#676 Corporate resentment is often based on assumptions and falsehoods.... (preview)
It's finally here! the episode we recorded on Sunday before anyone knew who the United Health shooter was or whether he'd be caught. Luckily I correctly predicted he would be a principled maoist third-worldist. TODAY: We talk about the assassination celebrated by Americans across the political spectrum, the stern lecture given to us by the political and pundit class, and flailing attempts to distract from the anti-capitalist, populist politics the shooter seemed to be acting on. PLUS: An acquaintance proves her allyship to Tony, and Alex describes the movie Michael where John Travolta plays a cool angel named Michael Get a bonus episode every week by signing up at http://patreon.com/miniondeathcult for only $5/month
I think killing people with an Excel spreadsheet is way more cold-blooded than shooting somebody from 8 feet away.
You're never going to look in their eyes.
You're never going to be within 5 feet of them.
That's cold-blooded.
Yeah, so look at the left rejoicing about this murder.
And by the left, they mean everybody on Facebook.
Everybody, period.
Every single user on Facebook.
Let me insert the first piece of evidence here.
The UnitedHealth Group Facebook post.
Who's a private insurance company, if you're unaware.
We are deeply saddened and shocked at the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
Brian was a highly respected colleague and a friend to all who worked with him.
We are working closely with the New York Police Department and ask for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.
And this has 41,000 laugh reacts.
LAUGHTER 41,000 laugh reacts, only 2,000 sad reacts.
And I mean, those 2,000 sad reacts probably only exist because of the 41,000 laugh reacts.
Yeah, yeah.
And the ratio is beautiful.
We love to see it.
Yeah, like every 30th person who saw this in their feed were like, whoa, that's sad.
And every other person laughed at it.
Hey, Alex, do you think that if you get bodied on the street, do you think that UPS is going to work closely with Seattle PD to figure this out?
No, UPS is going to thank the police for shooting and killing me in a hostage situation.
They've already done it.
Yeah, exactly.
They're going to be like, well, the packages weren't damaged, right?
As long as you didn't shoot the package truck, we're good.
Yeah, no, I love...
We are working closely with the New York Police Department.
Yeah, nothing happening yet, apparently.
They, like, ID'd the wrong guy twice.
Yeah, more than once.
It's a tough guy to be, like, a handsome guy who looks similar to that at all right now.
It's a tough time for you.
It's also a wonderful time for you.
It's a really bad time to be a handsome, mysterious traveler.
So, just keep me in your thoughts, everybody.
Yeah, it's not a good time to wear hoodies, apparently.
Yeah, it's not the left rejoicing to this.
It is an entity called the working class.
It's an entity who's ever had to pay hospital bills.
Now, to treat this argument...
I don't know, with some reality or whatever about how dare people laugh at this guy getting shot by what looks to be somebody who is directly affected by his company's policies.
First of all, I mean, just Americans and just anybody who has social media is subjected to so much killing and so much violence that it's like, oh, whoa, it's somebody I don't care about for once.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's like all you see in your feed is death and you only have the option to like it or dislike it, you know?
And it was kind of refreshing.
Like, oh, this one seems righteous.
This one seems like...
I understand this one.
Also, this one's not being funded by us.
This one's not being paid for with our taxes.
That was refreshing.
Yeah, I really didn't have anything to do with this one at all.
It's kind of cool.
Yeah, totally.
I'm not complicit on this.
I don't have to...
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, no, but like anybody who's like, oh, you know, killing this CEO was justified either because of punishment or because it would like, you know, prevent further harm from happening, you know, more on those actual arguments in just a second.
But that person is like, okay, I'll trade off one CEO for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people who are going to be fucked over by UnitedHealth next year or in the coming years.
UnitedHealth makes that trade-off multiple times a day.
Except the trade-off isn't like, oh, killing a CEO is punishment for hurting and killing people.
It's hurting and killing people as a trade-off for making money.
Yeah, for giving that CEO a bonus.
Yeah, so we're conditioned to accept that people's lives are an acceptable trade-off in pursuit of profit, right?
But the opposite is the opposite, not just the opposite reasoning, but the opposite ratio.
Is like is forbidden.
You're not even allowed to talk about it in those terms.
Yeah, even though it's kind of like if you're dealing in the logic of lives and murder, one clearly makes more sense than the other.
I think we should like reject that dynamic.
Obviously, I don't think this guy quote like deserved to be killed or whatever.
I think, you know, insurance companies deserve to be dismantled and the people who profited off them probably deserve to like help build a Infrastructure for the next 20 years.
Give them a nice apartment and make them build high-speed rail for 20 years and work off their debt to society.
But the thing is, the political class in this country is just letting it get this bad.
To where, like, sporadic acts of violence are just going to happen, right?
Like, I couldn't see myself gunning down a CEO in the street.
For one thing, I don't think it would necessarily be, like, helpful strategically.
But another thing, I'm not, like, a grieving father, right?
Exactly.
I'm not a grieving son.
I didn't incur tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.
I didn't get the rest of my life fucked up because I couldn't get the health care I needed.
I'm not currently dying because I can't get the health care I needed.
All of those are like, yeah, of course, when it's become this progressively bad...
Of course, some people are going to be like, hey, why not?
