The Case of the Unsympathetic Capitalist and the Handsome Assassin
It’s rare that a high-profile murder occurs and truly no one gives a shit. Regular murders, sure. Shootings, those are a dime a dozen. But for a rich person, an “important” person, to be killed in broad daylight, and to have everyone not care, or laugh and support the killer, is a rare thing indeed. Yet that’s what’s happened in the days following the shooting death of a UnitedHealthcare CEO on a Manhattan street. Sure, the police and the corrupt mayor are fussing about it, and the news media is playing along, but it seems that no actual people are interested, let alone inclined, to help.
Normally, one might expect people to be frightened and freaking out about an event like this. There’d be local witnesses stepping forward and citizen sleuths all over the internet piecing together evidence to find the shooter’s identity. Instead, those folks are staying silent, and others are making jokes.
Is this what we’ve become as a society?
Are we so inured to violence that we don’t care when another human being is gunned down in public?
Well, maybe a little bit. But what this reveals more than that is our ability to analyze violence on a sliding scale and distinguish tragedy from karma.
I don’t know much about this fella that got shot, not even enough to bother looking up his name. (Brian something?) Perhaps he was an okay person. Maybe he had a family and friends that loved him. I don’t know. But what I do know, what we as casual observers all know, is that he was a man who enriched himself and those around him at the expense of the suffering and death of countless people.
The health insurance industry is an evil scam, a destructive and completely unnecessary cancer in the healthcare field. We pay these companies obscene amounts of money, only to have them return a pittance when we need it, or deny us and leave us in the lurch. They’d argue that they’re providing a necessary service, that few people could afford the cost of healthcare in an emergency. But, the reason people can’t afford it is because insurance companies drive up the prices, and do all in their power to prevent the adoption of universal healthcare. And, their business model is dependent on not paying their customers anything more than they absolutely have to, and refusing to pay whenever possible. They don’t make money by providing healthcare, but by denying it. You can hardly get more capitalist than that. Not to mention, fucking evil.
So, maybe Brian whozits wasn’t terrible as a person outside of the workplace. Maybe oil tycoons and professional torturers working in prisons under fascist regimes aren’t terrible people when they’re not at work. But frankly, who gives a shit. I wouldn’t cry for a torturer who petted kittens at home if he was killed on his day off. And I don’t feel particularly bad about this capitalist leech getting killed, and I think that’s okay. Why should we pretend all life is sacred, particularly when we’re talking about someone who routinely, professionally, profited from applying monetary values against others’ lives? I’m not celebrating his death, but I won’t pretend it’s worth mourning.
As for the shooter, I know little or less about him. I can make some assumptions. He was probably impacted negatively in some way by the health insurance industry, specifically UnitedHealthcare. That could apply to thousands or millions of people. Easy to empathize with. I can surmise from how he carried out the shooting that he’s pretty intelligent. He clearly thought it out and planned well; using an e-bike in Manhattan as his getaway vehicle was honestly inspired. In the only surveillance photo purporting to show the gunman with his mask down, he looks like a nice, friendly guy with a handsome smile. Sure, he’s a killer, but only of one person that we know of, and not a particularly sympathetic one at that. The shooter’s already garnering positive public sentiment like a vigilante folk hero. Most people, it seems, would prefer he not get caught. Honestly, if he only uses his skills against those that profit from suffering and death, I’d be fine with that. If he’s fled the country to some secluded spot in South America by now, all the best. Although, there are more than a few evil folks wreaking havoc in this country that remain conspicuously unassassinated, if he’s still around, manages to stay under the radar, and wants to make a career of this.