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We (in the US) just elected a grifting, criminal "billionaire". I don't think the animosity so loudly and gleefully displayed in the reactions to the murder of this asshole insurance ghoul is representative of a newly heightened consciousness of wealth inequality. I hope that it is the start of something, but I've been disappointed in the public way too many times.

Agreed - the alarm bells should have been ringing long ago.

There was a social contract between the upper and lower class (the middle class is a lie used to further divide us) that was basically - we'll let you have your mansions as long as our quality of life improves as well. But the rich have been hollowing out that agreement for decades. The highest tax bracket (the percentage taxed on income only above a certain amount) has plummeted since the middle of the 20th century. Regulations have been removed and replaced with weaker regulations (like Dodd/Frank) and then THOSE regulations have been hollowed out. Any sense of responsibility and duty the rich might have ever had to the people and place that rewarded them so greatly has vanished and in place of it is cynical and manipulative and greedy - because the only thing that matters is getting more and taking more - removing the safety barriers that keep them from getting more, no matter who it might hurt because somehow acquiring wealth has become the most important thing (not doing something great, improving the world, or helping others).

At each step, the social contract weakens. As long as enough people aren't feeling the pain they're going to abide by their part of the bargain because most of the rest of us ARE actually just trying to live good lives and make sure it's good for those around us. But there will be a moment when enough people are feeling the pain and won't have any other choice but to act. In a system where justice is only dealt to the lower class - that action is guaranteed to be carried out outside the system.

We're not against the idea of working hard and becoming rich for it. We're against the idea of becoming rich by exploiting the literal lives of those you step on. And that seems to be almost the exclusive way to become rich in this country. It's sickening.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

I don't care if you make money. I don't care if you make a lot of money. I care when you pull out all the stops in order to make ALL OF THE MONEY, FOREVER, without any regard for what you destroy, or who you hurt or even kill in order to get it.

Brian Thompson built his fortune off the pain, suffering, and deaths of others, and the world is a slightly better place without him.

Wish Harris channeled that sentiment in her campaign by championing M4A, so people might actually want to vote for her

I've been telling everyone I know for years that Healthcare is Americas biggest problem. The country is designed to pick your body clean before you die. You can work your entire life here and everything can be taken from you if you get sick.

It is bad that vigilantism is being celebrated (though I'll admit to being aboard the "laugh about this specific murder" train).

But I think the reason that this is being celebrated is that this is the only kind of justice this guy could have ever faced because his crime is legal

Structural violence is s great term that should get more use in cases like this.

I hope we'll get some data on how much more money and effort is spend on this compared to cases where the target is just some regular nobody.

Suppressed by the people in power. It's better for them if we fight over culture war bullshit and that's (IMO) why the right pushes so hard against things being "woke" or "dei" or whatever new scary buzzword those dumb fucks come up with.

We're too busy arguing amongst ourselves to realise we should all be looking up at the corrupt rich. But with bought off media and the ability to push propaganda at a previously impossible level just a few decades ago, a ton of the population is kept perpetually angry because non-white/straight people have the audacity to exist.

I'm a native (aka native American/indigenous however you want to call it) and over the last few years I've noticed people are increasingly comfortable showing their racism. I get followed around in stores while I'm shopping for groceries occasionally, I get managers staring me down because I took too long looking around and they think I was trying to steal and that my debit card will be declined, people happily making small talk with others and then blankly staring at me and saying nothing to me even when I'm being pleasant to them etc. All anecdotal of course and I could just be getting more bitter as I get older, but it honestly feels like a trend to me.

I've been dealing with that shit since I was a teen, you always get judged just for having the audacity to be born the wrong skin color anywhere but it's (anecdotally) gotten much worse over the last few years, which just so happens to coincide with the rise of the right all over the world.

I really hate the world sometimes tbh.

2016 was the year that people demanded a populist leader. The DNC sabotaged Bernie, which lead to low D voter turnout and the RNC bent at the knee at Trump's threats to run as a third party.

Being suppressed by the Democrats?

It’s really bringing the corporate shills out of the woodwork.

This incident is casting fresh light on norms that has basically become invisible to us in our lives - like the media's natural tendency to side with the establishment.

They aren't as stupid as they come off as. They know things are bad and that the rich are fucking them they're just wrong about how and why

You're mostly angry at the same thing. You've just come to different conclusions as to what to do about it.

Sure is. Class politics is ultimately more powerful than culture war spectacle. Events like this bring that truth to the forefront - the worker class is United against the owning class, for the most part.

With a big enough crowd, no matter the size of the gun, the crowd wins.

Thats when paranoia hits.

Let them feel uncomfortable for the rest of their existence.

Yeah Bashar al-Assad knew there were a lot of people in his country that wanted to remove him from power. Because of this a movement to remove him from power completely failed. Oh wait, no, the opposite of that happened.

It's actually more the norm that smaller actions (successful or not) snowball into larger actions. A movement isn't a bunch of academics discussing ideology. It requires real actions non-academics can relate to.

Honestly it would be better for the people in power if this guy is never found. If they kill him, he becomes a martyr. If he's put on trial, that's an event that could spark protests. It's better for the powers that be if everyone just forgets this ever happened.