Is the US a dystopia?

25 still pretty warm

you should be like my neighbor and wait to do any work on your car, e.g. changing a tire, until well after midnight, when it's totally dark (but remember to keep your sunglasses on top of your head) and everybody on the block is trying to sleep, being sure to scream at your friend rather than talk because that's the white trash way. and also even when it gets down to 8 degrees, only ever wear a hoodie because wearing a jacket or gloves would probably make you look like a pussy

in conclusion, is the US a dystopia? yes

https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/newsroom/news-releases/2024/11/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-will-not-pay-complete-duration-of-anesthesia-for-surgical-procedures🕸

i have no idea how insurance industry executives don't eat it more often. most of them have personal security in the hundreds of thousands range, per year. but there are so many people who have been completely fucked over by insurance, for no reason, just so that the insurance company can make more money. they should build giant moats and fortresses around the people who willingly participate in that, it's fucking evil

...then again, i thought eventually there'd be retribution against covid deniers by the conservative families who got fucked over by that, but instead, any traces of cognitive dissonance among the conservative families was quickly reconciled by the collective amnesia and relentless peer pressure to stfu and kiss the ass of the abusers

Apparently United Healthcare's official response has been... to pull down the page on their website with their top executives' names and photos.

they should build giant moats and fortresses

a form of insurance, if you will

the people who build the moats should work with the government to make sure that the total cost of the moat is no more than 33-45% of the insurance executive's monthly salary

Just reading 50 jokes about this CEO shooting rn

Quality margin doodle by Rufus up there...

the US is not a dystopia why bc people seem to be either ignoring this or actively rooting for the shooter to get away, and perhaps strike again

It just occurred to me that the big takeaway from the United Healthcare story that everyone seems to be ignoring is... PROFESSIONAL ASSASSINS DO EXIST! They're NOT all just undercover cops! The dream lives on!

https://i.imgur.com/T6N9Rp4.jpeg

It's gonna come that some celebrity did this innit

If he’s not already a celebrity, he’s a folk hero at least.

A shooting class hero is something to be

the thing is: people of all political stripes have been fucked over bad by this company, so he might be a hero to many many people out there, whatever the motivation

live by the sword, die by the sword

live by people dying for personal profit, die by...

...people dying for personal profit.

sorry, meant to phrase that as more of a mystery, but somehow i ended up with
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y ...

Is this dude's death going to make anyone healthier / less poor?

Think of it as a ghost if Xmas present type situation

- is doing almost anything you or anyone else doing right now making anyone healthier / less poor?
- is taking 5 minutes out of a busy 42076800 minutes in an 80 year life time to grimly remark that someone who made themselves and everyone around them rich by profiting off of their misery died making anyone's life worse?

yeah, I'm not happy about anyone's murder but it'll be interesting to hear what this shooter's motivation was.. what the backstory is

I've been riffing with a legendary former ilxor for the last two hours about this we're having a blast.

i mean, personally i'm doing great tonight. i just watched new bernard purdie clips, plus the old steely dan behind the music one of course, and i'm having having a jolly night! in a normal community of people, you would never celebrate your worst enemy's death. because in real communities, even the worst, most hateful person is probably not killing people. in the community of whatever an insurance company is to normal people, the person that died was killing people, daily, for profit. they could choose to work in any other field that didn't involve making decisions on whether people live or die based on profit motives, but they did. they provided so many jobs for people, too, working in that industry, and the secondary, tertiary positions. many are saying that over 125% of americans are employed by the health insurance industry. but at the end of the day, it's ridiculous that anyone should ever die, EVER, because it would have cut into the profits of an insurance company. but it happens every day, and it's hard to ever blame a single person, but every once in a while an evil person dies and it's easy to say yeah, fuck them, for 5 minutes

just remembered the time i was sent in for tests to the Pacific Heart Institute because my doctor heard something "odd" in my carotid artery, so they gave me a very lengthy ultrasound treatment that determined what is was (merely an "echo" because of how my artery curves) and UHC didn't cover it, cost me $1000 to find out i'm healthy.

and honestly, the first and more direct thing i feel more than anything is that so many people politely ignore all the death and the agony while finding the courage to speak up against going "fuck you" to the people who made money by refusing to help

Is this dude's death going to make anyone healthier / less poor?

Healthier:
https://www.bidmc.org/about-bidmc/wellness-insights/heart-health/2020/09/how-laughter-can-help-your-heart

Less poor:
https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/NYPD-Overtime-Overview.pdf

Some cop living on Staten Island is going to use his dead CEO overtime to buy a used Dodge Challenger for his 16 year old son who's going to wreck it in six months - think of all the people getting a taste there. Dealership, wrecker service, body shop, etc.

I must be jaded because my responses were “damn, that’s wild” and “hey, I went to a conference at that hotel once”

https://bsky.app/profile/jpbrammer.bsky.social/post/3lcjfs7xfok2j

My condolences are out of network

my friends keep worrying that they're not going to be able to get estrogen come the new year. i don't want to be rude but we have much, much bigger problems. the last thing i'm worried about is obtaining an estrogen supply, although i know at least one person who apparently killed herself this year because she couldn't get estrogen. nah, it's the ADHD meds. the shortage is ongoing. i'm out of touch but i feel like it ought to be a big deal when a medication that is, like, essential for a lot of people to be able to function suddenly becomes unavailable due to supply chain issues. plus, since it's a controlled substance, nobody can prescribe more than a month's worth. meaning nobody has any spares. do people genuinely not know what the results of this will be? i mean, does nobody have any idea how the opioid crisis panned out? if people can't get the medications they need legally, they'll do it under the counter. with a safe and effective hormone like estrogen whose only side effect is "awesome tits", that's not an issue, but when the entire legitimate supply chain of _medically necessary amphetamines_ is unreliable... like that's an inelastic demand, right, stringer?

i don't know. maybe nobody says this stuff because they don't want to panic anyone, for the same reason i don't talk about all the suicides. panic isn't an effective response to this kind of stuff. but neither is pretending that the entirety of the US healthcare delivery system isn't in a state of collapse. people are regularly dying for no other reason than the failure of the us healthcare system. my demographic is at more risk than a lot of people, maybe. maybe it's more possible for other people to pretend this isn't happening. not a luxury we can afford.

damn near all of my friends are disabled, because _quality of health outcomes are negatively correlated with systemic marginalization_. this is not controversial. this is a known fact. shit, it's to the point where a lot of cishet people can't work anymore. i'm leaving my job (at a health insurance company, haha) in less than two weeks. am i sufficiently health to work? not in that job. does my departure from this job benefit my employer? not in the slightest. was my departure from this job preventable? yes, fairly easily. is my case exceptional? not remotely.

is this a dystopia? "imagine a boot stomping on a human face forever", sez the trope codifier for dystopia in western culture. the world we live in isn't even _that_ good - i can't find a muscle mommy to step on me to save my life :(

unsurprisingly, i say fuck that CEO and i am glad he is dead, here’s hoping the shooter strikes again at another evil fuck who deserves it

I’m reading that the killer left a message on one of the bullet casings??

Engraved a billing code

you know I feel uncomfortable laughing at this, but milo has been very funny, I guess if everyone else is like "nah it's okay to laugh at this dude's death" then maybe the answer to the thread title is indeed yes

I mean come on

Even though it’s no longer perfect, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s final KD ratio (7,652,103:1) lands him among the all time greats

— Cracked 1.2x Autist (@raaleh) December 4, 2024

Crazy how this website is only really fun anymore when one of our tormentors dies. Wonder if there are any long term implications there

— rat liker (@rat_liker) December 4, 2024

concerning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtxH414tGkA

https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-shot-chest-midtown-manhattan-masked-gunman-large/story?id=116446382

The words "deny," "defend" and "depose" were discovered by detectives on the shell casings found at the scene where Brian Thompson, the CEO of major insurance group UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down, police sources told ABC News late Wednesday evening.

Which is very similar to this...

https://delaydenydefend.com/

surely you're joking mr. feinman

you know I feel uncomfortable laughing at this, but milo has been very funny, I guess if everyone else is like "nah it's okay to laugh at this dude's death" then maybe the answer to the thread title is indeed yes

― frogbs

i feel like if i had any other voice or power or agency to correct or remediate the grave systemic injustices perpetrated on people in the US by the amoral plutocrat greedheads who routinely exhibit depraved indifference to the lives of people they nominally have responsibility for in pursuit of the further accumulation of already-monstrous personal and corporate wealth, idk, maybe i wouldn't make fun of these sons of bitches when they died

but maybe i'm the one who's a shitty immoral person for not treating them with the inherent worth and dignity they regularly deny to everybody they have power over

really, who can possibly say for sure? it's important to consider things from both sides

Never cared much for John Donne

you know I feel uncomfortable laughing at this
― frogbs, Thursday, December 5, 2024 5:05 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's not just you. Rejoicing over someone being assassinated in the street in NYC because their paycheck or company make them unworthy of basic human dignity is beyond fucked up. But I guess it's ok because a million other people on Twitter were hoping just for this exact comic relief.

Anyone wants a laugh ? I'm in a train in a rich country that just hit a person and they're cleaning up.

Shouldn't have dedicated his life to climbing the ladder at the Evil Factory.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/united-healthcare-immoral-barbaric/

Who knew guns could be used for the greater good? There is hope for you guys.

surely you're joking mr. feinman

― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, December 5, 2024 1:57 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

<3