Our media happily covers up the social murder that happens at the hands of US CEOs.
You'll never hear terms like "murder" used to describe poisoning an entire town of people after a bomb train blows up in the town.
this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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“There’ll be a lot of hand-wringing over whether or not [Thomson’s assassination] was justified,” Miles Gray said recently on The Daily Zeitgeist podcast. “[But] the real issue is that we have completely normalized and we celebrate this system of squeezing profits out of people to the point of financial and emotional bankruptcy. The real discussion needs to be around whether or not our greed-based system of care is justified.”
It's almost as if the wealthy and powerful have never read a history book. This only ends one way for them. Each time the financial and political systems were completely overwhelmed or thrown out. And those in power always end up with their heads on a pike.
The problem with the that solution is that lots of innocent people get swept up in the killing. The chaos of a violent revolution is always a great time to kill the people who have slighted you and get away with it. And then there's no guarantee that what comes after is any better at all.
There is a short story by RL Stevenson, The Bottle Imp, about a cursed bottle whose owner can make wishes but they must sell the bottle for less than half of what they paid for it or they will be damned to hell. The new owner must also enter the contract fully aware of the curse and risk of purchasing the bottle/genie. The original price paid was quite high, but as time passes and the list of owners grows, our main character comes across it and buys it for only $50. While he eventually sells it, had the next person not felt their value from a genie was worth eternal damnation our character would have been screwed.
I mention the story as I think that's where we are with US capitalism. Everyone knows it's fucked and are just trying to get out with theirs before the heads fly because the rewards for screwing others are still so great and people can mostly remove themselves from it's consequences. For the ruling class, this assassination was a good reminder the stakes of the game they've wagered and that the clock is ticking.
That said, even with so much information available, and despite the data it's horrible for their personal outcomes, Americans are still deciding it's what they want. Which, like the owner class, if they ever read any history would understand when you give away all your power and rights you're going to be screwed by the kind of people who want to lead that sort of system.
The conditions are not improving, so it's likely more execs will get shot.
This was a fluke. Very few people with the education, intelligence, and especially the resources of this guy will end up in his position and find themselves planning a murder. Even fewer will succeed now that every major CEO will demand 24/7 private security.
Most people in this guy's financial position would never end up screwed like he did. The resources it took to secure the weapon, the fake IDs, the travel are no small ask. Most people being crushed by the healthcare system don't have the time and money left over for for such an elaborate murder plot.
And I know a lot of people are going to knee-jerk reply about how it's really not that much money. I will just preemptively reply that those people should enjoy their privilege.
I was diagnosed with a life threatening chronic illness right after my 22nd birthday. I know the pain and absolute financial anchor around your neck an incurable chronic illness brings. I would have never had the time and resources to pull this off. I was too busy trying to figure out how to find a job I could keep with my condition, one that had health insurance that was worth a damn. And how to pay my doctor's bills while still scrounging enough for rent, food, and utilities. I didn't have money to buy a ghost gun, (or a printer to make one) and multiple bus tickets, and fake ids. Or the cash to live for a few days in New York while I scope out a target.
And that's how this all works. As long as we're all struggling to keep our heads above water, there's no time left for a revolution.
But there is time for the 1/3rd of adults who don't vote, to fill out a piece of paper. There's time for them to give a shit about primaries and pick candidates that care about real people.
People are becoming desperate and with less and less to lose. If a guy in a "good" job feel compelled to go after a healthcare CEO, what about a guy already straddled with debt, no family, and nothing left?
what about a guy already straddled with debt, no family, and nothing left?
I think you're missing the larger point. Please let me try to help give you my perspective.
I have cancer. I've been fucked by medical insurance several times, but less than most. My cancer is very treatable and treatment is mostly going well. I still feel like shit every day. There's some days I'm in so much pain I can hardly move. Some days I have migraines where I stay in bed all day. Some days I'm just nauseous all day.
The point is when you don't have anything left to lose, you're often too sick to fight back. @[email protected] is right in their assessment, the capitalist hellscape we live in is purpose built to keep people hanging by a thread so they simply don't have time or energy to fight back even when they're at their most beaten down... because usually by that point the energy has been all but sapped from their body.
I can tell you, in my state of poverty, I couldn't just magic up the money for the things he did, I would have to be saving for months and months, maybe even up to a year or more. I'm already exhausted every day, I don't exactly feel like busting my ass really hard for a year to get back at anyone. This guy certainly made way more money than I do, so this was much more easily done on a whim for him.
I'd personally say most people are probably like me, exhausted and in poverty to the point that they'd rather give up than fight. Once again, that's built into the system of misery we live in, to break people down long before they finally wake up and want to fight back, so they're empty, broke, and exhausted when they finally do. Most people go their whole lives not questioning our system because they're too busy being burnt out by our system to have the luxury of time to question it.
I'm not telling you to go out and kill someone, but there are rich assholes profiting on your misery nearby wherever you live. Maybe it's a medical ceo or a hospital administrator. Maybe it's a landlord evicting you after jacking up rent again. Maybe it's a police chief notorious for the harassing people in the community. When people have a cozy home and food on the table, they are willing to put up with a lot. Now people don't have that, and they are going to atart lashing out at whoever they can because they have nothing else to lose.
Most people in this guy’s financial position would never end up screwed like he did. The resources it took to secure the weapon, the fake IDs, the travel are no small ask. Most people being crushed by the healthcare system don’t have the time and money left over for for such an elaborate murder plot.
You're right in that the particular circumstances of this one is a fluke, but wrong in implicitly assuming that the circumstances have to be the same or similar, that the copycats will care about getting caught and therefore be locked behind a paywall.
The entire world just taught all the school shooter types that shooting a business exec will turn you into a folk hero. It will get you fame and admiration. It will get people trying to send you money for your legal defense. It will get you people spreading the word about jury nullification to use the system against itself. That's everything they could ever want, and they only need one of the millions of guns floating around our country.
This month taught would be school shooters to instead go for board members, ceos, and billionaires. And it’s a far better lesson.
There are caveats to this. Stalking a business exec and being successful is harder. However security can't mitigate ambushes very well. They can't check every window in a city for rifles hanging out. They can't shut down roads. And the bullet proof glass of their ride can't help them once they step out to get into the hotel they have their 7am meeting at. There are limits, and a particularly motivated to get their name out there individual can always find an opening.
I was diagnosed with a life threatening chronic illness right after my 22nd birthday. I know the pain and absolute financial anchor around your neck an incurable chronic illness brings.
While I'm not in a situation like that myself, I can empathize because my fiancé has a laundry list of illnesses that leave her chronically ill as well. It's awful, and it makes me hate the bastards running the show.
But there is time for the 1/3rd of adults who don’t vote, to fill out a piece of paper. There’s time for them to give a shit about primaries and pick candidates that care about real people.
We should absolutely still vote, especially in the primaries. But it's a mistake to think that there is no potential for copycats.
I don't think we will see this level of planning in tye future. However, you could see employees pulling the classic postal tactic.
Hopefully next time, nobody for real didn't see nothing
I can't believe some pedon was that quick to betray the Adjuster
Apparently a boomer, disgusting.
I think it's more likely that the intelligence apparatus found him through illegal means and manufactured the McDonald's story to avoid acknowledging the fact that they are still regularly using mass surveillance systems on US citizens without a warrant. For some reason we all like to pretend those are only used on brown terrorists but it's pretty clear that this shooter is enemy #1 to the owner class.
those are only used on brown
Well that's how it was sold to boomers and they accepted it... Now the tools are there and they are restricted to brown or anything.
This is the new normal. But we still got people who got nothing to hide 🤡
I think the lesson is to next time just not fucking go to starbucks or mcdonalds.
If you want to get away with it, basically become a homeless person for a few weeks. Carry only dense rations, raid dumpsters, stay away from people as much as possible. Use a stolen bike. Wear gloves.
He might not have gotten caught if he kept his mask on.
Yeah really, it seems so weird that someone planned pretty carefully but was not down to be homeless for a couple weeks, I think 4 or 5 weeks and the news cycle is busy with other stuff, and getting recognized would have been a way lower risk.
Keep the fucking mask on and then show up to the look alike contest ...
I wouldn't blame a boomer for not wanting to live in a world where you can get gunned down in the street for being successful under capitalism because guess what, they didn't have to try.
also, the dude was in a chain restaurant with the murder weapon and a manifesto. I figure the only reason he didn't straight up hand himself in was so his capture was public. which means someone had to hand him in, preferably before his youtube videos went live.
Lmfao. "Successful under capitalism." Which of course means murdering thousands of people by denying lifesaving care that they PAID FOR.
Did I fucking stutter? yes, that was the implication. People fighting back against a system of exploitation that they have greatly benefited from would be scary for them.
My bad, replied faster than my brain could read. I agree completely.
I am sure their thoughts and prayers go out to these 68,000 people.
Regime whores....
Always has been. They as culpable for our current conditions as politicians and corporate parasites.
They serve the owner class.
Treat them as the enemy that they are.
There are a few people doing actual journalism, so keep that in mind. But they prove themselves and their work speaks for itself
Cool that a member of the zeitgang is writing for Jacobin.