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PaperclipPerfector  20d ago (text post)   30956 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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The killer left behind bullet casings, which was at first viewed as “oh, this was an amateur – what kind of professional doesn’t police their brass?” even with the suppressor on the gun. Then it was revealed the three bullet casings each contained a different word: one said deny, one said defend, one said depose. Some speculated it was related to a book titled “Delay, Deny, Defend” about the evils of insurance companies, although the title doesn’t quite add up.

Other speculate the word “Depose” has to do with the recent DOJ probe into Brian Thompson for insider trading.

I was stunned watching many on social media celebrated the murder like they were celebrating the death of a terrorist. UHC is the largest provider of Medicare advantage in the country. We need better insurance, absolutely - but insurance is the only reason many can even afford basic care in the first place. UHC isn't even one of the insurance companies that yesterday decided to stop covering anesthesia in the middle of surgeries if the surgeries took too long (although UHC has the highest percentage of denied claims, in part because of their share of the Medicare advantage market).

If people don't like denials of coverage now, I think they'd hate rationed healthcare under a "Medicare 4 All" system even more; the government-run V.A. shows exactly how bad we are at those kinds of systems. Some coverage and cheaper procedures is better than wait times or tribunal refusals due to resource shortages or determined societal need.

Although I can't expect the people celebrating his death to understand that. Most Americans have a loose grasp, at best, of how health insurance works; I had recently seen an Xcretement with the following sentiment:

A Starbucks worker on the @organizeworkers call saying that working in a union Starbucks in the South could become the only way for some young people to get gender affirming care under Trump has me crying in the club 😭

Which is... bafflingly incorrect. Insurance covering a surgery doesn't suddenly make that surgery legal in whatever state? It's just... not how any of this works, although I don't know why I expected a Starbucks unionization attempt to know any better.

Does the United States have it in us to engage in vigilantism? Will all CEOs, billionaires, etc., start to show up on the chopping block? Is "eating the rich" leaving electoral politics behind and instead taking matters into their own "hands?" Will this change the gun control debate at all? How dystopian are we about to get? Or, like everything else, is this tapping the sign of "nothing ever happens?"

I believe it's the latter; this will get forgotten about quickly. Billionaires et. al. can afford private security, but there's been a recent movement attacking small business owners as the "petit bourgeois," who are less likely to be able to afford that kind of stuff. Those grievances are likely more local, though, and less likely to make the news. Local level "activism" doesn't generate attention, so maybe it's less of a concern. Idk. I don't think Americans have it in us to truly seek a revolution. Even the "Insurrection" would have continued the status quo of the government system, just with a different person at the top.

Then it was revealed the three bullet casings each contained a different word: one said deny, one said defend, one said depose.

Now I am wondering if he had an entire magazine of bullets with words carved on them in case he missed the first few.

I was stunned watching many on social media celebrated the murder like they were celebrating the death of a terrorist. UHC is the largest provider of Medicare advantage in the country. We need better insurance, absolutely - but insurance is the only reason many can even afford basic care in the first place.

I think the principal evil is that health care providers are selected by employers, not employees. This creates a principal-agent problem. The employer is forced by law to provide health insurance, but their incentives are to go cheap without asking how they can offer health care so cheap.

As an intuition pump, suppose that federal law required employers to provide employees with a vehicle. Car makers specialize to provide cheap, shitty vehicles. Often they don't start, in any accident they become burning death traps, et cetera. The employees who can afford it pay through their nose for a solid car. Some go into debt to afford a private vehicle which meets their basic needs.

And then here you come along and say "CrapCars is the reason why many Americans are mobile in the first place." You might be technically correct, but you are missing the bigger picture.

Don't trust me, read Scott:

The Muslims claim Mohammed was the last of the prophets, and that after his death God stopped advising earthly religions. But sometimes modern faiths will make a decision so inspired that it could only have come from divine revelation. This is how I feel about the Amish belief that health insurance companies are evil, and that good Christians must have no traffic with them.

This is a medical professional who at that time was making his livelihood from health insurance. Often his world view clashes with random people on the street, who have reflected less on issues than him. Here, they happen to align.

So yes, your typical health care company is somewhere between a slum lord and a peddler of CSAM, morally speaking. All the jokes about 'unfortunately, my thoughts and prayers were not pre-authed' and system coverage are totally on point.

I would think that "depose" was reference to the common meaning of the term: "to remove from a throne or other high position". Thus "Delay, Deny, Defend" is followed up with "Deny, Defend.... Depose". Sort of a "sic semper tyrannis" for the modern age.

It's also very possible there was a fourth bullet in the gun labeled "Delay" that jammed or otherwise wasn't fired.

Or maybe omission of it was meant as a message of no longer delaying the "depose" part.

The killer left behind bullet casings, which was at first viewed as “oh, this was an amateur – what kind of professional doesn’t police their brass?”

The focus on collecting brass has always seemed odd to me, especially for a professional (not saying this was) hit. Who cares if you leave brass? In a "professional" hit I would think the gun would be untraceable from the start and then the gun is going to be disappeared. It's trivially easy to get untraceable ammunition.

Billionaires et. al. can afford private security, but there's been a recent movement attacking small business owners as the "petit bourgeois," who are less likely to be able to afford that kind of stuff. Those grievances are likely more local, though, and less likely to make the news. Local level "activism" doesn't generate attention, so maybe it's less of a concern. Idk.

I know nothing about this recent movement, but it reminds me of dekulakization in the USSR roughly a century ago, which led to some pretty bad results for almost everyone involved, so, at first blush, I hope this movement dies a quick death.

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