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.
I don’t know anyone IRL who both knows about the current events and also doesn’t agree that Luigi (or the real killer) hasn’t performed a service to the country. And thinking about it deeper, I don’t know anyone IRL who has not been negatively affected by the shitty healthcare system in this country.
My family had a jolly laugh about that CEO. Several of them have worked with mental health patients and elders and hate the entire health insurance industry, my brother works for cooperate types and as a result has zero sympathy for corporate types and we share memes about it. Whatever other beliefs Luigi may have, he did us all a solid, so he’s ok in our book.
I don’t know but people, as in, my world of Warcraft characters, aren’t aware of it because it didn’t occur in their universe
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.
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.
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.
Barley a discussion. The Dodgers winning had a bigger social stir.
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.
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.
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?
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Guess it happens less often in the city these days. Drag thought everyone knew about it.
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.
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?
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.
If you look at it at the individual level, of course it’s a tragedy.
At the systematic level though, big change historically almost always includes death, and at the end people everywhere celebrate the successful revolution with very little thought to those sacrificed to get it.
Why is it a tragedy?
Or do you mean Luigi getting caught?
A person killing another person. People will mourn him. I guarantee someone is crying over this, a child, a parent, a lover. If you can’t see that side of it at all you need to take a step back and think about your humanity.
But as a system… It’s a different story. Sometimes things have to break before change happens, and afterward, people are likely to just think about it in terms of a beneficial change, not the people who didn’t survive the conflict.
an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe
Doesn’t fit the bill
Also didn’t he cheat on his wife a bunch? We don’t know his kids don’t hate his guts.
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
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.
Yeah, I imagine there are quite a few people that would be disturbed by that.
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