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Less than two weeks after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on the streets of midtown Manhattan, his alleged assassin Luigi Mangione has been greeted not by universal condemnation for the brazen violence -- but rather, a surge of enthusiastic support online for his so-called vigilante justice.

The Center for Internet Security (CIS), a nonprofit focused on cybersecurity that partners with government and law enforcement, released a new threat assessment bulletin warning that online support for the alleged shooter risks encouraging copycat attacks.

"Overwhelming bipartisan support for the attack" across social media "has resulted in several narratives encouraging similar violent activities directed at other healthcare executive teams," CIS analysts said.

"The narratives supporting Mangione's targeted attack likely serve to encourage like-minded individuals, particularly as Mangione continues to be viewed by the public as an 'American hero' and sympathetic figure," CIS' bulletin said.

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[-] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 223 points 1 week ago

No one attacked law enforcement for this thought. They are just fear mongering the police so they will want to protect the rich more.

[-] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 103 points 1 week ago

That and make it sound like those supporting him are dangerous.

[-] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 48 points 1 week ago

If cops start acting like bodyguards for rich people, they will for the next one.

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 56 points 1 week ago

you act like they haven't for decades

[-] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 15 points 1 week ago

No, i mean like literally bodyguarding, not just doing what they're told.

[-] Arbiter@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago
[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

He (Luigi) literally went out of his way to praise law enforcement in his statement. So yeah, this is all just bullshit, and it's bad for ya.

[-] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago

We did and are mocking them for the amount of attention and resources the murder is getting solely due to the wealth of the target.

[-] Drusas@fedia.io 11 points 1 week ago

I'd say "pissed at" more than "mocking".

[-] archonet@lemy.lol 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Tells you a lot about why some departments won't accept cops over a certain IQ. You don't want your enforcers questioning who they should be working for. You want easily manipulable peons.

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[-] 2pt_perversion@lemmy.world 133 points 1 week ago

I haven't seen anyone encouraging or even so much as hinting that a copycat should target police or courts. Feels like something made up to try to drive a wedge between the bipartisan support by splintering off "back the blue" type of people.

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[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 87 points 1 week ago

Let's compare:

Osama Bin Ladin/Brian Robert Thompson

Number killed by own hands: 0/0

Number killed through orders to underlings: ~3,000/~51,000

Reason for killings: religious and geopolitical reasons/profit motive

Cause of death: execution by gunshot/execution by gunshot

Date of trial for killings: N/A / N/A

Date of issue of death sentence for killings: N/A / N/A

Response to killing: celebration by US president on national TV, celebration by commoners and elites / celebration by commoners, condemnation by elite.

Consequence to assassins for extra-judicial slaying: national praise / indicted for 2nd degree murder

Race and class: weird Arab guy in traditional garb / rich white man in a a suit

[-] Tithen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 week ago

Where does the 51,000 figure come from?

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 115 points 1 week ago

About 68,000 Americans die each year from improper denials of necessary care. With UHC's share of the private health insurance market and higher than average denial of claims, a conservative figure is 40 UHC customers per day dying from denial of care. Brian Robert Thompson served as the CEO of UHC for approximately 3.5 years. That comes to about 51,000 people dead at the hands of Brian Robert Thompson.

Is it fair to pin all of UHC's murders on one man? Maybe not. But he gleefully took credit for the record profits that came from UHC's soaring denial rates. He earned an obscene salary and bonuses from the record profits that those deaths produced. He took credit for all the consequences of these deaths; it is entirely reasonable to hold him morally culpable for them.

Make no mistake. Brian Robert Thompson killed approximately 51,000 people, or about 17 times as many people as Osama Bin Ladin. Brian Robert Thompson suffered for seconds. Osama Bin Ladin's victims suffered for about an hour. Brian Robert Thompson's victims suffered for months to years. And this is just deaths, not those who suffered injury, debilitation, or bankruptcy at Brian Robert Thompson's hands.

[-] nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 week ago

Thank you. I have been very interested in a number of attributable deaths, and the comparison is an added bonus

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago

I would say "my pleasure," but this brings me none. It's not a perfect estimate, but it is a reasonable first order one. The real number is likely somewhere between 30k and 70k. But really, at this scale, the numbers lose all meaning.

Luigi Mangione did not have the right to serve as Thompon's one man judge, jury, and executioner. But make no mistake, according to all available evidence, Brian Robert Thompson was a mass murderer an order of magnitude worse than Osama Bin Ladin. When he hit the pavement on that New York morning, he did not stop falling. He kept falling, and falling, and falling. Right into the Pit of Hell itself. If there is a Hell behind this mortal realm, he is almost certainly burning there right now.

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[-] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 week ago

Many thanks for bringing to light these facts and comparisons.

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[-] Alteon@lemmy.world 69 points 1 week ago

Oh, lol.....they think people are only going to target other healthcare CEO's? That's fucking adorable.

[-] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

Hoping our boi Luigi set the stage for a revolution to finally start. Idk what I can do to fight the good fight other than to continue to be loud about all this shit.

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[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 67 points 1 week ago

Complete bullshit obviously...

But the fact they're worried about it says A LOT about how they view themselves compared to a piece of shit responsible for millions of deaths from denied healthcare.

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

I keep running through the difference between the reaction to this vs elementary school kids dying to gun violence. It's one CEO and everything in the media has galvanized to unite around a singular message of horrible violence. Hundreds of children have died and nothing changed. It's fucking infuriating.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 65 points 1 week ago

CIS assessed it "highly likely that threats will continue to target [law enforcement] and other public offices participating in Mangione's case."

Translation: South Park they're coming right for us, FIRE

[-] MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 26 points 1 week ago

It worked for Rittenhouse 🫥

[-] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 64 points 1 week ago

Oh come off it already.
Yeah we all agree shooting people is wrong.
But just about everyone in the general public more or less agrees Thompson had it coming. We've all dealt with scummy insurance companies.
Playing up the threat at this point seems like an obvious psyop. And it's not even being done well.

That I've seen, nobody, anywhere, at all, has suggested targeting police or courts. This has been solely framed as a class war between the rank and file citizens of the nation and a very small number (10-25) of CEOs whose companies destroy lives every day. There is no anger with cops or the courts.

[-] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago

lol, your last sentence is right off the cliff.

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[-] Nosavingthrow@lemmy.world 60 points 1 week ago

God, the police are so fucking coddled. "This shit that has nothing to do with police? A threat to police." Anytbing to direct more funding to these fucking babies.

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[-] distantsounds@lemmy.world 59 points 1 week ago
[-] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 week ago

It's bastards, all the way up. Never forget.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

I think we should crowdfund an art project. Specifically, just to send a message, we should erect a big bronze statue of Luigi Mangione. Put it on a main road close to UHC's headquarters in Minnesota. Make the bastards drive right past the thing every day on the way to work.

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Welp, its officially in. Anyone who sympathizes with Luigi is officially deemed a terrorist.

Soon, some senator will announce that he/she has a list of suspected ~~communists~~ terrorists who sympathize with Luigi Mangione. This will the know as the ~~Red Scare~~ Green Scare. Mentioning the term "Green Mario" would be a death sentence.

Super Mario Bros will be deemed as terrorist propaganda, and any related media would be confiscated. There would be no-knock searches carried out across the nation, many will be shot in the process.

If you are reading this, your are already on their list. If you are reading this, you are the resistance...

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[-] BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 49 points 1 week ago

The media don't know how to deal with people not caring that the CEO of a parasitic company is dead, so now they resort to fear mongering?

Just because people are not showing outpourings of grief for the death of a CEO doesn't mean people are endorsing violence. Luigi Mangione is in custody and will likely go to prison; being sympathetic to his story does not mean endorsing his behaviour. This is a complex and multifaceted story and people are allowed complex and multifaceted responses.

[-] orcrist@lemm.ee 42 points 1 week ago

God the police are so pathetically paranoid.

[-] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Literally shooting at acorns falling from a tree

[-] beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 week ago

“Waaah a dog barked at me” then they shoot the dog

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[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 40 points 1 week ago

I mean, remember defund the police?

That movement fully targeted cops.

This one is targeting the ruling class, and cops are worried.

It’s like that moment when you criticize a bad thing (like selfishness) and out of nowhere someone gets offended; they are basically telling on themselves.

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[-] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago

Mainstream media playbook 101. When your narrative isn't taking hold lean on fear mongering.

[-] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 33 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

the police have a training traveling school called Killology and refer to themselves as "killologist."

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[-] beliquititious@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 1 week ago

In Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Mangione was captured on Monday, local police told ABC News they also faced threats and negative blowback for arresting the suspect, as did the McDonald's where he was arrested.

CIS assessed it "highly likely that threats will continue to target [law enforcement] and other public offices participating in Mangione's case."

This is just sloppy reporting. CIS says cops and other officials will receive more threats, not that they will be in more danger. But it's 2024 and ABC is a major news outlet that depends on keeping the government and (especially) His Majesty happy to keep their ota broadcast license.

This reeks of propaganda trying to sway the "blue liners" away from support for the coming class war. It makes sense. The "cop feelings > children lives" set are violently stupid and (usually) well armed.

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 week ago

Gotta give it to corpo news and pigs: They got class conscience.

[-] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Cops think they're rich now? Or that their masters will do anything other than use them as grunts in the class war? Cops are working class just like most people, they're just class traitors.

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[-] Allonzee@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It would be both sad and pointless if people targeted the owner's capital defense force thugs (police) and bribed middle managers (judges/politicians).

That would muddy the waters needlessly and further the cause of the owner class of keeping us at each other's throats.

Our oligarchs whole thing is keeping us hostile towards one another. They don't care who kills who, kids killing kids, cops killing poor, poor killing cops/judges/politicians, all livestock killing livestock to them, big woop. They only freak out when someone they consider a person is killed, there's only 1 metric that determines that for them, and even most of their bought politicians don't qualify on net worth.

[-] SpaceBishop@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 week ago

"Overwhelming bipartisan support for the attack" across social media "has resulted in several narratives encouraging similar violent activities directed at other healthcare executive teams,"

This assessment has got it all wrong. People don't want further acts of violence against healthcare executive teams. Or, I should say, not just healthcare executive teams. That thinking is far too narrow.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 19 points 1 week ago

That's why they're all trying to reframe this story so hard. They're worried a sentiment like this will wake people up to how many other executives are sociopathic murderers.

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[-] KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 week ago

Haven't judges in general been extremely gentle with prosecutions involving Trump because of inordinate numbers of threats made to judges? And yet there's no effort made to stop it? And somehow, this represents an existential threat to the courts?

[-] sumguyonline@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

Police "investigate" citizens and it's fine, but we are targeting cops when we investigate them.

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[-] CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago

I don't see any reason to limit it to healthcare executives.

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[-] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

The Center for Internet Security (CIS), a nonprofit focused on cybersecurity that partners with government and law enforcement,

They're trying to sell their services by making shit up.

[-] ThatsTheSpirit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 week ago

Behind enemy lines folks

[-] x0chi@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

I wonder how many Luigis the 2nd trump presidency will create. I hope a lot. Call me whatever you want.....

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[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Is Hans finally figuring out that he might be the baddie...?

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this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2024
468 points (93.8% liked)

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