According to reporting by Joe Marino, Ben Kochman and Matt Troutman last week, health insurance leaders pressured the DOJ to make an example of Luigi Mangione by bringing federal charges against him in a surprise announcement that caught his lawyers
It also disproved the “once the crisis is big enough, everyone will hold hands and work together for the common good” myth that pro-establishment people used to trot out to mollify critics of the status quo.
The people radicalized by a combination of the inequities of the status quo and the gaslighting of opportunistic far right politicians (who are of course themselves very much part of the establishment) didn’t suddenly set their collective delusions of self-sufficiency and their scapegoating of vulnerable people aside to help themselves and other people get through the pandemic as safely as possible. They only got WORSE.
On a local level, we really do see humans band together to overcome crises. But not everyone, not all the time. And on a national level, stopping the rich motherfuckers is a struggle that goes back millenia.
Some people think that “progress will happen” as if it’s inevitable that society improves over time. But a quick glance at history proves otherwise.
A quick glance at history also shows which methods are the most effective. Which is why we have had decades of conditioning to push us in the other direction, for strategies that are loud and easily ignored.
This also helps explain the Texas Lt. Governor’s (?) plea to, “Let all the old people die. We need to get the economy moving again.” Health Care Insurance Inc. doesn’t want to pay money to treat people if we can convince everyone its cheaper to let them die.
Always was but yeah, seems moreso now than ever before. Because it’s gotten worse AND because we’ve gotten more aware of it.
The awareness is lovely to see.
Interestingly enough I don’t think we’d have arrived here without COVID. It broke the routine, slowed the inertia, pushed self reflection.
And it made the house of cards that is the healthcare system visible to all.
I agree completely.
It also disproved the “once the crisis is big enough, everyone will hold hands and work together for the common good” myth that pro-establishment people used to trot out to mollify critics of the status quo.
The people radicalized by a combination of the inequities of the status quo and the gaslighting of opportunistic far right politicians (who are of course themselves very much part of the establishment) didn’t suddenly set their collective delusions of self-sufficiency and their scapegoating of vulnerable people aside to help themselves and other people get through the pandemic as safely as possible. They only got WORSE.
On a local level, we really do see humans band together to overcome crises. But not everyone, not all the time. And on a national level, stopping the rich motherfuckers is a struggle that goes back millenia.
Some people think that “progress will happen” as if it’s inevitable that society improves over time. But a quick glance at history proves otherwise.
A quick glance at history also shows which methods are the most effective. Which is why we have had decades of conditioning to push us in the other direction, for strategies that are loud and easily ignored.
This also helps explain the Texas Lt. Governor’s (?) plea to, “Let all the old people die. We need to get the economy moving again.” Health Care Insurance Inc. doesn’t want to pay money to treat people if we can convince everyone its cheaper to let them die.