A grainy image of his face drew comparisons to Hollywood heartthrobs. A jacket similar to the one he’s wearing on wanted posters is reportedly flying off the shelves. And the words written on the bullets he used to kill a man in cold blood on a sidewalk on Wednesday have become, for some people, a rallying cry.
Four days after a gunman assassinated a top health insurance executive in Midtown Manhattan and vanished, the unidentified suspect has, in some quarters, been venerated as something approaching a folk hero.
I have a right-wing neighbor who voted Trump three times, says climate change is a hoax, and hates me for sometimes wearing a tie-dye jacket, but he says with a grin all over his face, "Did you hear about that insurance CEO who got shot dead?" and he laughs and laughs and gives me a thumbs-up.
In a report this week, the institute found that of the top 10 most-engaged posts on X about the shooting on Wednesday, six “either expressed explicit or implicit support for the killing or denigrated the victim.” The dynamic is similar to the discourse that often emerges after a mass shooting on websites like 4chan and 8chan, where perpetrators of extreme violence become memes themselves, Mr. Goldenberg said, “but what’s disturbing about this is it’s mainstream.”
Get fucked neo-liberal media. What an isane gaslighting comparision. This was a targeted assasination. Are you now afraid that people direct their anger at the sources of it, rather than the peasants killing each other?
The only grim aspect is how much time, resources, and energy the NYPD has wasted trying to solve this. Statistically, there have been other murders since this one. They should move on and add this to their "unsolved" pile.
He's not only hot; he's making an example out of cruel millionaires .. millionaires who prefer money and let people die, without ANY hesitation. So yeah, it's not like being attracted to Dahmer, it's more like being attracted to Katniss Everdeen.
Some? I've yet to find anyone not on his side, the most I can find are people sarcastically saying "Oh no, won't someone please catch him..."
What were the words written on the bullets.
Thing is, if they don't catch him, it will inspire a copycat to repeat his tactics.
And I honestly can't even bring myself to say it's a bad thing; this gunman killed a glorified serial killer, a man who is paid to find people buying his product in order to get help for fatal yet curable illnesses, and kill them in order to save costs.
Violence is wrong and should only be used as a last resort, but well, given the circumstances it's hard for me to lose sleep at night....
I legally cannot and will not advocate violence, I stress this, I AM NOT ADVOCATING VIOLENCE, IF YOU'RE PLANNING YOUR OWN VIOLENT ACT I BEG YOU TO RECONSIDER! Everyone out there has at least one other person who loves them, and most high profile violent acts backfire horribly on the perpetrator.
But I will say this. Some men can only be pushed so far until they're at the edge, then they'll grab onto the person who put them there so at least they fall together... And many MANY men are at the edges.
"Those who make peaceful resolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK
“It’s being framed as some opening blow in a broader class war..."
That's what many of us are hoping for. But this author, and nearly all other mainstream news outlets can't understand that. They can't understand why we would want a class war, why would we want something so disruptive, so destabilizing, so potentially destructive? It baffles and disturbs them, but that's because they can't, or won't, see the harm being done by the current system. They are blind to the harms of late capitalism, willfully.
For many of us, the problems go much deeper than a few greedy and unethical CEOs, it's the system. The inhumanity of health insurance providers is just a very egregious and obvious tip of the iceberg. This CEO wasn't just some exceptionally bad guy, he was a product of the system. He'll be replaced by another one of thousands and thousands of people who come out of our business or economic schools, and who would have run United Healthcare the same way he did. The problem is a system in which the private profits of a relative few are prioritized over all else; over human well being, and over sustainability and environmental protection. Many of us believe that that system must be abolished and replaced. We don't want war, but if war is what's necessary to destroy this unsustainable and inhumane system, then so be it.
When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live – forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence – knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains.
Start posting this Wikipedia page y’all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_murder This shit has needed to be taken seriously for ages and this might be the context where that starts taking greater hold.
I’m a 40 year old straight dude with two kids and a wife. I think that guy is a freaking heartthrob! I mean first look at him, he good looking. I always rate people on how they look first but more importantly how they act second. And just look how this guy acted.
Our high trust society has eroded due to massive corruption at the highest level (SCOTUS popularity/trust plummeted) , late stage capitalism and catering to billionaires, and incompetent politicians. The incoming administration will be without a doubt no help in this aspect.
The assassin has unfortunately become “necessary”. I don’t praise his actions but I understand why this person decided to take it into their own hands (ie, family or loved one impacted by “deny, delay, defend” policies).
In an alternate universe, Joker is considered a hero because he killed the criminal and the corrupt while Batman allowed them to live. Joker, a hero against the system, the vigilante who is a vigilante and not just status quo, the vigilante the city needed but not the one it deserved. The Joker movie could set a pretty sweet alternate universe.
You see that, Lemmings? Your fetishism got us in the news, I hope you're proud of yourselves for getting us all labelled as the people horny for murdering.