https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/astonishing-level-dehumanization/681189/
The pearl clutching is strong with this one. As usual, they gloss over the fact that health insurance profits are determined by the denial rate. The author conflates necessary rationing of care in any system with the clear incentive of for-profit insurance to deny care. Such cupidity.
It’s hilarious when they go on about the dehumanization of Brian Thompson while completely ignoring that dehumanization is 100% how they’re capable of making the decisions they do by viewing humans as a number on a spreadsheet that impacts their profits instead of a real person with a real life. To look at a piece of paper and make decisions to make profits by denying people care is the definition of dehumanizing them to you can make the decision without feeling remorse. Their job is literally steeped in more dehumanization than you can shake a fucking stick at! Their job is literally to dehumanize people in search of profit.
It’s so painfully hypocritical it’s not even funny, it’s just anger-inducing.
When they dehumanize us, nothings wrong with it, but the second they’re dehumanized for acting inhumanely suddenly it’s a problem.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard it either, I’ve seen a few interviews with the same sentiment shared from CEO’s, but in the interviews it was even more painful because for a moment it sounds like they’re talking about the dehumanization of people who need healthcare, but no, they’re talking about the CEO of course.
The victims of healthcare insurers also don’t get the news media breathlessly defending them for having been dehumanized (which in itself is an attempted act to humanize the CEO). Their names are conveniently forgotten because they’ve been… you guessed it… dehumanized.
I’d add yet a bit more nuance: the dehumanization that happens at the hands of insurers is a choice. These companies and all their employees have the option to do things differently or work somewhere else.
On the other hand, the dehumanization that happens TO the insured is out of their control; they have the option to be dehumanized or die.
Now, when talking about the dehumanization of CEOs: those CEOs have a choice to take those positions and make those decisions. So they are stepping into an already dehumanized role with their eyes open. Sure, they don’t deserve to be killed without a trial and due process for their actions, but the dehumanization aspect is a direct result of their informed choices.