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| ▲ | culi 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I think more and more Americans have what C. Wright Mills called the "sociological imagination". We pour tons of effort into punishing visceral, direct violence like a stabbing or shooting. But if white collar crime is being committed that leads to the death of hundreds of thousands of people, it's rare that anyone sees jail time. Maybe you could argue the decisions of Brian Thompson made only account for maybe 10% of why XYZ died but when you scale that out, you could easily argue this to be a form of white collar mass murder. I think the younger generations are increasingly aware of this disparity in justice. If you find it hard to understand the celebration of violent vengeance but don't feel the same inability to understand the celebration of Jeffrey Doucet's retribution, then perhaps you are lacking the sociological imagination. | | |
| ▲ | retrac 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I'm reminded of this recent Pew Research poll [1] about whether people believe their fellow citizens are moral. [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/03/05/in-25-countr... | |
| ▲ | wavemode 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | What "white collar crime" was Brian Thompson guilty of? As I understand it, he was merely the CEO of an insurance company. Nobody likes how insurance companies do business, but that doesn't make it "crime". | | |
| ▲ | solid_fuel 3 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | He didn't say "white collar crime." He said "white collar mass murder." The implication here is that it is wrong even though it is not currently illegal. | |
| ▲ | polishdude20 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Its less about "crimes" and more about a moral or ethical boundary that people feel is being crossed. | | |
| ▲ | culi 30 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Yeah think of it as a moral crime. Someone can achieve tax evasion completely legally but that doesn't make it fair or right. |
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| ▲ | wanderingjew 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | What a crime is is determined by the population. For a very long time, the population has given the idea of a "justice system" to... Well, the justice system. Things have deteriorated lately, and the population does not see the justice system as effective. It is completely expected that we see vigilantism, but it is in no way extrajudicial. | |
| ▲ | lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Nobody likes how insurance companies do business, but that doesn't make it "crime". The way they "delay, deny, defend" as a matter of course shows a lack of a good-faith execution of the insurance agreements, to the point that a sane world would understand it as extremely obvious (and documented!) fraud. Sure, it is de facto not fraud, but tell that to someone who didn't get insurance payments which they were owed to pay for life-saving treatments (or, I guess tell it to their grave). |
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| ▲ | chaosharmonic 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | That's because Brian Thompson was functionally a serial killer. | | |
| ▲ | disqard 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | From a POSIWID perspective, you are right. From a "we live in a civilized society" perspective, I can see why some people are outraged about his killing. Finally, looking at the balance sheet of his accomplishments, I can also see why the pitchfork crowd is cheering. | | | |
| ▲ | kelseyfrog an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Napkin math puts him at ~5,800-11,500 deaths. More of a mass murderer in my eyes, but I'm willing to be wrong on that point. | |
| ▲ | baggy_trough 20 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | That is shameful, vicious propaganda. There is no system in the world where everyone can consume all the health care that they want. Tradeoffs always have to be made. | | |
| ▲ | solid_fuel a few seconds ago | parent [-] | | > Tradeoffs always have to be made. And if the tradeoff was grandma's health for child's health, people would be sympathetic to what you are saying. But the tradeoff was your health for my profit. |
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| ▲ | typon 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | And the reason for _that_ is because of the callous way American society accepts the deaths of thousands of people who die due to the Healthcare Industrial complex (of which Brian Thompson was a key member of). Just because those deaths don't happen with guns doesn't make them any less important. |
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