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The loudest opinions surface. I wouldn’t take lack of public sympathy to mean that the average American condones this type of behavior. I am no more sympatheti

The loudest opinions surface. I wouldn’t take lack of public sympathy to mean that the average American condones this type of behavior. I am no more sympathetic than I am towards the many people killed each day in the US, but I think the assassination and the subsequent justification of it because he was a small cog in the system is abhorrent. And I hope that the majority of the country feels the same way.

harimau777 2y ago
Whether or not the assassination is justified, I don't think it makes sense to call him a small cog. He's the leader of one of the largest health insurance companies in America.
- cadamsau 2y ago
  As much as I hate to point it out, it’s not so simple. He had a legally enforceable mandate to maximize shareholder value. There’s some wiggle room in how that’s accomplished, but not as much as it seems from the outside. That does make him, much as I hate to say it, a small cog.
  - throw0101d 2y ago
    > He had a legally enforceable mandate to maximize shareholder value. [citation needed] There is no legal basis for this: * https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/06/26/the-shareholder-value-myth/ https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/06/26/the-shareholder-v... * https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/09/how-the-cult-of-shareholder-value-wrecked-american-business/?wprss=rss_ezra-klein&clsrd=&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/09/how-t... * https://evonomics.com/maximizing-shareholder-value-dumbest-idea/ https://evonomics.com/maximizing-shareholder-value-dumbest-i... It is simply one view that just happened to become popular during the Reagan years and has continued on: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine And while we're at it, shareholders are not the owners of a corporation: * https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/12/who-actually-owns-corporations-anyway https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/12/who-actually-own...
  - revscat 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - cadamsau 2y ago
      Justice is subjective. What is a crime is subjective. Hence we have laws - an eternal, never perfect project to find an agreed definition of justice. Abandoning centuries of precedent of law happens in some places from time to time and they’re not places you’d live by choice.
      - revscat 2y ago
        [dead]
  - sumeno 2y ago
    Wow, it really is a shame he was forced into this job and had no agency.
    - cadamsau 2y ago
      Nature abhors a vacuum. If not this dude, would’ve been someone else.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
  - mingus88 2y ago
    It’s funny to me that so often on HN we have discussions about making ethical choices in who we work for and which projects we contribute to, yet the sentiment on this CEO is honestly the most sympathetic I have seen in any comment section He chose to take the role. He profited from it massively and did more to perpetuate it than any other single individual at the company. If we were talking about a developer who was writing software for drone bombs wiping out families, yeah maybe that’s a cog. But still there would be no shortage of judgement on that choice of profession It’s plainly obvious that insurance companies are not good faith actors working to help people. They lobbied for this system, they are the beneficiaries of it, and they are reaping what they’ve sown
  - cocacola1 2y ago
    But from the assassins point of view, the system is abstract (therefore unshootable) while Brian Thompson was a man (therefore shootable).
  - sundaeofshock 2y ago
    There is no legal mandate to maximize shareholder value. That’s just an excuse used to justify sociopathic behavior. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shareholder-value.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shareholder-value.asp
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 2y ago
  Literally one of the biggest cogs in this machine.
- smitty1e 2y ago
  What assassination would be "justified"? This tragedy in the same city that could potentially throw the book at a Daniel Penny...
  - cocacola1 2y ago
    > What assassination would be "justified"? I think it depends where ones sympathies lay.
    - smitty1e 2y ago
      Assassination assumes some premeditation. I can at least grasp killing in some sort of immediate self-defense situation. However, assassination seems a slippery slope to some anarchy that is unlikely to please anyone this side of Hell.
cocacola1 2y ago
> The loudest opinions surface. I wouldn’t take lack of public sympathy to mean that the average American condones this type of behavior. I'm not sure I agree with you there. The indifference in some quarters, celebration in others, across either side of the political divide insofar as I've seen, leads me to believe that in some cases, the well of sympathy is running dry – or, worse, has run dry.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
bufferoverflow 2y ago
For the jury to convict you need all jurors to agree. From what I've seen, 99% of feedback is of "scumbag deserved it" flavor.

harimau777 2y ago

Whether or not the assassination is justified, I don't think it makes sense to call him a small cog. He's the leader of one of the largest health insurance companies in America.

cadamsau 2y ago
As much as I hate to point it out, it’s not so simple. He had a legally enforceable mandate to maximize shareholder value. There’s some wiggle room in how that’s accomplished, but not as much as it seems from the outside. That does make him, much as I hate to say it, a small cog.
- throw0101d 2y ago
  > He had a legally enforceable mandate to maximize shareholder value. [citation needed] There is no legal basis for this: * https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/06/26/the-shareholder-value-myth/ https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/06/26/the-shareholder-v... * https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/09/how-the-cult-of-shareholder-value-wrecked-american-business/?wprss=rss_ezra-klein&clsrd=&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/09/how-t... * https://evonomics.com/maximizing-shareholder-value-dumbest-idea/ https://evonomics.com/maximizing-shareholder-value-dumbest-i... It is simply one view that just happened to become popular during the Reagan years and has continued on: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine And while we're at it, shareholders are not the owners of a corporation: * https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/12/who-actually-owns-corporations-anyway https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/12/who-actually-own...
- revscat 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - cadamsau 2y ago
    Justice is subjective. What is a crime is subjective. Hence we have laws - an eternal, never perfect project to find an agreed definition of justice. Abandoning centuries of precedent of law happens in some places from time to time and they’re not places you’d live by choice.
    - revscat 2y ago
      [dead]
- sumeno 2y ago
  Wow, it really is a shame he was forced into this job and had no agency.
  - cadamsau 2y ago
    Nature abhors a vacuum. If not this dude, would’ve been someone else.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- mingus88 2y ago
  It’s funny to me that so often on HN we have discussions about making ethical choices in who we work for and which projects we contribute to, yet the sentiment on this CEO is honestly the most sympathetic I have seen in any comment section He chose to take the role. He profited from it massively and did more to perpetuate it than any other single individual at the company. If we were talking about a developer who was writing software for drone bombs wiping out families, yeah maybe that’s a cog. But still there would be no shortage of judgement on that choice of profession It’s plainly obvious that insurance companies are not good faith actors working to help people. They lobbied for this system, they are the beneficiaries of it, and they are reaping what they’ve sown
- cocacola1 2y ago
  But from the assassins point of view, the system is abstract (therefore unshootable) while Brian Thompson was a man (therefore shootable).
- sundaeofshock 2y ago
  There is no legal mandate to maximize shareholder value. That’s just an excuse used to justify sociopathic behavior. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shareholder-value.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shareholder-value.asp
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 2y ago
Literally one of the biggest cogs in this machine.
smitty1e 2y ago
What assassination would be "justified"? This tragedy in the same city that could potentially throw the book at a Daniel Penny...
- cocacola1 2y ago
  > What assassination would be "justified"? I think it depends where ones sympathies lay.
  - smitty1e 2y ago
    Assassination assumes some premeditation. I can at least grasp killing in some sort of immediate self-defense situation. However, assassination seems a slippery slope to some anarchy that is unlikely to please anyone this side of Hell.

cocacola1 2y ago

> The loudest opinions surface. I wouldn’t take lack of public sympathy to mean that the average American condones this type of behavior. I'm not sure I agree with you there. The indifference in some quarters, celebration in others, across either side of the political divide insofar as I've seen, leads me to believe that in some cases, the well of sympathy is running dry – or, worse, has run dry.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

bufferoverflow 2y ago

For the jury to convict you need all jurors to agree. From what I've seen, 99% of feedback is of "scumbag deserved it" flavor.