When the civil tools/weapons we were given to protect ourselves against abuses perpetrated by corporations and politicians prove toothless, what shall we do instead to be heard?
Please don't interpret that I condone violence—I do not. But how do we get our needs met when our voices have been silenced? The unspoken message coming across is, "Suck it up, buttercup. Your needs don't matter. Only mine do, and I want your share of agency for myself, for it was I who won the genetic lottery. God said."
Violence is never the answer and should never be accepted, celebrated, or justified. With that said, HOW DO WE DEAL WITH IT INSTEAD???!!!
The problem is the wealthy "man behind the curtain." I haven't heard anyone except Bernie speak to this. The question going unanswered here is how do "we, the people, move the needle after the hellscape of inequality Citizens United was unleashed upon us? What can we do? It used to be that we could assemble peacefully, but now that is being threatened, too. When people are desperate, they do crazy things. I don't condone it, but I can see why it happens. If it doesn't make sense to you, come down from your ivory tower and see what life looks like from our point of view.
Inflation is one of the biggest reasons Kamala lost. Not only was inflation not the fault of Biden and Kamala, but they kept us from sliding into a recession. But that entire miracle was downplayed or even wholly missed because after the COVID supply chain clusterf*ck, prices should have cooled down when CEOs saw an opportunity to keep prices high, and everyone else knew if they wanted to survive, they needed to raise their prices too.
Nobody has named the actual problem; the system is rigged against us and in favor of the wealthy. Even by using the tools of law and government to the fullest extent, there is NO WAY for ordinary folk to win a game rigged against us. Full stop. Bird flu is the reason eggs are $8/doz. Not Joe and Kamala. SMFH.
Here we are now in the infancy of American Oligarchy. It shouldn't be long until those who were aroused by one of the generational scapegoat operations: Nixon's "Southern Strategy," Reagan's "Welfare Queens," or Trump's "America First" will come to see the truth that it's only ever been about the wealthy and the powerful using any means possible to keep themselves in power permanently. Their greed has justified using the poor and the uneducated as their foot soldiers for long enough that they can say the quiet part out loud, now. It's sad to think of how many of us will suffer. We really did try to warn them. God help us.
Hmmn…decivilisation? I don’t think so. The cause of the French revolution was vast wealth inequality. This is what Americans are seeing today. This is not a Republican/Democrat thing; people of all political stripes are seeing this and the tension is growing…
Thank you for writing this article. I felt very alone in my dispair over the murder of Brian Thompson and the outpouting of vitriol against him from so many who didn't know him.
Disagree. Riot, voice of the unheard or not, is a mistake, a bad tactic, self defeating. You "can only push people so far?" Apologies to Dr. King, he was mistaken.
This article is stunning, for sure, and so is the subject matter.
I’m going to continue with my Christmas cookie baking for neighborhood gifts of love. And I’m going to keep on hoping and praying that at least in my little part of the world, people feel the love of Jesus.
"A governor had a catastrophic nursing home policy during Covid? A pharma executive helped set in train the opioid crisis? A defense official authorized an operation that went disastrously wrong? A Boeing official made terrible mistakes?"
If egregious enough, anyone of these could precipitate a reckoning in a court of law or a court martial. That is how it's supposed to work. Looking at people like the Sacklers, it does make one wonder whether the "civilized" solution is working as intended.
Dear God, it never ends, does it? "Breaking News: Teacher and Student Are Killed in Wisconsin School Shooting, Police Say Officials revised the death toll to three, including the shooter, who they identified as a teenage student. At least six others were injured."
This is excellent Charlie. If we expect the Right to police it's side, the least we can ask of the Left is to do the same. The rationalization of the murder of Brian Thompson seen on the Left will only strengthen the Trumpers and help them with their illiberal project. What I fear the Left still has not learned is the way to combat Trumpism is with moderation not the Left’s version of MAGA.
Charlie you have to understand that Capitalism's days are numbered and we are entering the final stage. The huge transfer of wealth is starting to become apparent to the rubes and they are fed up. Trump is but a symptom of our own sickness as a society. Shapiro labelling Luigi a coward is a hoot. Luigi was courageous and did what he thought he had to do. He threw his life away in order to do what he thought was right. That takes guts I would say. When the rule of law can't even take down the arch criminal Trump then what recourse do the people have? Fact is we have 300 million guns in the US and any attempt to suppress people for any length of time will be met with violence. The US was founded on violence, why are we all surprised? Climate change will push us over the edge when the rubes wake up and understand they have been hoodwinked by the elites and our elected cowards.
Mangione may have been “inspired” by the Unabomber, but, America has elevated a totally amoral egomaniac to a position of power in this country. We have elevated a man who said publicly at his political rallies that he wanted violence against his perceived enemies and he boasted he would pay the legal legal bills of anyone who attacked his enemies. Has djt paid a legal bill for anyone he sent to the U.S. Capitol, perpetrated violence and was brought to justice? NO. And he never will. Play his game at your own expense.
Jane, I don't think you're wrong. One need only look at where we are to see that while it's ugly, you speak the truth. These are not alternative facts. They're the OG facts.
Don't take this the wrong way, jane, but I consider this precisely the wrong sort of reply to make your point (as I understand it). Coming out with a cliché, media-generated whine about Donald Trump, full of claptrap falsehoods ("iNSuRreCtiOn! oh noes") completely guts your tentative disapproval of Mangione's actions. Donald Trump is not the subject here, and neither is the rubbish that CNN, MSNBC, WaPo, NYT, etc., etc., have generated about him.
Take a look at the actual subject at hand, and not some distracting shadows on the wall of your cave. I too am not sure what to think about that subject, but I try not to substitute irrelevant deflection for difficult thought.
I am astonished at the "What do you expect?" defenses ("I'm not defending it, I'm just considering 'root causes'!") of this murder. Apparently almost no one is immune to the need to find _someone_ deserving of killing.
We should agree that murder is crossing a line. We should also agree that the denying people the health insurance they paid for, profiting health care company CEOs and shareholders, and ultimately causing patients to die, is also murder. Slower, more nuanced, perhaps, but still cold blooded murder. Just murder for profit, and in America we seem delighted by that. So spare me the handwringing. We shouldn’t gun down perpetrators in the street, but we shouldn’t shower them with money and the expense of the lives of others either. Help us get government provided universal health care or get out of the way.
No one should want to live in a country that doesn’t adhere to its own laws. No one should want to live in a country that allows a convicted felon to run for office, any office including the highest one in the land. No one should want to live in a country where one human is above the law and the rest of us look on in disbelief after being told repeatedly that no one is above the law. This kind of gaslighting makes people crazy enough to engage in behavior they may not otherwise.
When the civil tools/weapons we were given to protect ourselves against abuses perpetrated by corporations and politicians prove toothless, what shall we do instead to be heard?
Please don't interpret that I condone violence—I do not. But how do we get our needs met when our voices have been silenced? The unspoken message coming across is, "Suck it up, buttercup. Your needs don't matter. Only mine do, and I want your share of agency for myself, for it was I who won the genetic lottery. God said."
Violence is never the answer and should never be accepted, celebrated, or justified. With that said, HOW DO WE DEAL WITH IT INSTEAD???!!!
The problem is the wealthy "man behind the curtain." I haven't heard anyone except Bernie speak to this. The question going unanswered here is how do "we, the people, move the needle after the hellscape of inequality Citizens United was unleashed upon us? What can we do? It used to be that we could assemble peacefully, but now that is being threatened, too. When people are desperate, they do crazy things. I don't condone it, but I can see why it happens. If it doesn't make sense to you, come down from your ivory tower and see what life looks like from our point of view.
Inflation is one of the biggest reasons Kamala lost. Not only was inflation not the fault of Biden and Kamala, but they kept us from sliding into a recession. But that entire miracle was downplayed or even wholly missed because after the COVID supply chain clusterf*ck, prices should have cooled down when CEOs saw an opportunity to keep prices high, and everyone else knew if they wanted to survive, they needed to raise their prices too.
Nobody has named the actual problem; the system is rigged against us and in favor of the wealthy. Even by using the tools of law and government to the fullest extent, there is NO WAY for ordinary folk to win a game rigged against us. Full stop. Bird flu is the reason eggs are $8/doz. Not Joe and Kamala. SMFH.
Here we are now in the infancy of American Oligarchy. It shouldn't be long until those who were aroused by one of the generational scapegoat operations: Nixon's "Southern Strategy," Reagan's "Welfare Queens," or Trump's "America First" will come to see the truth that it's only ever been about the wealthy and the powerful using any means possible to keep themselves in power permanently. Their greed has justified using the poor and the uneducated as their foot soldiers for long enough that they can say the quiet part out loud, now. It's sad to think of how many of us will suffer. We really did try to warn them. God help us.
Hmmn…decivilisation? I don’t think so. The cause of the French revolution was vast wealth inequality. This is what Americans are seeing today. This is not a Republican/Democrat thing; people of all political stripes are seeing this and the tension is growing…
Thank you for writing this article. I felt very alone in my dispair over the murder of Brian Thompson and the outpouting of vitriol against him from so many who didn't know him.
Thanks for letting the little wiener give us a moment of relief from the horrors.
Disagree. Riot, voice of the unheard or not, is a mistake, a bad tactic, self defeating. You "can only push people so far?" Apologies to Dr. King, he was mistaken.
This article is stunning, for sure, and so is the subject matter.
I’m going to continue with my Christmas cookie baking for neighborhood gifts of love. And I’m going to keep on hoping and praying that at least in my little part of the world, people feel the love of Jesus.
Worth reading:
https://open.substack.com/pub/freddiedeboer/p/our-healthcare-system-a-reign-of?r=3ynoe&utm_medium=ios
"A governor had a catastrophic nursing home policy during Covid? A pharma executive helped set in train the opioid crisis? A defense official authorized an operation that went disastrously wrong? A Boeing official made terrible mistakes?"
If egregious enough, anyone of these could precipitate a reckoning in a court of law or a court martial. That is how it's supposed to work. Looking at people like the Sacklers, it does make one wonder whether the "civilized" solution is working as intended.
Dear God, it never ends, does it? "Breaking News: Teacher and Student Are Killed in Wisconsin School Shooting, Police Say Officials revised the death toll to three, including the shooter, who they identified as a teenage student. At least six others were injured."
This is excellent Charlie. If we expect the Right to police it's side, the least we can ask of the Left is to do the same. The rationalization of the murder of Brian Thompson seen on the Left will only strengthen the Trumpers and help them with their illiberal project. What I fear the Left still has not learned is the way to combat Trumpism is with moderation not the Left’s version of MAGA.
oh boy :(
What is the gross inequity?
Charlie you have to understand that Capitalism's days are numbered and we are entering the final stage. The huge transfer of wealth is starting to become apparent to the rubes and they are fed up. Trump is but a symptom of our own sickness as a society. Shapiro labelling Luigi a coward is a hoot. Luigi was courageous and did what he thought he had to do. He threw his life away in order to do what he thought was right. That takes guts I would say. When the rule of law can't even take down the arch criminal Trump then what recourse do the people have? Fact is we have 300 million guns in the US and any attempt to suppress people for any length of time will be met with violence. The US was founded on violence, why are we all surprised? Climate change will push us over the edge when the rubes wake up and understand they have been hoodwinked by the elites and our elected cowards.
Mangione may have been “inspired” by the Unabomber, but, America has elevated a totally amoral egomaniac to a position of power in this country. We have elevated a man who said publicly at his political rallies that he wanted violence against his perceived enemies and he boasted he would pay the legal legal bills of anyone who attacked his enemies. Has djt paid a legal bill for anyone he sent to the U.S. Capitol, perpetrated violence and was brought to justice? NO. And he never will. Play his game at your own expense.
Thank you, Commonperson.
Jane, I don't think you're wrong. One need only look at where we are to see that while it's ugly, you speak the truth. These are not alternative facts. They're the OG facts.
You are wrong about me, what you read in my comment and about djt.
Don't take this the wrong way, jane, but I consider this precisely the wrong sort of reply to make your point (as I understand it). Coming out with a cliché, media-generated whine about Donald Trump, full of claptrap falsehoods ("iNSuRreCtiOn! oh noes") completely guts your tentative disapproval of Mangione's actions. Donald Trump is not the subject here, and neither is the rubbish that CNN, MSNBC, WaPo, NYT, etc., etc., have generated about him.
Take a look at the actual subject at hand, and not some distracting shadows on the wall of your cave. I too am not sure what to think about that subject, but I try not to substitute irrelevant deflection for difficult thought.
I am astonished at the "What do you expect?" defenses ("I'm not defending it, I'm just considering 'root causes'!") of this murder. Apparently almost no one is immune to the need to find _someone_ deserving of killing.
We should agree that murder is crossing a line. We should also agree that the denying people the health insurance they paid for, profiting health care company CEOs and shareholders, and ultimately causing patients to die, is also murder. Slower, more nuanced, perhaps, but still cold blooded murder. Just murder for profit, and in America we seem delighted by that. So spare me the handwringing. We shouldn’t gun down perpetrators in the street, but we shouldn’t shower them with money and the expense of the lives of others either. Help us get government provided universal health care or get out of the way.
👏👏👏👏👏👏
No one should want to live in a country that doesn’t adhere to its own laws. No one should want to live in a country that allows a convicted felon to run for office, any office including the highest one in the land. No one should want to live in a country where one human is above the law and the rest of us look on in disbelief after being told repeatedly that no one is above the law. This kind of gaslighting makes people crazy enough to engage in behavior they may not otherwise.