Confronting the Enemy: CEO Murder Edition

Tweet-haters, have a seat. Class is called to order

Morning, everyone. Before you take your seats, come on up and grab a pair of glasses, doesn’t matter which pair; they’re all the same.

Anyway, my name is Nancy, but you know that, since you were the ones who reached out to me. And while I sense some of you think we know each other, we should get it out of the way that we’ve never met, or typed more than a few words to each other.

Well, that’s not exactly true. Some of you have written me thousands of words, but we’ll get to you MeekFrances.

So, the glasses. I’ve been collecting bits of them for years and yesterday they reached a sort of critical mass, and the credit, such as it is, goes to all of you. I would not have had the materials to fashion them were it not for your input. Before you slip them on, let’s get a refresh on what got us here today.

As you all know, Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was assassinated on… hold on, hold on, you’ll get a chance to speak. Thompson was shot point blank on a street in midtown Manhattan two mornings ago, a murder captured on tape. I am not going to play the tape here. I take it you’ve all seen it, given your subsequent engagement with the murder, and with me.

Sorry, jumping the gun here. Anyway, the killing has become a flashpoint, it seems to me perhaps the flashpoint to all the public violence of the past few years, the rage at police, at racism, at privilege, at wars overseas, and now another Trump presidency, all emblematized in one man…

Hold on… hear that? Even AM radio from a passing car is talking about Thompson’s murder. Which in its way is a good thing, to be shocked at an assassination, of seeing another human drop to the ground, to imagine yourself as that human, feeling the sting of the first bullet and thinking, what… before trying to crawl away, to hide…

Hey, I don’t know your names in the back there, and I appreciate that you think because Thompson made a lot of money, his murder is somehow funny or appropriate; that it matters not at all to you that he leaves two young children, but hold the snickering; you’ll have your chance, I have it all teed up.

Okay, let’s get the glasses on. Follow my prompts. Ready? Blink once.

Let’s start with what I see as the simplest of expressions. Fez doesn’t give much context so we cannot know whether he or she or bot harbors affection for the French invention and its efficiency at executing multiple people quickly, but we don’t really need to know that, do we? The message is that there should be more of it, a sort of “these people had it coming.” Next blink please.

So JenPens is attempting here to add context to the anger, the “mass death by spreadsheet” referring to United HealthCare rejecting a lot of medical claims. Anger at the American healthcare system is often justified, plus a whole lot people conjure a lot of romantic feelings about socialized medicine, feelings they would likely not have if they lived under such a system, fantasy is always better than the reality and all that, but in any case, in JenPens’ and, it seems, many others’ minds, murdering the CEO solves a problem; not that it makes medical care available or affordable but in that it offers a way to offload some frustration, to figuratively climb onto Thompson’s dead chest and shout, “We win you fucker!” It’s also a chance to spit bile at yours truly, though at least she gives me a set of pearls.

QwixxlsFun, Tj Philp, trebabble, we’re not in third grade, use your big words. And while B2 has got to get his avi out of 2018, he at least tries to personalize his complaint.

The number of people who yesterday informed the world that they’d lost a family member to a “corrupt” healthcare system and/or been put into financial ruin due to illness is heartbreaking. I am going to take them at their word. I’ve seen people through to death in a system that worked pretty well - I am in fact doing so right now with my mother - but I know this not the case for everyone. Can we build a better system? Of course. We can always do things better. Next blink.

Well, Josh Olson, I don’t - and neither do you - but I’d say a good guess is zero, that Thompson worked within an imperfect system that created excellent to good outcomes for many and not great ones for others.

That’s a mouthful of a question, Varenum, but let’s give it a whack (no pun!). You’re making the assumption, and it’s a childish one, that the people who administer health care sit in their mansions mustache-twirling and conjuring ways to deny people lifesaving care. A behemothic organization like UnitedHealthcare uses codes and computer algorithms to decide what qualifies. Is it always fair? No. Can you fight their decisions? Yes; I recently did just that with an urgent care clinic and got the extra $400 they’d tacked on for a COVID test removed. I was plenty pissed that they’d tried it, but I made noise. That’s how you change things, not by cutting off people heads. Which, granted, does do one thing from some people: it makes the blood sing. Is that what you’re here for, Varenum? The symphony of blood? If so, you are not alone, it’s what brought us here today.

Since 2020 and under different circumstances, I have been told, “Nothing ever changes except with violence.” I was told this during the Portland 2020 protests by two college kids who, were in not for the black bloc, looked as though they should be going to cotillion. I doubt either would have been willing to play executioner for real, it’s messy after all, but the idea of it is apparently enthralling, to imagine yourself the one with the power, a person who would make the right and humane decisions every time, just as soon as you cut off a few people’s heads.

Anarchochad69, I see that made you laugh. Your comment made me laugh too.

I promised up top I would address you, MeekFrancis, to tell you I am touched at how you comment on every single one of my tweets, whether I am talking about murder or media or pie or that the sky is blue, you always have something to say, and with an intimacy that suggests, you know my heart and mind.

Which, well, you don’t, but that’s not what seems salient to me, and also the reason why I called class today and I asked you to look through the glasses, the ones that bring your perceived enemies into view. The lenses may change and indeed have; Frances’s lenses have him or her (the avi does not let us know, though I think the painting is cool and have told Frances so) seeing me as representative of the many things he hates, or at least rejects. But as long as we keep communicating there’s hope, right?

Before I let you go, a note about the glasses: they’re yours to keep, I mean obviously they are, you made them. I’ve watched them refract and reflect differently depending on who or what you’re angry at, or jealous of, or feel lonely about. That will continue so long as you keep them on. Or you can toss them.