this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2024
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[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 hours ago

I'm so tired of seeing this ugly bastard.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

unfortunately being an asshole is a pre-existing condition and as such cannot be covered at this time.

[–] foggy_sunrise@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

My sympathy deductible hasn't been reached, darn!

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 8 points 15 hours ago

Why would I have sympathy for a mass murderer? The man is burning in the Pit of Hell right now.

Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin - An Accounting of the Victims of Brian Robert Thompson.

[–] underwire212@lemm.ee 23 points 1 day ago

You guys aren’t reacting to the way we want you to react!! Stop it now!

[–] fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 day ago

Thoughts and prayers :

  • I think it should happen more often.
  • I pray it does (instead of school shootings, let's say).
[–] NutWrench@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Sympathy? Hmm . . . let's see . . . sympathy . . ok. I'm sorry he didn't contract a really ferocious strain of ass-cancer that his insurance didn't cover.

[–] trumpetmouth@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

i don't cover that - sorry!

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago

Thank you for calling sympathy customer service. Your call is important to us, a representative will be with you shortly.

We are currently experiencing unprecedented call volume at this time. Please wait for the next available representative.

the worst music ever at the highest volume possible starts playing

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

That costs money.

Also: no.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All we could do for pity is to throw a fire extinguisher into his grave. Where he is, he will need it.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 7 points 1 day ago

Sorry, fire extinguishers are wasted on dragons.

[–] sndmn@lemmy.ca 83 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Billionaires deserve to live in fear for their lives.

[–] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I would like to know how we can all do more to bring this about.

[–] 4lan@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Advocate for their killing, far and wide. Eventually someone without anything to lose will get the job done

[–] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Or we all end up patriot acted away into oblivion.

I get what you're saying and I'm all for it, but I also wonder if there is a more sneaky way to achieve the same end result.

Maybe we need to democratize Adjustor targets. Start a worldwide coalition with some sort of anonymous forum and voting system.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

Dark web crowdsourced CEO bounty hunting?

Now we're delving into the cyberpunk world I can get behind.

[–] sudo@lemmy.today 14 points 1 day ago

Or not.

Live, that is.

[–] Cerbero@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] 4lan@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Find me one ethical billionaire

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The ones that donated all their money away (while living) so that they would no longer be billionaires, would be as close as you could get.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

proving the only good billionaire is a dead billionaire.

[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago

Behind every great fortune is a great crime

[–] Modva@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Message control.

This is why they bought the media in the first place, so what they say is loudest.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

it's happening on here too. I've had numerous people argue that his death changed nothing.

bots must be cheap.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 132 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Brian Robert Thompson murdered 51,000 innocent human beings.

[–] irreticent@lemmy.zip 56 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Please cite a source. It's gotta be much higher than that.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 52 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It is a reasonable first order estimate. See a comment here. I think I will organize this a bit better and make a blog post on this tomorrow. But suffice to say, 51,000 is a good baseline number, based on UHC's share of the private insurance market and the length of Thompson's tenure as CEO of UHC. It could be as high as 100,000. But really, at this scale, it ceases to matter. You can only really comprehend it in comparative terms. And his number of victims was order of magnitude greater than that of Osama Bin Ladin.

[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

Osama bin Laden was a chump compared to these guys. Osama was already wanted by the US for a crime he did in 1993 and had his Saudi citizenship revoked and he was a stateless runaway doomed to live in hiding and squalor no matter what.

He wasn't even the mastermind behind 9/11. Hell, he even had a hard time controlling Mohammad Atta, the ringleader of the hijackers, who wanted the operation to be more about him and his final end more than anything else.

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not OP, but it's going to be really hard to assign a hard value to that. There are plenty of obvious examples where they denied a life-saving treatment. But many of them would've died anyway.

Then there are cases where they deny preventative/early treatments. Some of these eventually led to more serious and fatal conditions, some did not. How do we count these?

Then there's quality of life denials. These don't directly lead to fatal conditions, but can affect morale and the like, thus allowing more serious conditions?

All of it would be compared to the unexplored alternatives (where treatment was authorized). This is inherently an unknown.

I'm not defending him by any means. It's just that his body count is, at best, a rough estimate.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Whether they would have died anyway isn't a measure of whether it is ethical to deny someone care that was the only chance they had. Removing the possibility is still murder.

[–] TerkErJerbs@lemm.ee 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm no math wizard but I've read 68k people die per year from preventable shit due to denied claims. Brian worked at United since 2004, CEO since 2021 so he contributed directly or indirectly to that number of deaths per year, at least the portion United is responsible for. United has double the industry average of rejected claims.

It's def higher than OP states.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The 51k estimate was just taking into account the time that he was CEO.

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 96 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We've received your request for additional sympathy. Our advanced AI systems will now determine your claim's eligibility.

...

...

Oh, sorry, looks like it's been denied.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 58 points 2 days ago

People you fucked over don't sympathize with you?

Boo-fucking-hoo.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 84 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Demanding sympathy is the height of pity.

Pathetic. Maybe figure out why no one has any sympathy for the guy.

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 50 points 2 days ago (3 children)

"I demand you respect me!" said the person who is fundamentally undeserving of respect

[–] ccunning@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago

“You can consolidate wealth or consolidate respect, but not both”

@ccunning@lemmy.world (just now)

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[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago

I will not show them the single touch of sympathy or pity or anything. Why should I? People like that would not only never show me the slightest sympathy, but they would also go out of their way in order to fuck me over and waste my time and money and then act like any reaction other than cock sucking them is criminal violence.

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 64 points 2 days ago (4 children)

There's no prior authorization for thoughts and prayers.

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago

my beliefs prevent me from providing prayers.

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[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 28 points 1 day ago

We should offer to help them stand with him in solidarity, so to speak

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 42 points 2 days ago

Thank you for needing the working class to exist. We have received and reviewed your request for sympathy towards your continued indifference to human suffering. Unfortunately we must reject your claim…

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The persecution complex is going to get even more people killed as CEOs grow more paranoid and bodyguards more trigger happy.

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[–] Embargo@lemm.ee 18 points 2 days ago
[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online 13 points 2 days ago

Sure, just as soon as they meet our demands for better compensation.

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