No Excuse for Murder
Luigi Mangione, depraved celebrations, and ridiculous caveats.
The recent murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, has revealed disturbing levels of moral decay by too many politicians, influencers, and randoes on social media. Luigi Mangione gunned down Thompson on December 4. He is now facing severe criminal charges and hopefully, a long time in prison if not worse.
You’d think it would be universally easy to condemn Mangione for killing a man in cold blood. Apparently not.
Thompson’s murder set off a firestorm of animosity towards the private health insurance industry, and, more disturbingly, celebration over his murder. The deceased Thompson’s deepest haters who mostly populate the wasteland of social media insist that CEOs like him are actually the ones responsible for murdering tens of thousands of Americans by denying them coverage. Therefore, Luigi Mangione is a hero for killing him. In fact, as I am writing this, “Free Luigi” is trending on Twitter. (And it’s not the first time, either).
The former Washington Post journalist, Taylor Lorenz, has thought it would be a good idea to make statements on social media like, “People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs” and writing headlines such as “Why ‘we’ want insurance executives dead.” She writes all this while saying that she doesn’t actually condone violence. Fine, but she’s doing an awful job with that.
Meanwhile, many influencers and Leftist politicians are using more covert language to offer some sort of excuse for Thompson’s murder. Both Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are out there saying that murdering a healthcare CEO is wrong and “outrageous,” BUT this sort of thing is to be expected because of how bad the health insurers are. “People can be pushed only so far,” Warren has said, and all the hatred that has been directed at insurers “should be a warning to everyone in the health care system.” Keep in mind that the context for these comments comes in response to the murder of a human being.
Look, nobody thinks we have a perfect healthcare system, but continually demonizing the health insurers is a completely inappropriate response to the murder of Brian Thompson. You can condemn the murder without offering any excuses for why it was bound to happen. Murder is wrong. Full stop.
The fact that is so difficult for so many influencers to unequivocally condemn a murder is disturbing and culturally rotting. A recent poll has found that 41% of voters aged 18-29 believe (or at least they say they believe) that Thompson’s murder is “acceptable.” Now, I’m pretty much certain if you relate the account of Thompson’s murder to any random individual on the streets, they would be scratching their heads over why this ought to be a thing to be celebrated. So, no need for doom and gloom over this development.
Still, it is certainly a sign that our culture is experiencing decay at varying degrees. If politicians, influencers, and segments of the media can’t clearly denounce a murder without qualifications, then they are contributing to the rot.
Of course, as religion (and subsequently the transcendent eternal laws that come with faith) becomes less important to Americans, none of these trends ought to surprise us.