Brian Thompson Murder

[Ernie]

https://apnews.com/live/unitedhealthcar ... ates-day-6

Wow. What a hunt for someone they didn't have a name for. Now they do, apparently. Luigi Nicholas Mangione

And it turns out he was hanging out not far from me in Altoona, PA this morning.

It looks like the Altoona resident might get a $60K reward. Nice income for a 2-minute phone call.

[ken_sylvania]

https://apnews.com/live/unitedhealthcar ... ates-day-6

Wow. What a hunt for someone they didn't have a name for. Now they do, apparently. Luigi Nicholas Mangione

And it turns out he was hanging out not far from me in Altoona, PA this morning.

It looks like the Altoona resident might get a $60K reward. Nice income for a 2-minute phone call.

What do you plan to do with the reward money?

[mike]

https://apnews.com/live/unitedhealthcar ... ates-day-6

Wow. What a hunt for someone they didn't have a name for. Now they do, apparently. Luigi Nicholas Mangione

And it turns out he was hanging out not far from me in Altoona, PA this morning.

It looks like the Altoona resident might get a $60K reward. Nice income for a 2-minute phone call.

We eat at that McDonalds once in awhile when we shop in Altoona. It's 30 minutes from here. Apparently an employee recognized him from media reports and called the police.

[mike]

His X profile is still active as of now.

https://x.com/PepMangione

[joshuabgood]

Sad at so many levels

[R7ehr]

His X profile is still active as of now.

https://x.com/PepMangione

Looks like he has had surgery done on his lower back? I see an X-ray showing screws and plates on that X profile.

[Bootstrap]

I'm a little shocked by the amount of support people have shown for the murderer in some online forums.

I get it: The healthcare system is broken, people are making lots of money on the backs of other people who are desperately sick while denying them medical care. I would desperately like to see all of that fixed.

But cheering for a murderer is not the right way to do it. Populist rage is really getting out of hand in this country.

[barnhart]

...Populist rage is really getting out of hand in this country.

Yes. In the past I have had some sympathy for populist movements but it's starting to look dangerous and unappealing.

[joshuabgood]

The odd things here are...his "populism" was one of landed gentry, 4th generation folks, 40K private ed prep school, and Ivy League diplomas. On top of that, a weird mix of antiwoke antiDEI along with climate radicalism and anticapitalism. And all that probably secondary to his own personal story and grievances...

[temporal1]

Discussion began in another topic:

P.8:

This article on the recent murder of the insurance CEO in Manhattan maps with my concerns about the woke or post modern Right:

In other words, Keenan is making precisely the same rhetorical move as the left—seeing Thompson not as an individual, but as the avatar of an oppressive system of “elites.” And this, as Peter Savodnik rightly notes, is precisely how you get gulags and killing fields. It is how you got Robespierre’s guillotine—a reference someone has already unironically applied to Thompson and “the rest of them.”

However, I do think that however clumsily, Lindsay has put a finger on the substantive fact that certain strains of right-wing post-liberalism (which is importantly distinct from conservatism) can in fact wrap around to meet Marxism. In the case of Brian Thompson, we can see fringe right and fringe left openly shaking hands over a murdered man’s body. And it’s not just Thompson. When Blue Cross Blue Shield announced that it wouldn’t be covering anesthesia for longer than expected surgeries in select states, Taylor Lorenz responded with a threatening screenshot of the BCBS CEO’s picture. (Lorenz is the aforementioned crazy ex-WaPo leftist, for those who aren’t online enough to recognize her name.) It’s not clear if this influenced the company’s choice to walk back the announcement today, but a dissident right account shared the news saying “Holy crap, she did it! She really did it!” Apparently, vaguely threatening to murder rich people is the one thing that can end political polarization and bring us all together. Who knew?

As i’ve read, my thoughts have morphed ..
i began suspecting this assassination was a result of illegal drugs, and or sex, a lover’s tryst, something “ordinary” in crime ..
then, insurance CEOs, the wealthy? .. maybe? ..
then, handsome wealthy intelligent young man with everything to live for? .. no criminal history ..
then, serious back pain? .. what kind of narcotics? ..
then, video games? .. ay-ya-ya.

will this be anything like the 1979 Twinkie defense?