In the wake of the murder of United Health CEO Brian Thompson, the New York Times (NYT) has come forth with a remarkable piece of propaganda designed to garner sympathy for Mr Thompson and his family. I, for one, find it very difficult to muster sympathy, good will and empathy for this ghoul who made billions of dollars in profit every year by denying health insurance claims.
Let us be clear: insurance is people paying into a pool of money, thereby reducing individual costs. The expectation is that they will receive part of that money back when they need it most. This good idea, when combined with the toxic profit motive, leads to companies denying claims. Why? Simple: paying out claims is a cost, and since profit equals revenue minus costs, the lower the costs, the higher the profit. This cretin, Thompson, increased his profit margins by denying people access to their own money which they had put aside for healthcare. My sympathy for this man is low.
The Public Reaction
The reaction of the people was not subtle. Indeed, it was simply brutal. Some of the highlights include
Thoughts and copays
Unfortunately thoughts & prayers are out-of-network
He died doing what he loved, not getting medical care in time
There are scores more of these, but you get the point: an unapologetic F this guy. As I said above, mustering sympathy for a man whose insurance company denied 32% of all claims it received in order to increase profits is something I am struggling with. To add my own humble contribution to this peasant pile-on, Thompson found out what it is like to have someone you’ve never heard of determine your fate. Bitch, isn’t it?
The Media Reaction: Corporate Propaganda, Part One
The NYT started it’s propaganda piece with a remarkable headline
Torrent of Hate for Health Insurance Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing
That headline is a great example of something Rome’s first Emperor, Augustus, was good at: you say something that is technically true, but leave out rather important details. The focus of the headline is not what an utterly evil and parasitic capitalist disease Thompson is, oh no. The focus is on the (admittedly brutal) public response. Left to the side is the context about the people he sacrificed at the altar of profit. Now, headline or not, the slant of the NYT is on glaring display here.
The pathetic defence of the corporate structure continues with this gem
The fatal shooting on Wednesday of a top UnitedHealthcare executive, Brian Thompson, on a Manhattan sidewalk has unleashed a torrent of morbid glee from patients and others who say they have had negative experiences with health insurance companies at some of the hardest times in their lives
Negative experiences with insurance companies? You mean they were refused access to their own money so a company could make ever more Holy, Sacred Profit? Also, you speak of ‘the hardest times in their lives’ – yes. That is what insurance is for. The insurance industry is perhaps best summed up by this pearler ‘the insurance industry is not in the business of paying claims. It is in the business of collecting premiums’. Amen. Finally, morbid glee? Nice rhetorical flourish there, but I see through it. This man was head of an insurance company that decided who lived and who died based on how much money it would cost the company. I think the public is quite within its rights to utterly decimate this man and laugh at his death.
The Media Reaction: Corporate Propaganda, Part Two
After noting that the motive for Thompson’s murder is not clear (again, technically true, but I think his job may have something to do with it), the NYT offers this brutal sentence
But that did not stop social media commenters from leaping to conclusions and from showing a blatant lack of sympathy over the death of a man who was a husband and father of two children
Oh cry me a river. How about garnering some sympathy for the thousands of individuals, who were also wives and mothers and sons and fathers, that Thompson is responsible for the deaths of? Why do they not count? They don’t advertise with your paper? Why are humanity and dignity given exclusively to the corporate CEO? The death of the CEO is a tragedy, the deaths of the thousands of people denied continuation of life because it costs money are called ‘cost saving measures’. The American motto e Pluribus Unum, meaning one from many, referring to the so-called melting pot of different people that make up America, is dead. It is most certainly dead, Jim. The rich matter, the poor do not.
The Media Reaction: Corporate Propaganda, Part Three
The NYT was hardly alone in its sycophantic, pandering slop in response to Thompson’s death. The following headline from The New Yorker aptly encapsulates the elite’s outrage at the peasants’ glee at the murder of this ghoul
A Man Was Murdered in Cold Blood and You’re Laughing?
All that headline was missing was Greta Thunberg’s ‘HOW DARE YOU?’. That the media would rear up on its hind legs to defend the corporate structure is not news. What is news here is that the media is actually chastising the people for reacting with fitting glee to the death of this boil on the arse of humanity. This is the equivalent of blaming the victim of years of abuse when they finally fight back. How dare you hit your abusive partner after years of mistreatment? RUDE.
My response to this tone-policing crap can only partially be said on TV before certain times of day. The nerve of these rich, pampered, corrupt, profit-obsessed goons to band together and lecture the peasants for their reaction to this act is palpable. Also, what happened to the First Amendment? Free Speech? People are allowed to express dark opinions; yes, even about the corporate structure you love so much.
Conclusion: If Non-Violence is Impossible…
There is a saying around revolution, that if non-violent revolution is impossible, violent revolution becomes inevitable. This is not to justify violence, simply to say placing profits over the people while gloating insufferably about being the greatest country in the world was not a sustainable model. Eventually, your continued petulant demands that the status quo (from which you benefit handsomely) be maintained and that any and all calls for reform were Communism was going to blow up in your face.
I used to end posts on a blog some years ago with NVRN – Non-Violent Revolution Now. The corporate structure, with its childlike demands that ‘line on profit graph go up forever’ was going to eventually provoke some reaction. There simply are not enough circuses (and do not mention the price of bread) to keep the peasants fed and occupied anymore.
Choke, you greedy bastards.
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