Desperately Seeking a Coalition of the Decent
Now more than ever.
Apparently, we need a wellness check:
Torrent of Hate for Health Insurance Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing - NYT
Insurance executive's murder sparks online praise and hate - NBC News
Dark Reactions Overwhelm Social Media as UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Murder Draws Scorn, Not Sympathy
UnitedHealth CEO's killing unleashes social media rage against insurers - Axios
Americans Have Little Sympathy for Murdered Health Insurance Exec
It’s Friday. And we really have to talk.
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Ingrid Jacques writes in USA TODAY about the reaction to the murder of Brian Thompson, who was shot and killed in Manhattan this week.
The callous disregard for a human life is alarming to witness.
Much of the negative reaction can be found on social media, a known cesspool for our worst instincts. Thompson’s death has led to an outpouring ‒ not of sympathy, but of people’s hatred toward health insurers, with grievances over denied claims and perceived greed in the industry.
Let me be blunt here: Someday we need to have a thorough and lively discussion about the failings and outrages of the insurance industry. But today is not that day.
A man with a wife and two children was murdered in cold blood. He was not a symbol or an institution, or a talking point. He was a human being.
But you would hardly know that from watching the explosive reaction, including among folks who allegedly pride themselves on their humanity, tolerance, and decency.
After years warning about the danger of political violence, it’s more than a little disconcerting to watch social media (including places like Bluesky) erupt in the celebration of the murder the United Health Care CEO. It’s painful to watch folks with “progressive” and “pro-democracy” in their bios applauding — or simply making fun of — the assassination.
So, I say this as someone who has watched and endured years of MAGA ugliness on social media: Yesterday was as bad as anything I’ve seen.
Unlike some of my colleagues here, I’m not going to devote 5000 words to explaining why murder is wrong; or why shooting businessmen in the back is not the way to address inequities. Suffice it to say that history is soaked with bloody consequences of violence between the haves and have nots.
That’s why democracy and the rule of law matter so much: they let us we resolve our differences without killing one another.
But I regret to tell you that this is apparently not self-evident amongst people who imagine that they are the bulwarks against fascism and hate.
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Nota bene: There are notable and important exceptions.
Some of the most prominent voices on the left pushed back hard against the hate. But they found themselves flamed and overwhelmed.
On Bluesky, Clara Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones, posted: “We can all hate insurance companies without cheering the murder of someone or worse, trying to monetize content about that murder. Really gross day on the internet today.”
The blowback was vicious:
Dick Mac @dickmac999.bsky.social wrote:
@clarajeffery.bsky.social I never thought I'd see an employee of Mother Jones being a pushover for brutal capitalism and sympathizing with banksters. Let that motherfucker do to you what he has done to my family and get back to me about how gross the internet was yesterday! You are disgusting!
So it went. Mike Wilson @mkwilson27.bsky.social posted:
I don’t know that we’re “cheering” what happened. But at some point, the greedy bastards that are literally killing people to increase their compensation need to be stopped. Since politicians refuse, it was only a matter of time...
Colorado's #1 Oasis Hater @bertoltmehcht.bsky.social
You're an out of touch freak and you're reacting like this because you're closer to the stuck piggy than the rest of us in terms of your class position. You're doing solidarity with your class! Good job! Considering your other stances, it's no real surprise (I remember 2016)
Frumious Bandersnatch @tootsweet2.bsky.social
Nope. We're past that. And it's on them. They were warned 10 years ago by one of their own, yet they persisted.
nshotput.bsky.social @nshotput.bsky.social
This incident proves that statement false. He 100% deserved this and it should serve as a warning to others in that realm. People are fed up and judgement is probably coming.
nshotput.bsky.social @nshotput.bsky.social
I support humanity. And in that support recognize that the cancers of society can be rightfully removed to the benefit of the whole when their actions willfully harm the whole. This is a simple case of addition by subtraction. Humanity is a teeny tiny bit healthier because this CEO is no longer…
OffTheShoulderofOrion @drtyirishtactx.bsky.social
I'm not so much cheering a murder as applauding the exit of a noxious POS who lived a life of largesse funded by the misery of others.
CJTheran @cjtheran.bsky.social
It is actually very cool to celebrate someone who personally made hundreds of thousands of dollars a day signing off on the deaths of others not being able to do that anymore
Josh Marshall, the respected editor of Talking Points Memo, echoed Jeffery’s reaction:
But the swarm came for him too.
And then there was Taylor Lorenz…
It would be nice to think that this merely reflects the bleatings of internet randos. But the hate was amplified by former New York Times and Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz.
“And people wonder why we want these executives dead,” Lorenz wrote on Bluesky, which linked to a post about how Blue Cross Blue Shield would no longer cover anesthesia for the full length of some surgeries.
“People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering. As someone against death and suffering, I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the ppl in power who enable it.”
And then she posted a ghoulish celebratory image.
Later, Lorenz shared another post about the Blue Cross Blue Shield policy change and posted the name and headshot of Blue Cross Blue Shield’s CEO — as if putting a target on yet another despised insurance executive.
**
Friends, this is sick shit and I tried (with only limited success) to call it out. Here is what I posted on Bluesky yesterday, typos and all:
I got some supportive reaction, but also a lot of this:
Citizen 1 @usn82.bsky.social
Oh ffs! Miss me with common decency bullshit. The elite have no decency. The elite who keep screwing over Americans deserve to never feel safe as long as their greed runs rampant! Eat the rich all fucking day everyday!
**
My exit take: This way lies madness and an endless cycle of violence, death, and destruction.
Now — especially with winter coming — we desperately need a coalition of the decent, who will push back not only against the bigots and fascists on the right, but also against the bloodthirsty Jacobins who are rampant today on social media.
Sleeping Dogs
For a number of years I had a crazy stalker who made my life hell. Friends told me they would go after him and make him pay. I refused not because he didn’t deserve it, but because I didn’t want him to change me into someone I didn’t want to be. And while I can understand the pent up anger at insurance executives putting profits ahead of lives, I never want to become a person who would cheer someone taking the law into their own hands and murdering another human being.
“The callous disregard for a human life is alarming to witness.”
That sentiment cuts both ways.
The outpouring of “folk hero” ideology towards the killer is a sign that people are well beyond fed up after decades of extreme political malpractice over refusing to deal with our healthcare industrial complex, which has probably cost more lives than we will ever know.
It’s a bit reminiscent of the French Revolution.