What are the opinions you’ve heard from people you’ve met in real life? I know the internet seems to have consensus, but the internet is not always representative of the real world.
What are the opinions of Luigi in your:
Family? Relatives? Friends? Coworkers/Classmates? People in your area?
I don’t really want to discuss this IRL since I’m a bit paranoid of mass surveillance and getting my voice recorded saying anything anti-establishment could put a target on my back, especially with the incoming US administration, so I’d rather not. (I know, I’m paranoid)
(Edit: Also, I don’t want a future employer somehow getting a recording of me glorifying a CEO’s death)
The only people IRL I’ve heard from are my parents who basically read propaganda from Wechat that just portrays Luigi as some crazy person, but, then again, my parents are also Pro-CCP idiots and hates Democrats for the “migrant crisis”, so that seems to be a trend for their beliefs: just parotting what Wechat says.
As a person living in Scotland I was initially perplexed why this was even a story. I mean, isn’t this what Americans do? Shoot each other all the time?
If the guy that was shot was a bum living out of a dumpster at the back of McDonald’s would this even be a story? And therein lies my initial naivety: this was a CEO of a company ranked 8th on the 2024 Fortune Global 500, and therefore a very important person indeed apparently.
Money talks and bullshit walks I guess.
As for the shooter, I haven’t really been following the story, but I guess he was someone who got fucked over by the health insurance company.
To me this is just box standard America: people shooting each other, fat folk eating too much, car chases, wars everywhere, idiots for presidents, corrupt companies. The kind of stuff that’s in every Hollywood movie.
As an outsider looking in, it’s kind of sad yet fascinating watching the most powerful country in the world fall apart.
To me this is just box standard America: people shooting each other, fat folk eating too much, car chases, wars everywhere, idiots for presidents, corrupt companies. The kind of stuff that’s in every Hollywood movie.
What a reductionist take.
I was offended at first glance, but then remembered that there were two shootings at my old apartment, and I have a cop friend of a friend that regularly posts dashcam footage from his car chase of the week in the discord. I’m also kinda fat, so the rest seems to check out.
Wait until you see what Americans think about the rest of the world. If they bother to at all.
Not the gotcha you think it is.
Sympathy for the CEO is nonexistent, the general vibe is “he had it coming”.
Yeah, this has the same feel as a man who got shot after breaking down someone’s door and being warned from the inside that the tenant had a gun. Yeah, it’s shit that it happened, but also, yeah, they had it coming.
That’s a nice analogy. If the world was sane and just, those in power would quickly get their shit in order now that they’ve been reminded what the 2nd amendment was actually meant for. Doesn’t matter if it’s king, president, or CEO, people in power over Americans are meant to respect the threat of violence.
Hate the right and the NRA skewing it for stupid individual self defense reasons just as much as the Democrats trying to claim it has something to do with militias.
NYC. Everyone talks about it with a wink and a smile, from coworkers to friends to random people. The only people who are opposed to it are my company’s rich directors.
Oooh! I was just talking to someone with a serious hot take.
So, back during covid, I had cause to interact with the sheriff of our county. We became friends. Maybe not bosom buddies sharing the contents of our hearts or anything, but I can talk to the man about what ACAB really means and he listens instead of being a dick.
So, the subject came up earlier today when I stopped in his office after a dental appointment.
His hot take was that if it had happened here, he would have done his job; arrested the man, processed him, and posted guards on him 24/7 until he was shipped back to NYC. But he said he also wild have personally been present at any questioning or handoffs to make “plain fucking sure nobody did anything stupid”.
He also said that he agrees with why the man is angry, but that murder is too far. Then he said he’s worried about the man because he wouldn’t know who to trust with him. A fairly conservative country county sheriff outright admitted that he wouldn’t trust most cops to keep the man safe.
He even expressed concern about the safety of the people that called in the report in Altoona.
That’s probably the most surprising thing I’ve ever heard from him. He’s normally a fairly unbending sort when it comes to violent crime. Never let them out of jail again type of unbending. But for his thought to be worry about the killer? That’s fucking wild.
Anyway, beyond that, it’s kinda mixed. A ton of my friends are left leaning to full on leftist. So i expected some support. What surprised me among friends is that nobody is arguing that the guy needs the book thrown at him, even among my more moderate friends, and the smattering of conservative ones that aren’t so conservative I can’t be friends with them.
Relative wise, my family is politically mixed. And it’s still new enough that I haven’t talked to everyone because how the fuck do you have a conversation with that many people in a week without a gathering? But the usual group chats are leaning more on the side of the guy than on the CEO. The older family tends to be more about him needing to be in jail, with a few calls for the death penalty, but the “in jail” folks aren’t exactly ranting and raving.
The most extreme of the families, of which I’m not the most extreme, but I ain’t exactly not extreme at all, they want the guy out of jail. Some are calling him a hero, others more of a victim of the system, but the main group chat of us lefties is devoid of any hate for the man at all.
In other words, it’s not a consensus at all. It’s about what you’d expect over any situation where a regular guy does something illegal as a move against the status quo.
could put a target on my back
I know, I’m paranoid
It does not mean that you are paranoid. It just means that you are vastly overestimating your own importance.
Its not really “overestimating importance”
Cops gun down people all the time and never ger punished. Those people weren’t “important” to the system, they just become another statistic.
They’ll send cops to “investigate” you, then find an excuse to shoot you then claim “they feared their life”.
Yeah but statistically running your mouth to your friends is very unlikely to out you in sequence of events where cops are shooting at you.
With that being said, there is a chance Luigin ain’t the adjuster
And they deff using his socials to pin the life claim denial on him.
So far, it’s mostly been these points:
- Murder is wrong. Thompson should not have been murdered.
- Nevertheless, this was bound to happen eventually, and [people I’ve talked to about it are] not upset that Thompson is dead.
I don’t really want to discuss this IRL since I’m a bit paranoid of mass surveillance and getting my voice recorded saying anything anti-establishment could put a target on my back
Wait till you find out the CIA can read…
Eh, plausible deniability. A IRL voice recording is more incriminating than a pseudo-anonymous internet post.
… said the prosecutor reading the defendent’s online statements to the court.
“I didn’t post that, must’ve been malware” is more believable than “They deepfaked my voice”, especially when there were real witnesses.
Besides, they have to do some network traffic deanonymizing, to do. As long as you dont make explicit threats, they don’t have time to track every internet post.
Edit: Also, not just legal harassment, but any employer hearing your recorded voice of trashing CEOs, especially of glorifying the death of CEOs, are not gonna hire you. Might wanna be careful if you wanna have a job in the future.
Shouldnt they be reading Russian and Chinese socials…
NSA doing domestic socials?
Oof, I was not going to share my thoughts on this but: my first thought when I saw the smiling footage was that it had to be a cute psychopath, I don’t think most people could smile while they planned to kill anyone, and I was glad that if he was a weapon at least he was aimed correctly. I wouldn’t say my impression has changed.
My gay coworker said, and I quote “ooh, hello handsome!”
Nobody I’ve talked to has been able to dredge up any sympathy for the victim, like literally nobody of any class or inclination. All feel he killed for profit, live by the sword, die by the sword. That is separate from any feelings about the killer or vigilante justice in general.
I don’t think most people could smile while they planned to kill anyone
That’s ridiculous. Plenty of people smile while bringing a live turkey back home from a farmer’s market the day before Thanksgiving.
Anyone can become okay with killing if they’re trained to see the target as undeserving of life. Sometimes it’s because they see the target as less than human. Sometimes it’s because they see the target as evil. But anyone can smile while taking a life if they think they have a good reason.
I’ve never heard of anyone getting a live turkey in the US. Where do you live where people do that?
https://avbirds.com/products/2023-thanksgiving-live-turkey-pick-up-only
THANKSGIVING LIVE TURKEY (PICK UP ONLY)
COME AND PICK UP YOUR OWN THANKSGIVING TURKEY AT OUR HATCHERY. THIS IS FOR A MALE HERITAGE BREED OF TURKEY SUCH AS THE BOURBON RED TURKEYS. If you have not had one of those turkeys in the past, you are in for a treat. These are nothing like the store-bought turkeys. These turkeys are slow growing and taste so much better than any store bought turkey.
Guess it happens less often in the city these days. Drag thought everyone knew about it.
I haven’t really heard anyone talking about it IRL, but that’s not a very big sample size.
I’m a bit reticent, because I don’t know who around me will be cool with me flat out saying this should be a case of jury nullification. The ceo had it coming, and if you think political violence is bad, why are you cool with the insurance ghoul committing social murder? If anything, this is an act of self defense
Yeah, I imagine there are quite a few people that would be disturbed by that.
Totally unrelated thought: Has anyone ever thought of creating a “lumber jack paper towel” board of Billionaires and corrupt CEOs? Click a button to donate to a trust dedicated to any future legal fees.
if you think political violence is bad, why are you cool with the insurance ghoul committing social murder?
Those aren’t exclusive positions though.
What the American healthcare system does to people is awful and should be changed. No question at all.
That doesn’t make it ok IMO for someone to just go out and murder someone else.
The more people normalise and even praise this sort of thing, the worse, and more dangerous, society is going to get IMO.
I realise that’s not the popular view, but there it is.
I do agree with you that it will make things more dangerous, but I don’t know what to expect. The mere existence of billionaires is violence on the working class. We are getting squeezed, so those at the top can add just a bit more to their hoards. I should be food safe, and have shelter the next 4 years, but if my wife or I lose our job that could change quickly. And we are gently well off with a decent support system. Most of my countrymen are in more precarious of a position. I think this is the natural consequence of our economic system. Regulations removed, social programs removed, wages stagnant, and more and more is wrung out of people. Their basic needs are neglected, they’re left in pain, and left to die because that gives the shareholders a few percent more. This is violence against us, though legal and given the veneer of civility. Its starting to feel like nonviolent avenues are no longer viable, so then we get this
Yeah, agree with all that, and something like this does have a feeling of inevitability about it.
I just feel concerned by the hero worship of this guy, it’s kind of disturbing to me.
The only thing I’ve heard general consensus on is how good-looking he is.
Yep, first thing I heard about him was from my husband. “Have you seen the photo? The shooter is hot!”
My friend works for an insurance company. He is very ready to make jokes about it but he was involved in a meeting with the higher-ups and he said they seemed genuinely worried, as you’d expect I suppose, and had to bite his tongue.
Chad.
Remember people you ain’t got to drink the koolaid if you are working in such environments
Tell “Leadership” what you need but keep independent thinking. They don’t pay enough to control your opinions IMHO
The UHC memoriam post on FB had reactions of 95% laughing face emoji and 5% everything else. It’s not the best cross section of humanity. But, public perception seems quite clear.
Australian here, the only people I have interacted with IRL who Ive talked about it with are members of my political party (we are socialists). It has been a mix of positivity and questioning how or if it will actually change anything or lead more people to joining the movement. It has certainly lead to a lot of online discourse but whether it will lead to any real movement building or change is yet to be seen. There is also the question of how useful individual acts of violence are when there isn’t a mass movement behind them. I have also seen people calling the shooter hot and such. There is no sympathy at all for the CEO and the people I have talked with all think he had it coming
My closest circle reflects the prevailing view here on Lemmy. I don’t go out much so the only other people I’ve interacted with are people who work in the same fiefdom that I do so no one mentions it.
The few people I’ve talked to about the matter don’t care about the CEO being murdered as his decision were so ruthless and harmed many. A coworker mentioned it would’ve been better if that CEO was put on trial for his bullshit as so many were being fucked over by callous capitalist choices. That this man needed to be made an example of so those fat cats would be worried as fuck.
I’m also not sad that scumbag is dead; I’m sad that circumstances pushed the accused to the edge that an assassination of a CEO was the right answer. The system is so fucked, this should be an alarm bell ringing event. Knowing the good old USA, it will be swept under the rug until a real, large scale violent uprising happens.
A coworker mentioned it would’ve been better if that CEO was put on trial for his bullshit as so many were being fucked over by callous capitalist choices.
That’s the thing, the law is on the CEOs side. Almost everyone thinks his behavior should be illegal except the politicians won’t do shit about it. That’s what should really be going on now. Congress should be addressing health care in some fashion. Even if that only means limited action like cracking down on predatory insurance companies. Fat chance though.
So without a legal path of fixing the issue, that only leaves illegal means.
Yeah, I can kind of understand your coworker’s thoughts of this was 25 years ago, but how have they not heard of the Sackler family by now? These people will never see justice unless the people serve it up to them.
Yep, that’s why killings of this nature might rise…As our justice system favors these rich fuckers, and won’t raise a finger unless it’s truly horrible. I didn’t even know about the Sackler family myself, for good reason, as this family like to keep a low profile whenever possible!
