Summary

The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has ignited outrage over the state of U.S. healthcare.

While his murder shocked many, online reactions highlighted public frustration with private insurers, citing denied care, high costs, and systemic bureaucracy.

UnitedHealthcare, a major industry player, has faced scrutiny for practices perceived as prioritizing profit over patients.

The attack, which appears premeditated, underscores rising tensions around healthcare inequality.

Experts see this as part of a broader trend toward violence over societal disputes, reflecting deep dissatisfaction with the American healthcare system.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    126
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    19 days ago

    lol … Private health care sends thousands or even millions to an early death and no one says anything or cares for a moment

    One CEO gets killed and now we start asking questions about the state of private health care

  • Drusas@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    85
    ·
    19 days ago

    Experts see this as part of a broader trend toward violence over societal disputes, reflecting deep dissatisfaction with anger at the blatant corruption of the American healthcare system.

    FTFY

    • Drusas@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      108
      ·
      19 days ago

      That belies the shock also generated by the brutality of Thompson’s death.

      It wasn’t brutal. He died with no fear and very quickly. That’s a lot better than many of the patients his company denied coverage for can say.

      • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        ·
        edit-2
        18 days ago

        People aren’t shocked by his death. We’re at the very least unsympathetic. And many of us are positively giddy.

      • xapr [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        18 days ago

        As much as I share the majority’s sentiment about this situation, I think he may have died with fear. If you see the uncensored video, he turns around and faces the shooter after the first shot. That explains why they say he was shot in the chest even though he appeared to be shot from behind. I guess the first shot was to the leg and the second to the chest. It’s also possible that he died too quickly to experience fear, even though he got to face his assassin.

  • Lenny@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    70
    ·
    18 days ago

    Wait, let’s see… I have to spend hundreds of dollars a month so when I get sick or injured, I have to pay hundreds of dollars upfront to meet a requirement to still pay a large portion of the bill. All so some mediocre guy with excessive wealth can buy another yacht. My health is a commodity to them. And I’m supposed to give ANY fucks when it all goes wrong for them? Did that dude spare even a moment to think about the people choosing a slow agonizing death to spare their family a life of medical debt? This man ran a racket that paid for his vacations with people’s lives, and now it’s come back to bite him (to death). I ain’t mad.

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    19 days ago

    UnitedHealthcare, a major industry player, has faced scrutiny for practices perceived as prioritizing profit over patients.

    Perceived? Of course they prioritize profit over patients. They, along with every other capitalist firm, must prioritize profit over every other consideration. Everything is secondary to maximum, ever increasing profits.

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      19 days ago

      Parasite apologists are also gencoide apologists…

      Regime whores reporting for duty 🙄

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    52
    ·
    18 days ago

    Disgusting narrative. The violence in this story was mostly committed by the CEO. Its his violence that we must be talking about

  • Drusas@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    40
    ·
    19 days ago

    Maybe you shouldn’t have an accountant in charge of a “healthcare” company.

    I’m sorry for the multiple comments. I have a lot of background and trauma related to dealing with health insurance companies. They are parasites sucking out the blood of those who can least afford it and ruining their lives when they can’t pay the bills left over after they deny claims.

    • SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      18 days ago

      Healthcare companies should only be allowed to operate under non-profit rules.

      There should be no incentive for profit on people’s health.

    • Benjaben@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      18 days ago

      And the thing is, the “trade” they inflict is just so amazingly unreasonable. The incredible misery they cause, replicated over so many people, and for truly no greater purpose than keeping up with the perverse status symbol competition amongst their hideous peers. Absolutely wild, unhinged, clearly malignant behavior.

    • SattaRIP@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      18 days ago

      Parasites at least play an important role in their ecosystems. I have no (or too many) words to describe my hatred for people like this that commit social murder all the time.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    18 days ago

    Curiously, successive governments in the UK (where The Guardian is based) have been slowly destroying the National Health Service.

    • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      18 days ago

      The same thing has been happening in some Canadian provinces where there are conservative governments.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        18 days ago

        Isn’t it ironic to call them conservative as they are trying to up-end the status quo?

        Comically enough, it is they who are trying to force through more liberal laws for companies which will ultimately cost the common person more.

        • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          18 days ago

          Not sure I followed your entire meaning, but your comment is funny, because when I wrote “conservative” it left a sour taste in my mouth.

          I think modern conservatives are regressive, liberals are conservative and progressives or leftists are progressive.

          So yes, “conservative” parties in Canada are trying to dismantle our health care system (i.e., regress).

          And the “liberal” parties aren’t doing much to save it. It’s hard to justify spending money on it when those same funds could go to private interests instead.

          And the actual progressive parties don’t get elected unless you’re in BC and incompetence still fucks things up anyway.

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            18 days ago

            I know what you mean, I was just discussing the variance within the terminology.

            It’s strange that conservatives call progressives progressive in the first place, because a true conservative would be trying to conserve what was there, and a progressive would be trying to create progress. Thus it is open admittance for them to call the other party progressive and be against it… Yet not think they are standing in the way of betterment. If they believed moving left was wrong they would call it regressive as well. But what hits as well is what you acknowledge as regressive, which is why I don’t call MAGA conservatives, because they aren’t. They are farther right than our country has ever been. They are trying to ratchet our country further right… Towards what? A kingdom/dictatorship is the only thing right of our past time. Makes me think they confused their red hats for coats, and want the British Empire. Maybe that’s why Trump made the dumb joke about Canada becoming a state.

            After all, nothing says let’s conserve what we have, than saying we should get rid of 75% of government agencies.

            • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              18 days ago

              The MAGA slogan itself tells you that they are regressive. They want to go back to something else (that was great).

              And by shifting the Overton Window hard the the right, they are turning “progressive” into a slur. Helping them with that is attacking social issues like LGBTQ+, because simple people with simple lives don’t give a fuck about social issues and REGRESSIVES weaponize that and turn it into a culture war (while somehow saying PROGRESSIVEs created the culture war?). Supporting human rights has become a poison pill placed BY REGRESSIVES for anyone who has some human decency.

              • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                18 days ago

                I wish we could just call the apple an apple and say fascists, liberals, and progressives. But nobody knows what political words mean anymore, and this is the fault of the political class watering down or outright misnaming things. The regressives want to go back to a time where things were better. This time is a fucking fiction. I want to go to where a single income could buy a house and a car, with much less racism and sexism, but that’s not what they want.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        18 days ago

        Oh, I see the same think in my native Portugal.

        As I see it (having left it a year or so before Brexit came into effect) Britain is maybe 10 years ahead of the rest of Europe on the path towards Neoliberal Dystopia (you see it too in other things like Press capture, surveillance society and even the house price inflation.), so some of the social, economic and political problems I see now unfolding in Portugal, I saw in Britain years ago when I lived there.

        Britain seem to be trying hard to converge with the US, but only on the bad things rather than the good ones.

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      18 days ago

      UK government is speed running the country into the gutter on behalf of their globalist ruling elites.

      But British are more reserved, they can take more abuse apparently

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        18 days ago

        There’s quite a lot of “know your place” in English culture, tough for some decades (in the post War period) that was somewhat suspended and the country had a lot of social mobility and a lot less of “looking up to posh wankers”.

        You can see it very clearly in things like just how hard the Press promotes the Royals (including The Guardian, who are Liberals rather than leftwing) and the lack of criticism of the System itself (quite the contrary even, and coverage of internation affairs is very heavilly Nationalistic).

        What that means in practice is that people tend to worry a lot more about keeping those “below them in the ladder” in their place than they do in climbing the ladder themselves, and the Working Class (who are naturally the ones who get squeezed the most) fighting amongst themselves but not actually against the elites, whilst the Middle Class will do some mild and easilly suppressed demonstrations when they get a bit more squeezed.

    • thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      17 days ago

      Yes, the Tory plan for the NHS is a sibling of the American “starve the beast” model where you make it hard for a public service to function effectively then go “see it doesn’t work, it needs to be got rid of” when it inevitably has issues.

      The end game is to privatise it, making money for tory mates in the process and removing yet another social benefit paid out of tax revenue.

      The problem for the Tories is that even Tory voters love the NHS, so they can’t just privatise straight out it like they did everything else. They need to make a case for why, they need to break the British attachment, or at least get people to care less.

      Be aware, if you’re not, that stealth privatisation has already been done through outsourcing mandates. This increases costs (because the outsourcer wants to make profits) rather than saving it, helping accelerate their case.

  • Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    18 days ago

    Its not the health care that is at fault. Its the useless insurance companies that degrade it. The practicing medical professionals are as a rule competent and engaged in their profession. The problems starts at the admin level of any medical organization and just get more inefficient the lower it goes in the chain.

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      18 days ago

      It is actually just incredible just how medical insurance companies aren’t considered legally frauds.

      • stringere@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        18 days ago

        It is actually just incredible just how medical for profit insurance companies aren’t considered legally frauds.

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      18 days ago

      The problems starts at the admin level of any medical organization and just get more inefficient the lower it goes in the chain.

      Hence why the Adjustor struck where the doctor prescribed… Rent seeking bean counter

    • EvilZ@thelemmy.club
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      18 days ago

      … I would honestly say that it’s the whole system that is to be changed…

      America’s pay the higher fees in terms of health care for one of the lowest amount of services…

      As George Carlin said about elites, view the link from YouTube for more info : https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Pmo_zA8UAEA

    • clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      18 days ago

      I believe that MBA education in America has contributed too much to the degradation of society. Universities have failed society once more.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        18 days ago

        Universities are some of the very few places in the US where people are educated to be less dogmatic. This leads to less conservative, less religious people. But universities are now demonized as woke and expensive beyond the capacity of the working class.

        On top of that, a four year degree isn’t worth what it used to be. I encourage any young people to go into the trades.

  • Realitaetsverlust@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    18 days ago

    Experts see this as part of a broader trend toward violence over societal disputes

    If you take away everything, at some point, people have nothing to lose

  • zephorah@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    18 days ago

    From FDR to ~1981 we invested in the creation of a middle class. Oh yes, the middle class was created by government subsidy. The 1950s was unique because the prosperous creation blasted into the American scene for the first time. It evolved from there, in part, because it was also being built on the backs of women being crushed into singular stifling roles. Go ahead, ask your boomer mom about her mom, how happy and sane and unmedicated she was. Outliers exist. But that piece is for another thread.

    Subsidizing middle class began to be peeled away ~1981. Basically, the theory was, investing in the investors and corporate is simply more efficient, financially, and will trickle down to the rest of society. We’ve all felt the long term impact of that experiment and it’s not making anyone working class very happy.

    2021, yea GramPOTUS started to peel back up pre1981. Have we felt it? Teamsters maybe in knowing they still have a retirement, but the truth of it is, breaking shit has lasting impact and turning it around will not be felt for a while.

    I highly doubt 2025 will subsidize the middle class and try to get us back to pre-1981. But we will see.

    My point is, this financial squeeze is the culmination of 40yrs of government policy. Bezos gets a penis rocket, we get lack of homes, healthcare debt, the inability to raise children due to costs, and a wonderful feeling of anxiety and anger.

    Either way. 1950s or the present crushing situation: government created.

    • D1G17AL@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      18 days ago

      They shouldn’t be surprised at the reaction when they are actively doing this to THE WORLDS MOST WELL-ARMED POPULATION. What the fuck did they think would happen?

    • theangryseal@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      18 days ago

      That thing about asking my mom about her mom. She wouldn’t be able to tell me much. My aunts and uncle are boomers, my mom is gen x. She was born 10 years after her youngest sibling so obviously a total accident.

      Her mom shot herself when my mom was only 4 years old. So, yeah. You got it right.

  • spujb@lemmy.cafe
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    18 days ago

    I like this headline because for once the “sparks outrage” cliche has some real meaning to it.

    People have been mad about healthcare for ages. But it hasn’t lit up, it’s just sort of passively lingering like a gas leak. All it took was one snap to light the flames.

    Anyway, I don’t condone violence but this shouldn’t come as a surprise. The rotten egg smell is everywhere and we’ve tried calling the gas department for decades and no one has come to help. If there are further victims of violence, the majority of the blood will be on the hands of the oppressive class who failed to protect themselves by treating their subordinates as human.

    Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. -JF damn K

  • Zachariah@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    edit-2
    19 days ago

    Option 1: Vote for Democrats / vote for a woman for president to get incremental improvements to healthcare and society.
    Americans: yawn

    Option 2: Start murdering the powerful capitalist oligarchs which will lead to zero improvements in healthcare and society but fuels fantasies of revenge and temporarily feels good.
    Americans: “Yay!”

    Edit: I’m not even saying we need to pick just one option. But shouldn’t Option 1 also be “yay” if Option 2 is? Why limit how pressure is applied to just picking the violent option? It’s weird how even marches and unions get a lukewarm response compared to vigilantism.

    And these replies I’m getting are interesting. I didn’t expect so many attempts to justify that only a violent option ever would do any good. Let’s say that violence is the most effective option. Does that really mean we don’t try any other options? If I was this inflexible in my day-to-day life, I’d never get anything done.

    • niktemadur@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      19 days ago

      It’s like Richard Pryor said about crack:

      Old white women see addicted kids in the ghetto and shrug “Well isn’t that terrible?”
      Then crack arrives at their suburbs and they’re “OH MY GOD IT’S AN EPIDEMIC!”

        • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          18 days ago

          Kid, you should just make a new username that’s just the clown emoji with how you use it. You have such shit takes that I assume you’re a child. This one isn’t wrong it’s just worthless. I hate seeing your name.

    • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      18 days ago

      Start murdering the powerful capitalist oligarchs which will lead to zero improvements in healthcare and society

      That implies a trend instead of a one off like this. A trend would absolutely ultimately lead to improvements. The oligarchy that rules us isn’t listening to polite letters and protests asking them to change.

      But if they discover that their actions lead to great personal risk, they’ll quickly change their actions to avoid the risk. That means lower (fair) pay for the CEOs/stockholders. That means an end to the scamming they do through insurance. That means an end to price gouging in the grocery store.

      The reason everything is shit (aside from the destruction of the middle class and housing crisis, which is itself caused by the oligarchy), is that the oligarchy is brazen and unafraid of risk in their wealth extraction.

      Does that really mean we don’t try any other options?

      That’s what we’ve been doing for the last two decades, and it’s got us basically nowhere.

      • Zachariah@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        18 days ago

        That doesn’t rule out holding them accountable via a government that works for us. Having that (or working towards that) was too boring for Americans this time. But if we had that, I’m sure the rich would be at least as scared of government guns as you say they’d be of increased vigilante guns.

          • Zachariah@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            18 days ago

            Could be better. Could be worse. Still think it’s worth trying in addition to anything else we try.

    • atro_city@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      18 days ago

      I didn’t expect so many attempts to justify that only a violent option ever would do any good

      USAmericans love violence. Look at their media, it’s full of it. They’d rather see a gun advert or a story of some school children getting shot than a naked boob.

    • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      18 days ago

      What improvements did Democrats make in the past 4 years?

      The last time a president made marginal improvements they introduced term limits to stop it happening again.

      • Zachariah@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        18 days ago

        You couldn’t find anything?

        • all-time low for uninsured
        • unemployment has held below 4% for the longest stretch since the 1960s
        • income increases began to outpace price increases
        • cost of living is returning to its pre-pandemic level this year
        • energy transition spending was $303 billion last year, a record and two-thirds higher than before Biden
        • rise in real wages for lower-income workers lowers inequality
        • violent crime is down
        • $1.2 trillion infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems
        • signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the “boyfriend” loophole and provided funds for youth mental health
        • $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
        • college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year
        • cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan
        • capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act
        • imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act
        • rejoined the Paris Agreement
        • gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending
        • reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year
        • signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins
        • reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027
        • halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze
        • signed the Respect for Marriage Act, requiring the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories (though not tribes) to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages in the United States
        • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          18 days ago
          • all-time low for uninsured
          • unemployment has held below 4% for the longest stretch since the 1960s
          • income increases began to outpace price increases
          • cost of living is returning to its pre-pandemic level this year
          • rise in real wages for lower-income workers lowers inequality
          • violent crime is down

          None of these are things they did directly

          • energy transition spending was $303 billion last year, a record and two-thirds higher than before Biden
          • $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
          • rejoined the Paris Agreement

          None of these directly help workers

          • signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the “boyfriend” loophole and provided funds for youth mental health

          If it’s bipartisan then the democrats didn’t do it.

          • college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year

          only a small amount

          • cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan

          only for a short period of time

          • capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act

          For a very specific group

          • imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act

          Pretty sure this was because of a global treaty

          • reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027

          Keeping things the same isn’t a improvement

          • halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze

          Getting things back to how they were previously isn’t an improvement.

          • $1.2 trillion infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems
          • gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending
          • reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year
          • signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins
          • signed the Respect for Marriage Act, requiring the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories (though not tribes) to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages in the United States

          I don’t know enough about these to comment, on the surface they sound good but some are vague.

          • Zachariah@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            18 days ago

            Well, he’s not a king or a wizard. It takes the whole government to get it done, and these were done under his administration.

        • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          18 days ago

          yawn none of that matters if we destroy all life on earth with nuclear weapons. They’ve done nothing to address the existential theats

            • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              18 days ago

              Absolutely good faith. I care about existential threats. Dont greenwash away the real issues with a bullet point list of vomit to distract away from the real issues

        • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          18 days ago

          More like option 1 literally wasn’t an option on the paper. Stein was literally sued off many State’s ballots, unfortunately.

          For option 1 to be achievable, first we need rank choice voting and abolition of the electoral college. I honestly dont understand why this didn’t pass in Colorado, except maybe successful disinformation campaigns.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      19 days ago

      Option 1’s incremental improvement to healthcare are negated by capitalism’s incremental exploitation of those “improvements.” They can fuck shit up faster than politics can fix it.

      Option 2 ends in universal healthcare.

      • Zachariah@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        19 days ago

        We didn’t even try Option 1 this time. It was too boring for most people to go out and vote. And then we had a vocal group decided to withhold votes based on their unbending principles.

        I’m not holding my breath for Option 2 given we couldn’t even make Option 1 work. Since we’ve shown we can’t come together for each other, Option 2 is more likely to end in totalitarianism as the powerful react to the violence and/or in societal collapse as every person looks out only for himself.

        • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          19 days ago

          Let’s go ahead and not even pretend that any kind of healthcare reform would have happened during a Dick Cheney approved Harris administration.

        • grue@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          18 days ago

          We didn’t even try Option 1 this time.

          What exactly the fuck do you think four years of Biden was?

            • grue@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              18 days ago

              “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Rita Mae Brown

              And then the fucking neolibs wonder why Trump won.

              • Zachariah@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                18 days ago

                Just because there are other options worth trying, doesn’t mean we should give up on also trying a peaceful option. If we elect better people, it’s not the same thing. If we strike, too, it’s not the same thing. Nonviolent interference is not doing the same thing. We can augment rather than abandon. It’s more complicated, harder, and requires cunning and patience rather than mere brute force. Nothing has a guaranteed result, not even violence—especially with GOP/MAGA in power. All of the tools are more effective when not under Republican rule.

                • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  18 days ago

                  lol. god people are trash. ‘suffer for longer because we want to take the HARDER route vs fixing the fucking problem.’ enjoy the violence you’ve mandated; its just a shame everyone else is going to have to suffer with you.

        • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          19 days ago

          We didn’t even try Option 1 this time.

          Option 1 was “maintain the status quo”. Continue to suck in exactly the same way that we have been sucking for the past 60+ years.

          as every person looks out only for himself.

          That’s called “Democracy”.

          • Zachariah@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            7
            ·
            19 days ago

            If it’s not obvious to you that things sucked in distinctly different ways under Democrat and GOP rule, I doubt I’ll be able to convince you. Not to mention, the stark difference this next administration has from anything we’ve seen before.

            If you don’t think we’ve ever made progress in this country, or that the Biden administration made only maintained the status quo, I guess that’s fine. You do you. But that’s not the case from what I’ve seen.

            I am interested in how democracy is every person looking out for themselves. I can agree that any societal system has to account for self-preservation, but democracy itself is, as far as I understand, a tool to channel individual instincts toward improving things for everyone.

            • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              19 days ago

              If it’s not obvious to you that things sucked in distinctly different ways under Democrat and GOP rule

              Sure. There are distinct differences between the two.

              There are also distinct differences in the different ways things sucked in the 1920s. There are distinct differences in the way things sucked in the 1980s. The distinctions you are talking about are trivial compared to the distinctions across the decades.

              Neither Democrats nor Republicans are currently interested in the kind of reforms necessary to address the oligarchs. The difference in suckiness between the two is certainly distinct, but relatively insignificant. We need to tackle the bigger problems; the problems that Harris wasn’t capable or even interested in solving. We know we need to tackle those problems, which is why someone unable and/or unwilling to look at them gets a yawn.

              Option 2 gives us an optimistic electorate. That “Yay!” is exactly what we need. The most pressing issue we need to address is Reagan’s tax policies. So much is resolved when we restore the measures we used to destroy the robber barons.

              • Zachariah@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                4
                ·
                18 days ago

                I agree with most, but not all, of your understanding of our situation. Sounds like you want things to get better. I hope your efforts are successful.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      19 days ago

      Harris didn’t promise incremental improvements though. In the days leading up to the election she only promised regression and stagnation.

      • Zachariah@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        19 days ago

        I’m not sure where you got that idea. Did you not read her platform or listen to her speak?

        • SattaRIP@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          19 days ago

          Did you not notice how democrats helped republicans shift the overton window further and further towards regressivism? There was never any incremental improvement, just concessions made to distract you from how both parties serve the same masters.

          • Zachariah@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            18 days ago

            You and I don’t seem to agree on this. Maybe you’re just simplifying for the sake of this medium, so I’m missing some of your perspective.

            But you do seem to want a more progressive society. I hope your efforts are successful.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          18 days ago

          I mean she promised to shift to the right compared to Biden, and build that fucking border wall. How is "I’m so right wing I’ll include Republicans in my cabinet) anything other than regression?

          • Zachariah@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            18 days ago

            … promised to shift to the right …

            Source, please?

            … include Republicans in my cabinet …

            If both sides are already the same, how is this a shift?

                • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  18 days ago

                  Yes, I was talking about Harris there, hence “I am” and not “we are”. Also I never implied she’s the same as bona fide Republicans, but she was definitely a shift to the right from Joe Biden.

        • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          18 days ago

          Yes, and they’re spot on with their analysis. not a single one of her policies addressed the systemic issues afflicting our society atm. they were all small, pointless motions that would have not helped resolved the crippling wage suppression, the lack of decent health care, our dying climate, etc. reminder: harris wanted khan gone as well. and supported a genocide. she can go get bent as far as we’re concerned.

          As being shown this week if harris came out for health care reform in a big way like bernie she probably would have won. something the left wing has been telling you twits for over a decade. stop trying to defend the indefensible shit stains that harris and biden were.