“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.”, said someone who will do absolutely nothing about it.
“I have to wonder if the demonization of corporate America and the wealthy over the last four years planted a mind virus in the assassin’s mind.”
Plot twist: the virus was avtually the billionaires
This has gotta be Elon Musk, right? Nobody else is using that stupid phrase, right? RIGHT?
You’re out of touch with billionaire culture if you think Elon is the only one who thinks this way.
"…
We are quoting anonymously those who did respond, to allow them the freedom to give us their most candid answers. These have been edited for length and clarity. Some have previously been reported by Fortune.
**Personal responses to the killing **
— “The disconnect between public perception and personal humanity has been striking, with some commentary bordering on dehumanizing. This highlights the critical need to humanize leadership and address the pressures faced in high-visibility roles.”
— “My challenge is keeping employees engaged. How do you maintain a sense of purpose if you think your customers hate you?”
— “I have to wonder if the demonization of corporate America and the wealthy over the last four years planted a mind virus in the assassin’s mind.”
— “If you walk by the place where it happened, it’s business as usual, which gives me some perspective. This was a random killing by a mentally ill person. Let’s not turn a tragic incident into a trend. Most people don’t hate CEOs. They don’t care about CEOs. They have bigger issues to care about.”
…"
Wow. ‘demonization’, ‘need to humanize leadership’… Are these human people that were interviewed? Did these human persons speak anyone outside their immediate circle in the last three decades? I can hardly believe that, this is so out of touch that these folk may have never been touched by anything in their lives. I wasn’t prepared for this speedrun worldrecord to definitively prove total lack of empathy and understanding.
Did these human persons speak anyone outside their immediate circle in the last three decades?
After late 90s and early 00s it seems that this has become rare.
First “speaking outside your immediate circle” has moved into interwebs. Second the interwebs have changed to no longer inconvenience those who don’t want to see contradicting worldviews.
Just saying. CEOs are, of course, more isolated than many people. But their delusions are not unique by any measure.
The limit of 4 years is what’s making me laugh.
Because of course everything is tied to who the president is, in their mind. Democrats bad for business, mmm-kay?
The woke mind virus lmao
Most people don’t hate CEOs. They don’t care about CEOs. They have bigger issues to care about [that the CEOs created for them to distract them].
In this current discussion, people are trying to open each others eyes about that silent part.
Also: Most people don’t hate CEOs. But we do think CEOs have no right to be making more than a thousand times what an honest working person should make, actually sacrificing lives for their profit. And when that kind of stealing and mass murder is sanctioned by the law, then what are the options?
I think its possible most people hate CEOs. Sort of like hating politicians, surely theres some good ones but on the whole, awful people.
If most people hated CEOs, that would mean most people were capable of hating, which means we’re even more fucked in this world than I thought we were. I don’t hate. I see that some people are a threat to society and need to be kept from harming the latter - but I recognize that for people to be capable of atrocities, something in their brain development has gone terribly wrong at some point in the past. So I don’t hate them, in the same way I don’t hate a virus that kills people - while still recognizing the need for a cure / vaccine.
Hate is just an emotion. Emotions aren’t permanent, they are tied to moments. Surely theres situations you can think of that would at least cause a fleeting sensation of hate. Everyone has to deal with their emotions and thoughts, and we dont always get to pick which emotions and thoughts present themselves.
The only expectation we should have is that people at least try to improve their reactions to thoughts and emotions they would rather not have.
I dont believe for a second you are truly without hate all the time, thats not possible.
I dont believe for a second you are truly without hate all the time, thats not possible.
Well luckily I am not bound by what you believe :) I - figuratively - hate financial / economical / political systems - and I might occasionally say “I hate that <person>”, only to correct myself right after with “no, I despise them”. But I don’t feel hate towards anyone. Because hate ruins my own day and our time on this planet is too precious for that. Especially - why would I give any asshole free real estate in my mind by preoccupying myself with them when they clearly do not deserve the attention?
I’m saying that moment before you correct yourself, you do feel hate. You choose to disregard hate, thats not the same as not having it at all. Similar to disregarding pain vs not feeling it at all.
Not even then. I correct myself because “I hate xy” is a figure of speech that I wrongly use.
Awww poor billionaires. So sad.
Good. Money can’t buy happiness and if they try, we need to take their happiness. Billionaires already have everything, they don’t need peace of mind.
“Journalists look for heroes and villains; life is not that simple. Why is the killer getting 10 times as much press as the person who was killed?”
I agree with the last part of this quote, but probably not in the same way they wanted.
Why aren’t we hearing more about the policies the CEO supported that caused so much pain and suffering?
Why did I have to learn about them having double the industry-standard claims denial rate through a meme and not through news articles everywhere?
Why am I not seeing more articles about how much money these people made by denying coverage? Why am I not seeing articles about their political contributions to keep healthcare privatized?
One part of the response is that since the 80s, the media were financialized. One consequence is that the media quality dropped and medias reports go in the way of the finance.
You know why, we all know why. Modern corporate journalists are more narrative drivers than journalists. They attempt to control the talking pints and conversation, and steer clear of anything that would promote asking the right questions.
Because if they show all that shit, then they’re going to be agreeing with everyone else…and won’t be able to pull a “why did this happen” routine
I can’t get inside the head of any of the crazies who go on a rampage and shoot up a school or a house of worship, but it gives me comfort to think that such people now know that if they shoot a CEO instead of a classroom full of children they will be regarded as having made a positive contribution to society. I really hope school shootings will go down after this, and I think they may well.
This was at the end of the article Forbes presented me with:
Do you have what it takes to make it to the C-suite? Learn how Fortune 500 CEOs overcame surprising obstacles on the road to the corner office…
I don’t want to make it to the C-suite. That sounds awful. I want to help specific people solve problems they have helping other people.
Do other people think like this? Like they want a corner office and a big car? Am I that fucking abnormal that this sounds like a death sentence to me?
“suprising obstacles” lol as soon as it gets hard these fuckers just fuck off to a new ceo position at a different company.
And the only thing hard about being ceo is making decisions that suck for your own employees like cutting back homeoffice or fire/rehire and not have a bad conscience. But since these fuckers dont have any moral or loyalality anyways it isnt hard for them at all.
They’re calvinists believing: the greater the wealth, the greater the morality. Taking it to its extremes is the point as is the cruel structural violence.
People who read Forbes do.
I think large parts of humanity still desires enormous amount of money and are willing to spend their lives focusing on it.
It’s because money gives what people actually want - safety, respect, admiration, power, freedom etc.
Lemmy tends to have skewed perception of such things. Truth is, most people want money. As much as possible in as short time as possible. There’s a multitude of reasons, from wanting a luxurious life, to simply wanting to not have to worry about the money or to retire early, but pretty much everyone wants money. Look at how many folk join the lottery.
Hell, most of Lemmy wants student debt to be forgotten. That’s gaining money, just in reverse order. Same with distributed wealth etc.
World spins around money, no matter how you look at it.
But sure as hell I wouldn’t like to be in a place I hate to earn it. :/
Of those people who want more money to afford a comfortable life, it is much more rare to be mentally ill enough to want to be a billionaire and that is what is being discussed here really.
And on the topic of wanting more money to afford a comfortable life, that mostly exists also because achieving this comfortable and fear free life is made more harder by these billionaires who view services which should be basic social rights as sectors that they can squeeze money out of.
Wanting to be billionaire is not to be mentally ill. Who doesn’t like power without responsibility? Whatever moral framework you’ve got, most folk wouldn’t subscribe to when given option to be billionaire. Sorry, but that’s reality - power makes people drunk, and it’s only natural for us to want power - power to make our families and friends live better, to make people we despise grovel, to have all we want. It takes discipline and ideals to veer off into helping everyone.
And I agree with the lofe being made harder being the reason, but it doesn’t really apply to original comment I replied to.
sociopaths and children is who. have you ever been in charge of something important? something that actually matters to a number of people? if it turns into a power trip you need to grow the fuck up. it should be a humbling experience, that many people are relying on you take care of them in one way or another.
and to make people you don’t like ‘grovel’ is just maintaining a cycle of violence.
Truth is, most people want money. As much as possible in a
It’s not unreasonable to aspire to not having money worries, the stess of it is literally a medical issue eg not having to worry about meeting mortgae or rent payments, a mechanical breakdown on a car, or paying for a dental emergency, a broken limb, or buying a new pair of shoes, replacing your laptop etc.
Much past that is based on envy and that’s where it becomes toxic with wealth inequality. It’s human nature to feel envy, you can fight it but its inate in all humans, the ONLY solution is to recognise that and to remove it by removal of inequality. The inevitable end result of not doing that is the guillotine, social instability, or in this case a bullet.
However… :) theres a whole other issue of the people in the first paragraph, who see themselves as the “everyday volk”, being incredibly unequal to the other 90% of the world. So there’s an irony there that they need to use force to preserve thier own status quo, much like the C-suite rely on force to protect their status quo (police, army etc) . You see this play out in anti immigrant and refugee hostility, build a wall etc
I don’t want that. I want enough to live my life and nothing extravagant.
Do you have what it takes which is also known as inherited wealth
Every time I get a promotion I’ve had more and more distance between me and doing the actual work I get paid a lot more but I hate it. I have very little job satisfaction because the time scale of the things I’m working on has gone from days to months. Most of the time I just feel like I’m getting nothing done and it’s incredibly frustrating.
You guys are getting promotions?
Actually a lot of “normal” people do want that.
And many even not very “normal” people may easily lose their mind thinking they have the opportunity to become powerful.
Maybe I’m more spider than man but with great power comes great responsibility and I recognize I’m not mature enough for that.
Yes, but you are not in a situation where you can have that great power and can’t be certain until then.
I’ve had a small amount of power and the responsibilities were enough that I never want any power again.
Well, corporate America is made up of hardworking Americans who do their best to reward the investors, and many times those investors are pension funds
Ah yes, every day I wake up to go to work just to do my best to reward the investors. Not because I need to pay for living expenses, just because I love pleasing the investors.
JFC these people are living in a fantasy world.
It’s fortune magazine, so yeah they’re full-on delusional in their pandering to “business leaders.”
The biggest fear is that the hatred expressed in social media posts about Thompson—and glorification of 26-year-old shooting suspect Luigi Mangione—will lead to copycat attacks, says Bill George, a former Medtronic CEO and executive fellow at Harvard Business School. “People are in disbelief that they would be making this kid into a hero,” he told Fortune.
Fortune reached out to dozens of CEOs this week to get a sense of how they’re reacting to this moment. The majority declined to comment. We are quoting anonymously those who did respond, to allow them the freedom to give us their most candid answers. These have been edited for length and clarity. Some have previously been reported by Fortune.
— “The disconnect between public perception and personal humanity has been striking, with some commentary bordering on dehumanizing. This highlights the critical need to humanize leadership and address the pressures faced in high-visibility roles.”
— “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.”
— “I think we’re living through very seriously dangerous times where we’re normalizing antisocial behavior and normalizing violence on both extremes—on the far right, and on the far left. We basically moved, over the last 10 to 12 years, to a world that I don’t recognize. It’s very scary … I do understand that there’s enormous amounts of injustice and that we need to bring everybody along, and there’s a lot of things that we do, but I don’t think revolution is the answer to solving problems.” (a former CEO)
The biggest fear is that the hatred expressed in social media posts about Thompson—and glorification of 26-year-old shooting suspect Luigi Mangione—will lead to copycat attacks
I don’t think revolution is the answer to solving problems
It’s easy to say that when you’re not living out of a shelter while working full-time.
It’s also easy to say that when you’re the living embodiment of the luxury and excess of the establishment/status quo.
Like… dude…of course you don’t want to see revolution… every single fucking element of the system tilts not only in your favor but also in favor of perpetuating and furthering your absolute stranglehold on wealth, power, security, etc.
The more interesting answer would be to the question: if, as a society, we became so united in our acceptance of this that it literally became commonplace for CEOs to get whacked and then for juries to nullify the charges and for the killer to walk free…and it was happening dozens of times every year, or month…
…would you support a revolution to change the status quo that was literally killing people like you with zero repercussions?
If not, you’re an absolute idiot, or you’re actually on our side in this.
If yes, then you know damn well what’s going on and, shocker, you’re playing dumb for a cheap attempt at sympathy.
People are in disbelief that they would be making this kid into a hero
Last time I checked, he was a full grown 26 year old man who made his own decisions, not a “kid.”
“critical need to humanise leadership”
What about humanising your customer base? Humanising employees?
Yeah, I mean the quotes I pulled were the most self-aware wolves nonsense in the article, but the rest were basically either “we need more security” or “oh no the poors are onto us”.
I’ve never met a CEO or member of the ultra-wealthy that wasn’t either a sociopath, narcissist, or completely detached from reality. I’ve only met about a dozen of those kinds of folks but they all had that same vibe.
Are you surprised?
To get ultra wealthy, you have to go over corpses and be radical and very detached from reality AND your own humanity and humility. Because if you’re not, you’ll stop yourself and give back eventually.
It’s more nuanced than that. At least from the small section of that population I’ve interacted with it seems like there is very little malice in their actions. They don’t care and/or don’t understand the impact of their choices.
I had the misfortune of having to sit through a couple meetings with the First Buddy (when a company he owned contracted one I worked for) and he is the only exception I’ve encountered. He struck me as actively hostile as if he viewed everyone around him who wasn’t agreeing with him as threats to be immediately and definitively dealt with.
I’d suggest that the dragons of the world come in many colors and alignments.
Not at all surprised. Just gobsmacked by how far they have their heads up their arses.
Edit: The only benevolent CEOs I’ve met have retired early and given their wealth away so that they have just enough to live out the rest of their lives in peace.
The rest are greedy narcissists and are extremely selfish, believe that being poor is a choice and love the thrill of taking advantage of people.
Its the same reality as before except they realize how close they are to the edge separating the game where they abuse us from the part where they don’t get to play the game.
All of us play the game daily…go to work, do some good stuff, come home, eat, sleep. The good stuff. Why do we get so little and they get so much?
There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you’re all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.
Selina Kyle
Gleefully looking forward to the US not learning anything from this and moving on to the next gotcha moment! Seriously, the ship’s slowly sinking and I’m buying stock in popcorn and booze.
“Our industry is built around devaluing human life for profit. Why aren’t these people valuing our lives?”
It’s like a sketch comedy show. They can’t be this dumb.
It is a comedy routine, and they aren’t dumb, but blind. They see most humans as worthless animals. They could not give a fuck what happens to you, because your existence is irrelevant to their lives.
If you walk by the place where it happened, it’s business as usual, which gives me some perspective. This was a random killing by a mentally ill person. Let’s not turn a tragic incident into a trend. Most people don’t hate CEOs. They don’t care about CEOs. They have bigger issues to care about
I hope this guy gets it next. How fucking out of touch can you be that you dismiss this as “a mentally ill person doing mentally ill things”? What a fucking loser!
It’s insulting toward, what I believe to be, a plurality of the population. Luigi was a gift of a wake-up call. They’d do well to listen. Though, only government could really remedy the situation, and that’s not likely to happen. So we lurch forward toward instability. The powers at be seem more intent on transfixing the masses with fictions, distractions, and eventually: war.
I love the last line. They do indeed, like how to pay for chemotherapy treatment after their claim got denied.
I’d like to see one of these publications post recipes for CEO stew.
