The Rage and Glee That Followed a C.E.O.’s Killing Should Ring All Alarms
The Rage and Glee That Followed a C.E.O.’s Killing Should Ring All Alarms
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Yes. It SHOULD ring alarms. It should have rang alarms 100 years ago. It should make the rich and elite sit down and really contemplate the fact that nobody, NOBODY, gives a damn if they die, and we'll openly celebrate the fact that they just got shot in the face. The world will be happy they're gone.
It should make them sit down and ask the all important question of WHY.
Why would a nation cheer wildly at their death? What have they done to deserve that kind of treatment? And when they start asking those questions, hopefully they find the answers. Hopefully something is put right in their face that forces them to empathize with those they've hurt, and those that would not hesitate to shoot.
I do not know the shooters name. I do not know the shooters identity. However we ALL know the shooters story. We may not know the specifics. He may be dying, and was denied his own health. He may be losing or already lost a loved one. Whatever the case, we all know the motive. And what should scare these CEOs is that Brian Thompson never learned a lesson. There was no 3 ghosts of Christmas. Brian Thompson was just walking down the street one day. And suddenly he was dead. He didn't even have time to process it. He never knew his killers name. He may not have even known he was targeted. He may have died before he even realized what's going on.
But the rest of them? They should all be sitting in their homes, thinking about if they're next. WHY they would be next, and what they've done to potentially be targeted in the future. What can they do to stop it?
Because for once in my life, I'm seeing real consequences for corrupt and evil behavior. THATS why everyone is cheering. It's been a long time coming, and we're all just hoping this turns into Americas version of the french revolution.
We're not against the idea of working hard and becoming rich for it. We're against the idea of becoming rich by exploiting the literal lives of those you step on. And that seems to be almost the exclusive way to become rich in this country. It's sickening.
We (in the US) just elected a grifting, criminal "billionaire". I don't think the animosity so loudly and gleefully displayed in the reactions to the murder of this asshole insurance ghoul is representative of a newly heightened consciousness of wealth inequality. I hope that it is the start of something, but I've been disappointed in the public way too many times.
Just dropping in to remind everyone, that there have been 2 assassination attempts on the 'grifting, criminal "billionaire"' in just the last 8 months and he's been hiding behind thick glass in public.
I don't think it will stop, because however many people you manage to manipulate via targeted brainwashing (social media), you create at least a few super angry, unpredictable folks with ever less to lose. And they all have guns.
Edit: Also, nothing stops someone with a gigantic grudge, patience and high motivation from joining a private security company, getting training, a gun, and placed directly in the vicinity of a potential target. Really, there's no good defense except not giving a ton of people reasons to want to get rid of you.
Edit: Also, nothing stops someone with a gigantic grudge, patience and high motivation from joining a private security company, getting training, a gun, and placed directly in the vicinity of a potential target. Really, there’s no good defense except not giving a ton of people reasons to want to get rid of you.
Not to mention the use of DIY suicide drones.
I'm scared of his supporters becoming disenfranchised by and turning on him. They're already so volatile that their violence isn't always going to be as precise as a single bullet. There's going to be civilian collateral damage. It's hard celebrating all this, knowing the motherfucker had it coming, but considering the reality of violence, vigilantism and the kinds of people that do this (and the state they're in when pushed enough).. yay dead rich murderous fuck.. but shit, I'm scared for all of us. That dude could have missed.. a stray could have killed someone. Couldn't have gone through his head, shattered on his skull and shrapnel ricochets through a kid walking to school. Everyone wants street justice but forgets that living by the sword means living by the sword.
Definitely. This was more of a general comment.
I will copy/paste a thought I had about a more structured approach for dealing with corruption/oligarchs:
You need to put them on trial in a legitimate court (i.e. exclude compromised judiciary systems).
If the oligarch/senior lackey is found guilty, you could use real rehabilitation methods that would creates incentives for good behaviour for other criminals:
- Full asset seizure (every last cent, home, house, everything).
- Extended family and business partners being required to sign affidavits detailing their knowledge re: assets in [1], with an understanding that if the affidavit was found to have not been signed in good faith, they will be subject to full asset seizure and their own family and business partners will also have to sign similar affidavits for their own case. No statue of limitations for affidavits.
- 20 years mandatory live-in community service as junior support person at a hospice centre (minimum wage). Exact focus of community service would depend on crimes committed.
I like it. Honestly don't think it's harsh enough. My point was less about harsh penalties than collateral damage from crazies. I think we're pretty much on the same page though.
Are you kidding? Them turning on him is our greatest hope.
Trump is already responsible for indirectly killing hundreds of thousands of Americans due to his failure during COVID.
I don't disagree. I'm just afraid of people with the same mindset going wild spray and praying all over the place and taking out bystanders with them.
Why hasn't anyone invented a super accurate grenade trebuchet?
Agreed - the alarm bells should have been ringing long ago.
There was a social contract between the upper and lower class (the middle class is a lie used to further divide us) that was basically - we'll let you have your mansions as long as our quality of life improves as well. But the rich have been hollowing out that agreement for decades. The highest tax bracket (the percentage taxed on income only above a certain amount) has plummeted since the middle of the 20th century. Regulations have been removed and replaced with weaker regulations (like Dodd/Frank) and then THOSE regulations have been hollowed out. Any sense of responsibility and duty the rich might have ever had to the people and place that rewarded them so greatly has vanished and in place of it is cynical and manipulative and greedy - because the only thing that matters is getting more and taking more - removing the safety barriers that keep them from getting more, no matter who it might hurt because somehow acquiring wealth has become the most important thing (not doing something great, improving the world, or helping others).
At each step, the social contract weakens. As long as enough people aren't feeling the pain they're going to abide by their part of the bargain because most of the rest of us ARE actually just trying to live good lives and make sure it's good for those around us. But there will be a moment when enough people are feeling the pain and won't have any other choice but to act. In a system where justice is only dealt to the lower class - that action is guaranteed to be carried out outside the system.
There was never a social contract. Sorry, but that's absolute nonsense. The power of the wealthy has always been engacted through manipulation, intimidation and fraud. Claiming there was a social contract between the wealthy and the rest of us is like claiming that there was a social contract between slaves and slave owners.
There's no contract, there's no agreement, there's no relationship; that's a fantasy concocted by the wealthy to justify their wealth. There is only power and exploitation. And exploitation will always grow worse over time.
They abuse us, and we let them abuse us because we're not desperate enough to stop them.
Not yet.
But it's getting there.
I mean the social contract is not always a physical thing and not always by explicit consent. Just by carrying out our part of the system and accepting the benefits of it (infrastructure/protection/stability) we are implicitly consenting to it.
That being said, I absolutely agree with you that it is always slanted heavily toward the wealthy and not to benefit the working class but only to keep them in line.
I like ownership and working class. That's the real distinction seperateing us. People who work for money, and people who own things for money. Even 6 figure doctors and lawyers are working class.
Remember when the Panama/Paradise papers came out and there were practically no Americans listed in them because American tax law is already so favorable to the rich that they don't even need to bother hiding assets?
We're not against the idea of working hard and becoming rich for it. We're against the idea of becoming rich by exploiting the literal lives of those you step on. And that seems to be almost the exclusive way to become rich in this country. It's sickening.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
I don't care if you make money. I don't care if you make a lot of money. I care when you pull out all the stops in order to make ALL OF THE MONEY, FOREVER, without any regard for what you destroy, or who you hurt or even kill in order to get it.
Brian Thompson built his fortune off the pain, suffering, and deaths of others, and the world is a slightly better place without him.
The better technology gets, the better the oppression and suppression will get, the worse it will be before people revolt, eventually they will be too feeble to revolt effectively.
Where do you think we are in that progression?
Maybe, maybe not. There's no way to predict what direction technology will go with certainty.
It could be the case that it eventually becomes impossible to revolt due to technology being insurmountable. Maybe it won't be the case.
But what is certain is that people will revolt in mass if they have their backs against the wall and nothing to lose. And we've been circling the drain on that.
The better the control systems get, the better will get the working class at circumventing them. Remember that those who write and compile the codes used to keep us in check are also part of the working class. There's always space for a backdoor or an exploit in all codes, one just have to learn how to use them to return to an unknown status.
There is no thing like a people too feeble to revolt. A people who cannot revolt is a people who cannot work nor produce (see every dictatorship in the world, they are surviving but they are not thriving nor innovating anything. The best they can do is copy [China] or using old technologies [Russia, North Korea, Iran]). If the elites want to have their iPhone 20 or their self-driving cars they need us to be productive, and with that comes a certain degree of freedom which entails a degree of risk for their health and lives