Summary

Progressive lawmakers view the online praise for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as a sign of deep public frustration with the U.S. healthcare system.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called it a “wake-up call” highlighting resentment over financial and health precarity, while Sen. Bernie Sanders emphasized that anger reflects the belief that healthcare is a human right.

Though all lawmakers condemned the murder, some progressives argue it underscores systemic issues like claim denials.

Calls for healthcare reform have intensified amid public outrage.

  • ccunning@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Progressive lawmakers view the online praise for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as a sign of deep public frustration with the U.S. healthcare system.

    It’s not just the healthcare system

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      At risk of going off topic, it wouldn’t matter of Bernie or AOC or someone to the left of them had run for every open position.

      The Democrat’s problem was campaigning on a high horse like its 1950, instead of seeding propaganda in social media. It’s the delivery, not the message, and they are going to keep losing until we get a “liberal Trump” shameless enough to break that mould.

      The wake-up call for me was watching post election interviews of ostensibly educated college students from fairly liberal campuses… and now, there is no govt incentive to reign that in.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        8 hours ago

        It’s both the delivery and the message. Saying it’s only the delivery implies anyone was every going to vote for the Democrats’ “everything is fine” position when everything is decidedly not fine.

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        7 hours ago

        What exactly are you basing this on? Harris ran a terrible campaign with the usual Democratic half-measure policy proposals and lost. That should hardly be a surprise. There is no evidence to say that a populist Democrat like Bernie or AOC couldn’t win.

        What if Harris had made the whole campaign into a referendum on the broken healthcare system? It turns out that that’s where the Republican voters she was trying to woo were hiding all along.

        • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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          44 minutes ago

          What if Harris had made the whole campaign into a referendum on the broken healthcare system?

          Wouldn’t have mattered. Trump would have just countered with a similar populist angle, and by the time it was filtered down to voters, it would still be pro-Trump.

          To be more specific about the college students, I saw them coo and rave about how “strong” Trump feels, or list off all these (seemingly) blatant lies about policy or what either candidate going to do, a few I recognized online, and again this is ostensibly a well connected and “smart” demographic. At that point, I realized their world is totally shaped by what their favorite feeds and influencers tell them, and this is a space being won by the GOP:

          https://www.axios.com/2024/11/18/news-influencers-conservative-tiktok-youtube

      • LukeS26 (He/They)@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        I actually kinda feel that someone like Bernie may have had enough youth appeal to have a somewhat organic version of that happen. During the 2016 primaries, a decent amount of memes and online talk were spawned by him/his campaign.

        Definitely agree that delivery is extremely important though, campaigning on helping workers while appearing elite and out of touch just makes people consider you a liar or to be looking down at people.

  • Darkly@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    Is it though? Cause a lot of progressives vote like they are asleep. (I say this as a progressive mind you…)

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      7 hours ago

      Progressives are the most politically engaged segment in the US, even ahead of evangelicals. Progressives are most likely to vote, to donate, and to volunteer for campaigns. This is true despite the fact that Democrats never give them much to vote for.

    • Orbituary@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Do you mean “Progressives” or “progressives.” It’s like saying “Democrat” or “democratic.” There’s a stance and then there’s boots on the ground, populist minded, human focused ideology.

      When any movement’s name is coopted by its uppercase, it’s effectively diminished.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Of course they are. They have been! And then they go out and vote someone in who’s going to enrich these healthcare executives and shareholders like never before.

    The line between voter sentiment and candidates/policy is completely busted, twisted by bubbles and feeds, and it’s going to get exponentially worse now. So I hate to sound cynical, but I don’t see what good this sentiment does unless these candidates get in the dirt and play the propaganda game.

  • N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 hours ago

    I’ve lost all faith in the media and even stories like this. It feels like controlled opposition.

    Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t kill Kennedy, and the new patsy didn’t kill the asshole CEO who murdered grandmas and grandpas and made people’s lives a living hell by denying claims with AI.

    They’ll release a mountain of evidence against him and find every way to discredit this “suspect” in public opinion. They’ll silence him and discredit him with their bully pulpit. That’s what they do. Meanwhile, the available evidence suggests strongly that he didn’t do it. Wrong guy.

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      7 hours ago

      If they were just trying to pin it on someone, I doubt they would pick a child of the autocracy tech-bro. It would be some poor city kid who could only afford a public defender.

      • agent_nycto@lemmy.world
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        22 minutes ago

        Not to be too much of a tin hat here but if the patsy was in on it seems like the type who might be down to help the feds and disappear