting things onto him, things that may or may not be there. Sure, there’s enough groundwork for the attack to be painted as virtuous in a plausible way, a principled form of activism, which yes, he’ll pay for for much of the rest of his life. No small beer. But I have to wonder if this wasn’t just a well-off young person with a bright future ahead of him subconsciously rebelling against his upbringing, deviating from his roots and using an external cause as justification for a dramatic action that would incorporate his under-addressed or hitherto repressed shadowy/dark side. How many civilians who feel the urge to take up arms are just disaffected individuals who want to “cut to the chase” and go full bore, instead of “waiting around” and living one day at a time in relative monotony, within a stuffy and dysfunctional, slow-paced society? As we age, it can be difficult to accept that our lives might largely be plotless, that we ourselves might be ridiculous, that results take a lot of hard work and even when we succeed, not many people may notice or care. Even a self-styled man or woman of action can tread water despite their best efforts. Seen from this angle, this incident is all too typical. If you want a fictional parallel, it’s a bit like the end of Taxi Driver. Travis Bickle shoots up a whorehouse and kills a bunch of nefarious pimps in an effort to rescue Iris, and he succeeds, gets away with it, and is commended. But largely the whole endeavor was just a pretense for him to “fuck shit up” with his arsenal of weapons and take out his psychosexual and sociopolitical aggressions on the most socially acceptable targets available to him. You might balk at that, it might not be entirely congruent with this incident in Manhattan, but you’d be astonished at just how often something just like this arises, within art and within real life.

rsmurphy wrote: Sun Dec 08, 2024 11:54 am Not one civil right in this country was gained through goodwill; they will be reversed via the same medium.

I'll be the third or fourth person to bring this back because this is the most important reason we're discussing this event. (There are some other really fun and interesting reasons, but they're not important.)

In the range of reactions to this killing, not a single FM here would defend our healthcare system because it's indefensible. That's not a unique, radical feeling in our little 'range of leftists' echo chamber here. America knows its healthcare is shit.

So what do we actually do?

The clearest civil rights gains in recent memory are Women's Suffrage, the Civil Rights Act, and Marriage Equality. The last one is a little different because it was judicial and the other two were enshrined with amendments. Healthcare is a human right. What can we learn from how people have secured human rights before?

The clearest thing to me is large, persistent demonstration. These movements sustained far more violence than they wrought. I think on the list of causes we'd like to see some change on, this one might actually be the least partisan, and the least controversial among our fellow citizens. There's an inevitable pushback from the unavoidably socialistic framework to a reasonable solution, but I say press pause on that. As much as I want to Elizabeth Warren, policy wonk our way through how the expansion of Medicaid could save us all, I say we just make noise. "This sucks!". Big, loud and angry. If the movement can be eye-catching enough it will snowball. People can relate to the concern. Then, when it's huge inevitably some politician will want to ride that wave with some policy. Maybe we can get some universal health care going by just talking shit and getting more to join in. Show me someone who isn't rich and loves their healthcare.

I don't know, just spitballing here, but I'd love to feel like I was part of some actual strategic work on this, dead CEOs aside.

jeff fox wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2024 1:31 pm On what fucking planet would it be a sensible idea to just not pay your insurance premium?! Thinking that will end well for anyone is more batshit that what this kid did.
They have us by the balls and there is EXTREMELY little we can do about it if we expect to have any amount of healthcare available to us. I hope all of you who are covered through work never have to experience just how FUCKED it is trying to fend for yourself on the healthcare marketplace.

Kinda depends where you live. You do realize the worst that will happen if you miss one month is a letter and maybe a late fee, right? At least, in NYC. Kinda like a credit card.

Imagine if that became a movement. Just for one month. Say, the same number of people posting dumb memes about real-estate-heir assassin—if they all just didn't pay.

And if people did it just b/c they could, accompanied by a letter as to why. And threatened to do it again. Shareholders would freak.

Far-fetched and silly, maybe. B/c I can tell you that's a more realistic scenario than finding even 25 people willing to kill a CEO. (Out of whom how many will succeed? And at what cost? Making what muddled point?)

You do know that clinics exist and that, for the most part, doctors are obligated to treat you for most emergencies, whether you can pay or not, right? And that debt-forgiveness programs for healthcare do exist if you're willing to look for them. (Obviously, this is not a great strategy for those w/chronic illness.)

Don't wanna get too heavily into it, but I actually had been fending for myself in the healthcare marketplace—sometimes buying my own on the open market (pre-Obamacare), sometimes discounted via a guild (till Obamacare made that impossible in NY), and sometimes at the mercy of some grimy but ultimately pretty ok public clinics in NYC—since 2002 or so. For, I dunno, 15 years? That only changed for me relatively recently. (Although I'm still a freelancer and by no stretch of the imagination a high earner; I have qualified for medical care at a clinic, after all.) So there you go!

Would I advise any of this? Not necessarily. But really, killing some dude (or more accurately cheering someone else for it b/c you won't) is the alternative?

DaveA wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2024 1:43 pm Seen from this angle, this incident is all too typical.... you’d be astonished at just how often something just like this arises, within art and within real life.

Yep.

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2024 2:59 pmI can tell you that's a more realistic scenario than finding even 25 people willing to kill a CEO.

I could go on Twitter right now and find 100 people with chronic or terminal illnesses who are at the end of their rope with nothing to lose. All it takes is some ghost guns and some planning and there would be a mini army of kamikaze troops. I think that would be easier than finding as many people willing to risk losing their insurance.

ChudFusk wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2024 3:09 pm

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2024 2:59 pmI can tell you that's a more realistic scenario than finding even 25 people willing to kill a CEO.

I could go on Twitter right now and find 100 people with chronic or terminal illnesses who are at the end of their rope with nothing to lose. All it takes is some ghost guns and some planning and there would be a mini army of kamikaze troops. I think that would be easier than finding as many people willing to risk losing their insurance.

Man, most people here can barely keep an active rock band together.

another rich ivy leaguer with chronic back problems inflicts his misery on the world. every generation has one.