Predatory capitalists need martyrs, too.
A CEO who made lots and lots and lots of money off of killing people just got killed.
“We will continue to guard against unnecessary care.”
– Andrew Witty, new United Healthcare CEO, replaces Brian Thompson
***
United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on December 4th and it looks like his killer is now behind bars.
The killer is now behind bars…and the McDonald’s employee who turned in the killer is going to get screwed out of the reward money. In health-insurance-speak, this is called “being denied.”
Speaking of money, money-obsessed white nationalists are going to behave more and more like the ugliest of their unfair Jewish stereotypes after Donald Trump takes office, doing everything they can to take as much as they can. The post-election “overwhelming mandate against wokeness and science and books and women and pronouns and prices of eggs” selling story is turning out to be a false narrative. This means that penny-pinching Nazis are going to weaponize the financial system as a way of keeping us in line. We are the majority. But they have the majority of the money. And they are going to remind us of this fact in hurtful ways.
But enough about that subject. Time to talk about memes.
Based memes. Vicious memes. Harsh memes. Brutal memes. Sick-and-wrong memes. Mister Healthcare gets executed and meme-geniuses rise to the occasion, pushing the envelope of meme-ness.
How do I know these memes are super-duper-mega-extra good? By the sheer amount of shit-fits that they cause, in both the rich men that profiteer off of inequality and also the adoring simps who have no idea that rich men hate them. Gaslighting is this crowd’s go-to tactic and their disinformation machine is in overdrive, trumpeting to the world that Brian Thompson was a hero while Luigi Mangione is a villain. Lots of Right-wing pissiness over this killing. It all would be more believable if they weren’t so pissy already.
Memes aside, know what else jumped out at me after the attack? Postings of true stories about our for-profit healthcare system hurting those who needed it. While the memes are funny, people’s accounts of unnecessary pain and loved ones dying early have been awful to read.
Right-wingers who cry crocodile tears over fake memes would also censor folks’ real-life tragedies, given the chance. That crowd wants to ignore, even suppress, actual examples of big insurers failing those who depend on them. Upper-middle-class Republicans don’t care. And they are proud of this fact.
Brian Thompson’s death was unfortunate. But the man got wealthy from sending people to their graves and causing all sorts of familial trauma, just because shareholders with undiagnosed gambling disorders want bigger yachts. Looking at Thompson’s Wikipedia page, the “Career” section gives the 30,000-foot view of his professional life. The broad strokes it lays out serve as a nice complement to individuals’ testimony about the harm that for-profit care created. Taken together as a whole, the entirety says that for-profit healthcare needs to go.
Brian Thompson wanted the big bucks. Big blood-money-bucks.
Predatory capitalism is not for the weak. And nobody is safe.
Really. Nobody is safe.
I’d like to end this post on a happy note. Enjoy this clip of Piers Morgan asking Nazi-bro Peter Thiel about Thompson’s death. Thiel’s stammering response is telling.
Don’t obey in advance. These modern fascists are terrified.
Also posted on my site. Some earlier posts:
• In your 20s and wondering what’s up with your folks? My book can help.
• World events since I released my first book.
• The Donald Trump Tax.
• A thank you, from me to Rush Limbaugh.
• Intersection of Memory Lane and Flashback Avenue.
I also write fiction. I have two dark comedies available, Fearkiller (Volume 1) and Notes from Trillionaire Island: Fearkiller (Volume 2), as well as Revolutionizer Alpha, the first book in a sci-fi series. I also wrote a story about God. It was weird, but then I decided to make the story and its sequel free. And all of the sudden, it didn’t seem as weird. Writing about God is much less weird when you write about God without charging money for it.
