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268 points
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People are in disbelief that they would be making this kid into a hero,” he told Fortune.

Attending a conference for CEOs in New York this week, just blocks away from the site of the shooting, George found that many were shaken and deeply concerned by the reaction to Thompson’s killing. “They’re having plenty of meetings right now to discuss beefing up security,” he said of the business leaders, even as some question how much security coverage is enough. People are asking themselves, “‘What does that say about our society? Where’s our society going?’” George said.

So they’ve learned absolutely nothing.

Plenty of meetings to beef up security. How about plenty of meetings to understand how your greed has caused this? They sound one logical leap (that they are unwilling to make) away from understanding exactly what the problem is.

They managed to find one and only one CEO quote that reflected anything resembling self-awareness.

“When I was growing up, CEOs didn’t make millions more than everyone else in the company. I think we have to reflect on why there’s so much anger and do something about it.”

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16 points

Well they did learn one thing though

They finally learned how it is to be a high schooler, having to live under constant fear of murder. I can’t wait to watch C level execs having tondo active shooter drills where they have tonhude under bullet proof blankets.

Mind you, murder is bad, and this murder on this CEO was bad, no matter how you turn it. I don’t want to live in a world where murdering eachother is the only conversation left.

Having said that, it is very gratifying to finally see these out of touch assholes having to suffer the same fear as all little kids in America

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27 points
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Great points!

Mind you, murder is bad

Yes for sure.

and this murder on this CEO was bad, no matter how you turn it.

I don’t want to live in a world where murdering eachother is the only conversation left.

Me neither. Let’s see if they are ready for any other kind of conversation now. OP makes me think they aren’t. Let’s not forget this murder happened because of all the other murders.

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-3 points

Yeah, you missed the point

Teo wrongs do not make a right. The murder of this CEO was still murder. This CEO indirectly murdered thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands and caused untold suffering. He was also apparently already on the hook for tax fraud and insider trading IIRC hearing in a news report earlier this week. He was a horrible man who should spend the remainder of his years behind bars.

That, unfortunately, is not the world we live in and I fully understand why he was shot. That doesn’t make it right, though. I don’t want to live in a world where you can be murdered without judges and juries and due process. We live in a civil society and that means that if you want it done right, everyone deserves a fair trial, even rapists, murderers or criminal CEO’s.

Yeah, I know that the US has a big issue with the justice system being damn near bullshit at this point, still doesn’t make anarchistic vigilante murdering an “okay” thing.

Do you want to live in a move civil society where everyone is treated equal, or do you prefer to live in a post civil society where it’s each for their own and we just murder those that we have a conflict with?

This murder of the CEO, as much as I understand it, is a step in the wrong direction. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the catalyst that will push society in the right direction and the US justice system will be overhauled and made fair for everyone and maybe the government will institute laws that will restrict what companies can do to make it fair for everyone… Doubtful, but maybe. Either way, it still is a step in the wrong direction and I do worry that the US is sliding off into a hellhole it will never be able to dig it self out of. This trump shit will inevitably make it easier for a few to abuse the rest. The few will control the news and narrative, and blame the leftz the immigrants, and at some point more on the left will start fighting instead of talking. Once the scale tips, there is no tipping back. Ask Yugoslavia how well that worked out for them. Oh yeah, millions of deaths later, it no longer exists.

How is that for a kind of conversation?

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19 points

Same for stealing.

A company steals millions from their employees? Silence.

A guy stealing from Walmart? Police force everywhere.

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52 points

Because CEOs are a symptom.

The problem is our investment economy that focuses only on the stock prices continually going up. It’s literally an unsustainable system.

If a CEO puts their personal safety over the investors, the company gets a new CEO.

They’re not the one really making the worst decisions, they’re the ones who agreed to take a shitton of money to be the face of the company and take all the blame.

CEOs don’t get paid for the work they do, they get paid to be the fall guy.

Still absolutely shit people who deserve zero sympathy, but they’re not the real problem, just a symptom

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2 points

I don’t always agree with what you post, but you’re spot on here.

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9 points

Yep, we have a word for continual uninhibited growth - it’s called cancer.

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16 points

If a CEO puts their personal safety over the investors, the company gets a new CEO.

How many times will they be willing to get a new CEO before they make changes? How many times will someone accept promotion into that position? I wouldn’t take Brian Thompson’s job for any amount of money right now, would you?

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16 points

How many times will someone accept promotion into that position? I wouldn’t take Brian Thompson’s job for any amount of money right now, would you?

I absolutely would take the job. I’d do it for a $1 salary even. I would have the power to make sure claims were approved, lower premiums on users, and call out the inequity of private healthcare from the top of the ivory tower. I’d be fired, but not before I was able to make some good happen.

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6 points

How many times will they be willing to get a new CEO before they make changes

They’d do it on the daily if it makes them more money…

What do you think a CEO actually does?

They listen to what high level management says is best, and then just does whatever brings the stock price up fastet disregarding everything else.

There’s a reason they all get golden parachutes. None of them care past the last board meeting

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45 points

The problem is our investment economy that focuses only on the stock prices continually going up. It’s literally an unsustainable system.

Yup, this is the problem right here. Investments are supposed to generate returns, that’s the whole point. But Milton Friedman and Jack Welch decided that the sole mission of any company was to increase shareholder value, and the rest of the world rolled with that. So whenever these CEOs point to their Mission and Vision statements, unless they say “Our only priority is delivering returns to our Shareholders”, they are lying.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_value

Economist Milton Friedman introduced the Friedman doctrine in a 1970 essay for The New York Times, entitled “A Friedman Doctrine: The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits”.[5] In it, he argued that a company has no social responsibility to the public or society; its only responsibility is to its shareholders.[6]

Meanwhile, we’ve decided that these corporations are people. Psychopaths who have no moral responsibilities to anyone but their shareholders, but people nonetheless.

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3 points

Exactly. At some point companies need to transition from investment vehicles to institutions

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9 points

Thus our efforts to make social justice a core condition for profits: fuck people over and get a boycott or protests or a label in media as toxic, and lose customers.

It’s not going well, as a strategy. It requires an educated populace.

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41 points

The “what does this say about society” question bugs the shit out of me. It means that our society is sick and tired of being the only rich nation in the world where getting sick or injured will bankrupt you. If these people were truly concerned about the good of society, they’d quit sucking us dry for every dollar that they can and would advocate for a better system.

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18 points

Absolutely. The entire article makes it clear that they don’t even have an inkling of what it’s like to have to worry about your health or how much money you have.

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4 points
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Deleted by creator
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3 points

We live in a society!!

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15 points

It also bugs the shit out of me because how long have children been being murdered in school in a mass shooting epidemic, but now that the rich are being killed that’s what makes them ask this? Our society has been in bad shape for a long time

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10 points

That’s a bridge too far for them, especially with particularly oligarch friendly policies of the incoming US administration.

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4 points

That’s what makes it sooo good, they think they just got the keys to the kingdom but forgot the all the residents can bite back at any time.

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3 points

Elysium

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3 points

Have been thinking about that movie quite a bit since all this went down, but don’t remember it in great detail. Might be worth a rewatch.

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3 points

They literally can’t see the light for all their wealth because they’re calvinists believing: the greater the wealth, the greater the morality.

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167 points
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All I can think of is a TED talk I saw where the speaker had given some presentation to a bunch of billionaires and had some q&a, and one of them who had built a bunker for themselves asked him how they could prevent their security team from turning on them in the bunker.

The TED talk guy responded “Be kind to them?”

And the Billionaire said “But where does that end?”

I’ll try to find it so I can link it.

EDIT: Found it!

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44 points

I’ll try to find it so I can link it.

Oh god please do.

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23 points
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I managed to find what I was thinking of, but it concludes with a totally different line about them than I remembered. I think @neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com is right, and the “where does that end?” quote might be from a segment in a Robert Evans podcast.

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47 points

I’m pretty sure it was the same guy who did the “it could happen here podcast.” Then they were like, can we put shock collars on the security guards. Stuff like that.

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16 points

EDIT: Found it!

Wow, that was actually an extremely insightful conversation. Thank you for going out of your way to share it!

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29 points

I don’t think it was a ted talk, I’m pretty sure it was a seminar put on specifically by the billionaire class asking this guy how best to navigate societal collapse with their vast amount of resources.

This I believe was one of the exchanges at that event.

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8 points

And it’s funny because the answer is build an egalitarian compound where your share of the labor is the funding. That’s it. If the guards see it as how they contribute to a shared community then they’re not going to turn on their boss

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10 points
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You’re right, though I was first introduced to the story from the guy telling it at a TED talk. I phrased it poorly.

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15 points

That video was freakin amazing and insightful!

You should make this it’s own post so more people can spread it

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13 points

The guy is called Douglas Rushkoff and he wrote a book on the subject called “Survival of the Richest: Escape fantasies of the Tech Billionaires”.

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