I'm willing to bet that there were people who mourned Pol pot and Stalin. one of Selassie 's nephews lived in stayton, Oregon. maybe he still does. he was awful. sad about his uncle dying

now the UHC executive is not on par with those monsters and of course his friends and family will mourn him. but being mourned by some is not redemption.

in fact, this is where I think we need to make a distinction between being nice and being good. Brian Thompson sounds like a nice man, according to a 3° of Kevin Bacon connection. he goes to church has many friends. he socializes takes an interest in the community. he's nice

but just because he doesn't kick dogs and goes to church on Sunday and is nice to his neighbors and friends and strangers. does that make him a good man? he was part of the decision-making process that led to 32% of claims being denied. it is impossible for a man who participated in that decision to be a good man.

Good and nice. they're not the same. and yeah some people can be both nice and good but some people can be downright evil and still be nice.

and there can be a huge difference between how someone treats those they personally know and like, and strangers.

Leadership is called that for a reason, they steer the direction and set the tone for the entire company. A company does not get to be that way being led by a "good" or "nice" man (or woman!)

CajsaLilliehook, well put.

and while it's on a smaller scale, i'm reminded of an interaction i had with a "nice" man, who was a church goer, and talked about how "good" he was (and he used his religion as an example), all while he was participating in massive wage theft of his employees and refusing to pay them, or their taxes, properly. he's currently in legal proceedings over that.

i liked him, we were on friendly terms and he seemed like a good guy. we were doing some business together, visited each other's houses, etc. until i had to point out what his company was doing to tell him what he needed to fix, and then it was "i have good intentions" but will not do one thing about fixing it (his wife's a lawyer, whose father's firm

specializes in going after wage theft on behalf of the workers, though for larger companies, so i sort of wonder whether they are still married. obviously we're no longer on speaking terms though)

Allegory: Anyone very into organized religion in a highly verbose way has me on edge, as if it's a way to counterbalance the other cruft in their life. I've met plenty of awesome Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Baha'i, Krishna, etc of course, but somehow they're usually more humble in their ways. Actions speak louder than words and all, I suppose.

Dysfunctionality: amen sister. the more they talk the talk, the less they walk the walk.

(there are actually a lot more super weird personal layers to that one that make that part even more complicated, but that gets into a long story about survivors of genocide)

i did start quoting bible verses telling him off. i may not practice anything, but dude, it's not hard to find things telling you that you aren't following your own religion on that one.

Yeah, but to them anyone without that talking has no moral compass apparently. As if we're unable to judge morality on our own and are predetermined to be bad people without religion. Really says a lot about them that they assume without the punitive judgment of a wrathful god or the church community enforcing certain standards, they'd be a bad person.

Dysfunctionality: "if you need an invisible sky cop to keep you from being a bad person, i guess i'm happy you have your invisible sky cop keeping you from being as bad as you want to be"

this this this

Right. I'll keep doing me, and when I die, I don't fear the sky cop if they are real because I was doing what was good in my heart all along anyways. Wild.

Even tyrants have friends and family.