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1. Embed this notice
   Jonathan Kamens (jik@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 02:07:51 JST Jonathan Kamens

   I will not speak ill of the dead, but I will speak ill of the company of which he was CEO.
   United Healthcare is a terrible, for-profit insurance company which prioritizes profits over people, uses predatory practices to deny claims, and takes advantage of elderly people through its "Medicare Advantage" plans.
   Its CEO makes at least $10 million per year.
   I have been a United Healthcare member several times and I have always been disappointed.
   #EatTheRich
   Ref: https://apnews.com/article/manhattan-shooting-death-daa1e8c8c05606197a5bd2e0242f1683

   • Embed this notice
     Jonathan Kamens (jik@federate.social)'s status on Sunday, 08-Dec-2024 21:06:36 JST Jonathan Kamens

     in reply to

     • Rachel

     @rgollub It is human nature not to want to accept this. This is what Arendt was talking about when she coined the phrase "banality of evil." We want to believe bad people are somehow different from us, that we can somehow easily recognize them, because that makes life easier. It's not true.
     The CEO who was shot this week was not a good person. In fact, he was a criminal:
     https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-sold-stocks-b2659093.html
     This is insider trading. Insider trading is illegal for a reason.

   • Embed this notice
     Jonathan Kamens (jik@federate.social)'s status on Sunday, 08-Dec-2024 21:06:37 JST Jonathan Kamens

     in reply to

     • Rachel

     @rgollub Look, I don't want to pile on you here, but I really feel like I need to address this idea that someone is a "good guy" because he loves his family and does some good things.
     There are a lot of monsters in the world who love their family. Loving your family doesn't make you a good person. Bringing up his love for his family in this context is an argumentative fallacy.
     I mean, Jesus, the folks who ran the Third Reich absolutely loved their families and helped _some_ people. Who cares?

     Joachim repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Jonathan Kamens (jik@federate.social)'s status on Sunday, 08-Dec-2024 21:06:39 JST Jonathan Kamens

     in reply to

     • Rachel

     @rgollub Go read all the stories people are posting on Reddit today about members of their family dieing after UHC denied them care. They loved their family members too. The difference is, they weren't working for a company making life and death decisions about other people, and frequently choosing death.

   • Embed this notice
     Jonathan Kamens (jik@federate.social)'s status on Sunday, 08-Dec-2024 21:06:40 JST Jonathan Kamens

     in reply to

     • Rachel

     @rgollub You've been following me here for long enough that you're presumably aware that I am of the opinion that our society is on the verge of collapse in numerous ways. This is a symptom of that. Most people don't resort to violence unless they are left with no other choice.
     The financial inequity in the U.S. is worse now than it was in France before the French revolution. The health insurance industry is part of that.
     If we don't fix that, there is going to be a lot more violence.

   • Embed this notice
     Jonathan Kamens (jik@federate.social)'s status on Sunday, 08-Dec-2024 21:06:41 JST Jonathan Kamens

     in reply to

     • Rachel

     @rgollub The health insurance industry cannot be reformed from the inside.
     He may have been all the things you said, but he was also choosing to earn millions of dollars per year working for a company whose entire reason for existence is to extract profit by denying people healthcare.
     I'm all finished pretending that's in any way morally defensible. From the reaction to his murder, I think it's clear that a lot of other people are too.

   • Embed this notice
     Rachel (rgollub@sfba.social)'s status on Sunday, 08-Dec-2024 21:06:42 JST Rachel

     in reply to

     @jik I've been offline for a bit because of this. I totally get all the snarkiness, but I worked with BT and knew him, and he was a good guy. He tried to make insurance better, and make the company better. He adored his kids and talked about them all the time, and gave people support and opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have. He's not a faceless CEO — there are CEOs at all levels of UHG, and he wasn't the primary decision maker, just a decent guy with a family who was doing his best to improve an awful organization.