In December, Luigi Mangione was arrested for shooting health insurance executive Brian Thompson. Last week, Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced that she was seeking the death penalty. It’s a highly unusual announcement, since Mangione hasn’t even been indicted yet on a federal level. (He has been indicted in Manhattan.) By intervening in this high-profile case, the Trump administration has made clear that it believes that CEOs are especially important people whose deaths need to be swiftly and mercilessly avenged.

  • samus12345@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Not because they’re a millionaire. Because they’re a CEO whose policies directly resulted in unnecessary suffering and death.

    • Banana@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Billionaires do deserve to die for being billionaires though.

      You can’t amass that type of wealth without being responsible for human suffering en masse. It’s impossible.

      • mobotsar@sh.itjust.works
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        15 hours ago

        you can’t amass that type of wealth without . . .

        Sure, but that’s not for being billionaires; that’s for what they did to become billionaires and perhaps for what they are (or are not) doing to maintain their status.

        Leftist messaging is plagued by the fact that what what is said literally is often something obviously wrong or stupid which is supposed to stand in (by convention, I suppose) for the point that is “actually” being made.

        It makes dismissing leftist messages pretty appealingly mechanical for those who are opposed or even just unfamiliar – they need only point out the obvious way in which the literal meaning of the actual words the leftist has said is wrong or stupid. You can’t fault much the latter sort of person here, because there’s really not any indication that you don’t just wholesale believe the stupid thing you said.

        It’s a critical problem that’s had a crippling impact on the acceptance of leftist movements in the United States. So it’s best to say what you mean. It really helps.

      • [email protected]@lemmy.federate.cc
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        2 days ago

        yeah I think this distinction is important. we don’t need to kill the working professionals who saved money and invested wisely throughout their careers. many of those people will eventually be millionaires, but like, ones of millions.

        once you get to hundreds of millions it starts to look like there was no possible moral way to arrive at that.

        • Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
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          2 days ago

          We should also make a distinction for the arts and artisans. In theory, an artist can sell their work for a billion dollars, making them a billionaire. I’m fine with that, because nobody gets exploited in the process. Like if an actor or rock star charges a billion dollars for a performance, or a painter charges a billion dollars for a painting, or a carpenter charges a billion to install hardwood floors. If people are willing to pay it, then I don’t really see a problem.

          That said, their wealth should still be taxed like a motherfucker.

          • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I think there’s still a pretty solid argument that its shitty to remain a billionare. If I won that kind of money on the lottery I’d set asside enough to retire very comfortably (and still feel a little bad about it) and then build affordable housing and shit.

            • Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
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              2 days ago

              Hoarding that much money is, in my opinion, just as bad as hoarding a cure for cancer. There are like half a dozen people with enough wealth to eliminate hunger and homelessness worldwide, but every one of them refuses to lift a finger beyond performative bullshit for PR. The level of inhumanity it takes to be like that is off the charts. It’s sociopathic.

    • Wilco@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      Agreed, its a bit like self defense or defending others.

      If you are armed and see a murder about to happen you CAN legally intervene with a firearm. You do not have to standby and let someone get killed.

      UHC was killing thousands and apparently the government was/is fine with it. Thus … it was a defensive killing.

      This discussion would get me banned off of Reddit (again).