Less than two weeks after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on the streets of midtown Manhattan, his alleged assassin Luigi Mangione has been greeted not by universal condemnation for the brazen violence – but rather, a surge of enthusiastic support online for his so-called vigilante justice.
The Center for Internet Security (CIS), a nonprofit focused on cybersecurity that partners with government and law enforcement, released a new threat assessment bulletin warning that online support for the alleged shooter risks encouraging copycat attacks.
“Overwhelming bipartisan support for the attack” across social media “has resulted in several narratives encouraging similar violent activities directed at other healthcare executive teams,” CIS analysts said.
“The narratives supporting Mangione’s targeted attack likely serve to encourage like-minded individuals, particularly as Mangione continues to be viewed by the public as an ‘American hero’ and sympathetic figure,” CIS’ bulletin said.
the police have a training traveling school called Killology and refer to themselves as “killologist.”
Sitting here thinking I thought they had branded it some bullshit like ‘warrior training’ to make it sound good…
the best part is when the police training material prominently features quotes from adolf hitler
ACAB
It’s bastards, all the way up. Never forget.
I think we should crowdfund an art project. Specifically, just to send a message, we should erect a big bronze statue of Luigi Mangione. Put it on a main road close to UHC’s headquarters in Minnesota. Make the bastards drive right past the thing every day on the way to work.
Fastest “unfortunate accident” a piece of public art’d ever experience, just watch.
Then we’ll build it again, but even bigger.
Put up plenty of IP cameras nearby. Capture the faces of everyone who tries fucking with it.
a big bronze statue
Or perhaps a lead one?
Shooting up courts and cops would accomplish very little. They’re, well, made for that kind of opposition. The reason Mangione’s attack has been so high-profile was because he picked a high-profile target that is NOT made for that kind of opposition. If he’d killed a cop or a judge, it’d’ve maybe caught an eye or two on the national news before fading away, and accomplished nothing besides. Anyone hauling off and killing a cop or a judge as an attempted copycat is just wasting their time, and their lives most like.
Just a bloodless observation, of course.
I wonder how many Luigis the 2nd trump presidency will create. I hope a lot. Call me whatever you want…
I mean, I’d only call you an accelerationist if you advocated for a second Trump president because that’s what you wanted. There’s a difference between predicting/speculating and acting to make something a reality.
Edit: apparently people think that thinking something will happen is the same as thinking that it should happen.
Edit 2: accelerationism is bad, and anyone who thinks otherwise is either an idiot or fascist.
This is where we are. Hit it, Jack.
Let’s compare:
Osama Bin Ladin/Brian Robert Thompson
Number killed by own hands: 0/0
Number killed through orders to underlings: 3,000/51,000
Reason for killings: religious and geopolitical reasons/profit motive
Cause of death: execution by gunshot/execution by gunshot
Date of trial for killings: N/A / N/A
Date of issue of death sentence for killings: N/A / N/A
Response to killing: celebration by US president on national TV, celebration by commoners and elites / celebration by commoners, condemnation by elite.
Consequence to assassins for extra-judicial slaying: national praise / indicted for 2nd degree murder
Race and class: weird Arab guy in traditional garb / rich white man in a a suit
Osama bin Laden was pretty wealthy too. His family owns a massive Saudi construction company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Binladin_Group
Where does the 51,000 figure come from?
About 68,000 Americans die each year from improper denials of necessary care. With UHC’s share of the private health insurance market and higher than average denial of claims, a conservative figure is 40 UHC customers per day dying from denial of care. Brian Robert Thompson served as the CEO of UHC for approximately 3.5 years. That comes to about 51,000 people dead at the hands of Brian Robert Thompson.
Is it fair to pin all of UHC’s murders on one man? Maybe not. But he gleefully took credit for the record profits that came from UHC’s soaring denial rates. He earned an obscene salary and bonuses from the record profits that those deaths produced. He took credit for all the consequences of these deaths; it is entirely reasonable to hold him morally culpable for them.
Make no mistake. Brian Robert Thompson killed approximately 51,000 people, or about 17 times as many people as Osama Bin Ladin. Brian Robert Thompson suffered for seconds. Osama Bin Ladin’s victims suffered for about an hour. Brian Robert Thompson’s victims suffered for months to years. And this is just deaths, not those who suffered injury, debilitation, or bankruptcy at Brian Robert Thompson’s hands.
Thanks for the response. Truly despicable the state of medical insurance.
Many thanks for bringing to light these facts and comparisons.
Thank you. I have been very interested in a number of attributable deaths, and the comparison is an added bonus
I would say “my pleasure,” but this brings me none. It’s not a perfect estimate, but it is a reasonable first order one. The real number is likely somewhere between 30k and 70k. But really, at this scale, the numbers lose all meaning.
Luigi Mangione did not have the right to serve as Thompon’s one man judge, jury, and executioner. But make no mistake, according to all available evidence, Brian Robert Thompson was a mass murderer an order of magnitude worse than Osama Bin Ladin. When he hit the pavement on that New York morning, he did not stop falling. He kept falling, and falling, and falling. Right into the Pit of Hell itself. If there is a Hell behind this mortal realm, he is almost certainly burning there right now.
I like your way of thinking
Luigi Mangione did not have the right to serve as Thompon’s one man judge, jury, and executioner.
So what does a person do when the system is so corrupt and compromised that it will never deliver justice in cases like this? Write a strongly worded letter to your local paper?
No one attacked law enforcement for this thought. They are just fear mongering the police so they will want to protect the rich more.
If cops start acting like bodyguards for rich people, they will for the next one.
Start?
you act like they haven’t for decades
No, i mean like literally bodyguarding, not just doing what they’re told.
Honestly this sounds like a reporter chop job to me. The only discrete mention of threats to law enforcement is protests, fake bomb threats, and Swatting.
They aren’t saying people are going to murder court officials and police.
We did and are mocking them for the amount of attention and resources the murder is getting solely due to the wealth of the target.
I’d say “pissed at” more than “mocking”.
That and make it sound like those supporting him are dangerous.
Tells you a lot about why some departments won’t accept cops over a certain IQ. You don’t want your enforcers questioning who they should be working for. You want easily manipulable peons.
He (Luigi) literally went out of his way to praise law enforcement in his statement. So yeah, this is all just bullshit, and it’s bad for ya.
Fear from above is quite entertaining. Next up supporters of Brian Thompson seen with halo’s and walking on water.
I don’t see any reason to limit it to healthcare executives.
Hell Elons mom jumped in line as far as I’m concerned. The spoiled rich are so god damn detached from reality. I never imagined I’d be ok with mass murder but here we are.
The media don’t know how to deal with people not caring that the CEO of a parasitic company is dead, so now they resort to fear mongering?
Just because people are not showing outpourings of grief for the death of a CEO doesn’t mean people are endorsing violence. Luigi Mangione is in custody and will likely go to prison; being sympathetic to his story does not mean endorsing his behaviour. This is a complex and multifaceted story and people are allowed complex and multifaceted responses.
Police “investigate” citizens and it’s fine, but we are targeting cops when we investigate them.
Information asymmetry is one of the tactics of power.
Is Hans finally figuring out that he might be the baddie…?
Not if they think people will target police and courts, rather than other CEOs. It sounds like they’re missing the point.
next they are goin to say anyone that supports luigi is a terrorist
I’m surprised they haven’t already. They have said things like calling this extremism etc.
Unfortunately, that may backfire worse than they think it will. The moment they identify supporters of what he did as terrorists, then a lot more people suddenly become immune to further propaganda towards terrorism.
The smart thing for them would have been to shut up about it.
i dont know about that, most of the country tends to believe propaganda but i hope you are right
Which one of you has a link to the image file for that free Luigi flyer? Asking for a friend…
deleted by creator
Complete bullshit obviously…
But the fact they’re worried about it says A LOT about how they view themselves compared to a piece of shit responsible for millions of deaths from denied healthcare.
I keep running through the difference between the reaction to this vs elementary school kids dying to gun violence. It’s one CEO and everything in the media has galvanized to unite around a singular message of horrible violence. Hundreds of children have died and nothing changed. It’s fucking infuriating.
