Antiwork

Here's the article summary:

"One time, Brian worked in a field. Luigi on the other hand, had rich parents, just like Osama Bin Laden."

I fucking wish I was joking.

Here's the article, for anyone interested.

It basically boils down to: Brian Thompson grew up in a working class family in Iowa, while Luigi Mangione came from wealth and went to private schools. He compares Mangione to Osama bin Laden, and other "Angry rich kids jacked up on radical, nihilistic philosophies," who "cause a lot of harm, not least to the working-class folks whose interests they pretend to champion."

The author then mentions some polling that says people like their health insurance provider, actually. And then finally he says this:

Thompson’s life may have been cut brutally short, but it will remain a model for how a talented and determined man from humble roots can still rise to the top of corporate life without the benefit of rich parents and an Ivy League degree.

Without a stitch of irony. Thompson may have come from working class roots, but that ain't where he ended up. So if it's ok to become rich, but it's not ok to be born rich, then I guess this author supports a 100% inherence tax? Yeah, somehow I doubt it.

The first step to writing an article like this is to bend your spine backwards until your head is inside your asshole.

The author, Bret Stephens, inherited his fortune from a chemical company his parents built. Just for context as to why he defends a sleezy multi-millionaire

I'm so tired of opening Lemmy and seeing this stupid article.

Opinion piece, folks. The NYT is a boot licking rag but opinion pieces are the opinion of the individual writer, sometimes someone not even associated with the paper. I’ve seen wild shit go up there that they’d never agree with.

Luigi murdered one person.

Brian murdered thousands.

That's all you need to know to compare the two.

It's a Bret Stephens opinion piece. He's the token conservative of the column. He is literally 1 out of 18 other columnists. He doesn't even remotely represent The Times as a whole. This declaration is almost as dumb as Bret...almost.

Angry rich kids jacked up on radical, nihilistic philosophies can cause a lot of harm, not least to the working-class folks whose interests they pretend to champion.

Or angry, greedy rich people jacked up on conservatism.

I was hoping it was going to be a satire OpEd, but nope. Mangione is just a disaffected radical rich kid he compares to Bin Laden and other terrorists who came from well-off families. The writer stops at Thompson’s early normal life and completely disregards the health insurance industry’s problems, which Thompson’s company was a major contributor, claims people are mostly happy with their insurance while the study has no “would you prefer to pay less and get the same service for single-payer care” option. It’s basically “do you like your expensive care you have little/no choice about?”

Dude wrote an anti-populist article to be inflammatory and told people to shut up because they like their insurance overlords.

The New York Times has been pure shit since the W years when they pushed Iraq war propaganda.

Trump is an evil moron, but he's right about one thing, our media is full of shills and liars.

The crazy part is they are lying and shilling for the right, while being called "leftist", it's a fantastic lie that has been propagated.

Just cancelled my subscription, absolutely disgusting seeing this on the front page. Is there any publication left not bought and paid for by our corporate overlords?

Right now they have an article for the case against vigilantism. Fucking hell qualified immunity is state based vigilantism.

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Bret Stephens, the author, is not telling the whole story and using the omissions to spin a story of 'most Americans are happy with the system.' This [expletive] says the below to defend against the united anger at the health insurance industry

As for the suggestion that Thompson’s murder should be an occasion to discuss America’s supposed rage at private health insurers, it’s worth pointing out that a 2023 survey from the nonpartisan health policy research institute KFF found that 81 percent of insured adults gave their health insurance plans a rating of “excellent” or “good.” Even a majority of those who say their health is “fair” or “poor” still broadly like their health insurance. No industry is perfect — nor is any health care model — and insurance companies make terrible calls all the time in the interest of cost savings. But the idea that those companies represent a unique evil in American life is divorced from the experience of most of their customers.

This [expletive] looked at the report's top and only positive point and ignored the rest. The next very next point is

• Despite rating their insurance positively, most insured adults report experiencing problems using their health coverage; people in poorer health are more likely to report problems. A majority of insured adults (58%) say they have experienced a problem using their health insurance in the past 12 months – such as denied claims, provider network problems, and pre-authorization problems.

Here are the other points on the report:

• Nearly half of insured adults who had insurance problems were unable to satisfactorily resolve them, with some reporting serious consequences. Half of consumers with insurance problems say their problem was resolved to their satisfaction.

• Affordability of premiums and out-of-pocket costs are a concern, particularly for those with private health coverage, and for some, contributed to not getting care. About half of adults with Marketplace plans (55%) or ESI (46%) rate their insurance negatively when it comes to premiums, compared to 27% of people with Medicare and 10% of Medicaid enrollees. Four-in-ten insured adults say they skipped or delayed some type of care in the past year due to cost. One in six insured adults (16%), including larger shares of those at lower income levels, say they had problems paying medical bills in the past year.

• Insured adults overwhelmingly support public policies to make insurance simpler to understand and to help them avoid or resolve insurance problems. About nine in ten say they support requirements on insurers to maintain accurate and up-to-date provider directories, provide simpler, easier-to read EOBs, disclose their claims denial rates to regulators and the public, and provide in advance, upon request, information about whether care is covered and their out-of-pocket cost liability.

[Expletive] this disingenuously written story, [expletive] Bret Stephen for not telling the whole story, and [expletive] the New York Times for time after time publishing BS and propaganda that sets us all back.

I would LOVE to hear what bootlicking bullshit argument this dude crafted.

Bret Stephens is an absolute clown.

If he’s such a hero, why is everyone happy he’s dead?

It sounds like Bret really idolizes that CEO. I hope he guys the same treatment

Asshole is also a defender of "USA should police the whole world", so he can go fuck himself with pineapple leaves.

Wow, I’m sure the masses disagree with this opinion.

I noted it in another thread, but this is the tale of two class traitors. These guys are extremely threatened and confused as to why one of the good class traitors (the CEO that went from working class to killing workers for profit) is reviled while the bad class traitor (a rich kid murdering that CEO) is lauded. Obviously from their perspective it should be the opposite.

If both are class traitors than I support the one who didn't betray my class. But also engineers and tech workers are still working class and nowhere near CEO level.

I'm an engineer who went to private schools and came from a family of engineers. Doesn't mean I've never been homeless, doesn't mean my family wasn't financially fucked by health insurance. The middle class aren't ceo level even when we're a shrinking class

NYT hasn’t been progressive for a long time. It’s just taken a while for everyone to notice.

Stockholm syndrome