It deserves emphasis that the writer of the manifesto was raised in a wealthy family whose Italian immigrant founder (his grandfather) made his fortune off of managed care facilities, then real estate, country clubs, & conservative radio. His sister is a doctor. Their family has an obstetrics wing in a Baltimore hospital named after them, because they've given so much $. He volunteered at his family's nursing home. He's familiar with this business. His cousin headed Trump's MD election fund.

From NYT piece this morning: "The family also owned the radio station WCBM, which airs politically conservative programs…cousin, Nino Mangione, is a [GOP politician & chaired Trump election fund]…

“It is just such a… prominent family within Baltimore County,”

…high school at the prestigious Gilman School in Baltimore…valedictorian of his graduating class…

particularly smart — perhaps the smartest [at Gilman] social, friendly & never particularly political"

The other thing that deserves emphasis - though I don't know whether the manifesto writer was aware or not - is that the #UnitedHealth CEO was being investigated by the FBI both for UHC monopoly/antitrust violations, & his own apparent stock market fraud/insider trading in response to that FBI probe. Personal profit.

$102m in offloaded stock by UHC c-suite when such trades ought to have been frozen.

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-care/unitedhealth-chair-execs-sold-102m-stock-doj-probe-became-public

"UnitedHealth Shares Fell After DOJ Probe Became Public: Chair sold stock before investigation was revealed"

UHC was notified of DOJ's antitrust probe in early Oct 2023
Oct 13: Q3 report
Oct 16, unusual sales made by high-level UH executives
Oct 17, UH Chair sold an unusually large number of shares for $46m profit

Feb 15, CEO Thompson made a large sale - his only one, ever - right before news of FBI's probe of UHC made public on Feb 27 sharp losses
UHC down 15% since, vs DJIA's 8% rise.

DOJ probe was "reviewing whether #UnitedHealth’s acquisitions have consolidated its position in some markets in a way that violates antitrust laws…[DOJ] has reportedly been looking at potential monopolies in the managed-care industry since at least mid-2023."

"Typically a company’s general counsel would declare a blackout period barring trading in light of a sensitive investigation, according to John C. Coffee Jr., a corporate governance expert at Columbia Law School.

UHC didn't do that.

But I guess none of these multi-millionaire FBI suspects were Black children wearing hoodies or carrying Skittles, so even though they actually deserve to have their potentially criminal activities scrutinized in the public eye for months on end, we will probably instead be treated to endlessly empathetic media junk-food treatments by wealthy white pundits who focus on the suffering of their family members.

This moment is interesting to me.

It's a little like a scan that uses contrast dye to help clarify internal function of body systems. Some people are willing to show their immoral beliefs that help our sick system function: i.e., that some of us (most!) are marked for violence, & in their eyes, our deaths are pre-approved, unremarkable.

But a few big men are special, set aside as privileged from violence. Their deaths are un-acceptable, to be noisily declared unfair. Worthy of social insurance

For some people, literally anything is accepted to justify or excuse their murder, & offer a helping hand to their killer: a hoodie is suspicious, Skittles could have looked like a gun to the right-wing murderer.

For others, literally nothing is accepted to excuse their murder: e.g., profiting personally from a position of power & responsibility which the CEO used to intentionally cause his company's paying customers to die.

OK.

It's useful to have diagnostic tests.

So, I guess what I’m saying is: Whatever is motivating the armchair moralizer scolds, it isn’t nonviolence.

And, one thing that you & I can do, right now, is to really look at the people who are making excuses for the vast majority of the killing. In this case, any fair reading of reality demonstrates that the United CEO, and his collaborators are killing way more of us. They make choices to kill their own paying customers, so that they make themselves & their families into multimillionaires.

We are responsible for the media diet we’re consuming. Imo this dye test shows who’s clogging our arteries.