[userabchn]

I wonder whether the murder, and the immediate strong social media reaction supporting it, were part of a foreign influence operation. Normalising the idea that murdering a CEO makes you a hero and that a large percentage of the population would react to a murder with a laughing emoji will be effective means of furthering division.

[uhtred]

I don't buy it. I think people are tired of the current system. Seeing loved ones suffer because of lack of healthcare.

For me the irony is that this has brought people from both sides of the political divide together, yet the people on the right just voted for a guy that will make society even more unfair.

Perhaps the next four years will be a true reckoning. The darkest moments before the dawn of a new era. The rise of Bernie 2.0, half man half machine, an efficient anti-drilling machine.

[genter]

I don't have my hopes up. The only thing he accomplished in his first presidency (of which Republicans controlled the House and Senate for half off) was a huge tax cut for Wall Street, yet he was elected again.

[zelias]

Both things can be true. It would make sense for a foreign adversary to exploit the feelings of discontent produced by very obvious, very omnipresent shortcomings in the system.

[snowwrestler]

Foreign influence ops work like throwing seeds on the ground. They only grow when they find the right conditions.

The answer to such operations is not to just point at everything bad and divisive and say “might be foreign influence!” Of course, it might be. Or might not! Who knows. Guesses are not really actionable or influential. And without hard proof, over time it sounds like crying wolf.

The sustainable defense is to address the ground conditions themselves. People are pissed about health care and wealth inequality—separately and together. That’s not something a foreign country did to the U.S.

[itishappy]

Doesn't really pass Occam's razor. It might be foreign influence. It might be aliens. It might be people are genuinely upset with an insurance company and/or it's CEO.

[perrygeo]

A means of furthering division? I've seen nothing but barely-constrained glee from liberals, conservatives, progressives and MAGA folks. This seems to be one issue we can all agree on.

America does not want for-profit insurance interfering in their medical care. The insurance companies are do-nothing middle men who will stop at nothing (including mass murder by systematically denying medical care) to extract value for their shareholders. It's disgusting and morally corrupt - yet they have the government in their pocket and are effectively immune from the law. Hell, they largely make their own laws.

This event was America's reaction to the situation - things have gotten so hopeless that vigilante justice is widely seen as the only option.

[sitzpinkler]

The purpose of this attack was to normalize vigilante murder (and, as you say, the target was well chosen to achieve that). The division and societal breakdown come later when vigilante actions become more common.