Let's Try And Fathom The "Unfathomable" Response To The CEOs Death

That Makes Sense

When I first heard news that the CEO of United Healthcare was shot, I immediately thought: That makes sense. No doubt the shooter was someone who has been harmed, or has a loved one who has been harmed, by the health insurance industry.

I’m not the only one who had that thought. The internet was full of similar responses. From what I observed, that thought seemed pretty universal, suggesting that familiarity with a horrible, life-altering experience dealing with or paying for health insurance is also pretty universal.

The vast majority of the responses to the murder of the CEO have ranged from neutral, “Meh. I do not care even a little bit about the death of this wealthy white man” to positive, “Good. I hope it happens to more evil CEOs.”

These responses did not surprise me at all. What has surprised me isn’t the response to the shooting, it’s that there are some people who can’t fathom the response. Let me see if I can help you fathom.

The Adjuster

Even before there was a name or identity for the shooter, he was being held up as a hero. They dubbed him The Adjuster. People didn’t want him to be caught, felt totally fine with the idea he might “get away with it”, didn’t think of him as dangerous or a menace to society. Why would they? The violent action wasn’t like a madman shooting up a classroom or theater. He targeted an extremely wealthy white man who was prominently connected to an industry that commonly leaves people destitute or unable to keep their loved ones from suffering. He specifically said he didn’t use a bomb so there would be no collateral damage.

There were stories of people dressing up like him and going to Central Park, hoping to throw off investigations. The length and attention police gave to the search made people angry. The search for the CEO killer made clear: the police only serve the wealthy.

Oh this is the one? This murder gets a city wide manhunt, the resources of an entire police department, national press glued to every detail, and a huge reward for whoever finds him? What about the immigrant who was stabbed to death today in the same city? Where’s the manhunt for the racist who did the stabbing? There are thousands and thousands of immigrants at risk, as long as that stabbing racist is on the loose! Why don’t you protect them? The only reason this murder is getting attention is because there are like five other wealthy men who are worried they could be next. Fuck that.

The vast majority of people who are following this story don’t seem upset by the death, and have no interest in getting to know who the CEO was or what he was like. His name is barely mentioned. He’s just “CEO”. I would include his name here, but I’d have to google it to remember what it is, and I can’t be bothered. There are a lot of jokes about this murder and very little sadness. There are breathless articles worried this lack of horror about the death is normalizing murder.

Oh this is the one? This is the death you think is normalizing murders? What about the deaths of all the people who had claims denied by their healthcare insurance? Insurance those families paid a lot of money for! If a nurse intentionally denied a patient life-saving care, that nurse could be charged and tried for murder. But if a CEO and his employees deny a patient life-saving care then you think that’s not murder? Fuck you.

Now that Luigi Mangione is in custody, a lot of people still feel compelled to protect him. Remember, he doesn’t feel threatening to most people, because he was clear about who he targeted and why, and there are only a few people that would qualify as a target for him. There are reports that his fellow inmates call out “Free Luigi” when the press is around. People mock the McDonald’s employee who snitched on him, and cheer when news came out that the employee wouldn’t get the reward money, because they called 911 instead of a specific hotline.

His full manifesto was first published on an independent journalist’s blog, instead of in legacy media, and authorities seem upset that people aren’t reacting negatively to it. People have read his very short “manifesto” and concluded that it seems reasonable and uses correct facts. Every photo of Luigi that is published is seemingly more handsome than the last, and the press doesn’t love that people are distracted by his looks — I read that the NYTimes directed their employees to stop using his photo in articles.

Oh this is the one? This is the manifesto you’re worried about? This is the one you won’t print in full? Historically, manifesto writers are radicalized by problems they experience, that are caused by capitalism and patriarchy, and they misdirect their anger and act out against women. And you seem to have no problem sharing their manifestos and their flattering portraits. But this guy needs to be hidden? The guy who took his physical pain and channeled it into acting against the man in charge of the insurance company? Which actually makes sense for him to do versus channeling it into attacking women? Quoting Brendel on Bluesky: “Suffering from chronic debilitating pain seems to be a much more logical reason for someone to go apeshit than women being in Star Wars.” This is the guy you want to protect the public from? Fuck you.

There are some people who want remind us that murder is bad, as if people have forgotten this obvious fact. People insist it’s never okay to take justice into our own hands, that we need to trust the process and let the courts and legal system do their thing.

One reason people insist that you use the proper channels to change things is because they have control of the proper channels and they’re confident it won’t work.
—Jon Stone

It’s easy to say trust the legal process, but in America, we’ve all learned that the rich and powerful have no consequences, that the laws don’t apply to them. We suspected this was the case for a long time, but it’s now become crystal clear. We just watched a convicted criminal and known traitor run for president, and no one with any authority made any attempt to stop him, or even made the case that he shouldn’t be allowed to run. And for years now, we’ve watched Supreme Court justices being openly bribed, while lobbyists buy off politicians. This CEO being killed seems as close to justice as anything we’ve seen in a long time. Because of this, people continue to perceive Luigi’s actions as a service, not a crime.

Oh this is the one? This is the situation where you think the CEO would have been brought to some sort of justice via the courts? That if we just write a few more letters, we’ll finally make the health insurance companies do the right thing? That if we simply make more public posts about the saddest, hardest moments of our lives, describing how our family members died or are dying, that the GOP will stop fear-mongering about universal healthcare? That if we just do another go-fund-me for someone’s cancer treatment, or another fundraiser for medical debt forgiveness, that the system will finally be reformed? You think we just haven’t tried hard enough? You think not enough people know there’s a problem? Fuck you.

Luigi built his own gun from a legally available kit. Some people are upset that conversations about gun access and gun violence aren’t the primary topics generated by this murder.

Oh this is the one? Now you want to talk about guns? The literal classrooms full of dead children weren’t enough to spark that conversation? It had to be a rich white man dying before the powerful people in our country were ready to talk about guns? Fuck you.

Can you really not understand where these responses are coming from?

Get On Board

Wealth inequality continues to get worse by the day. CEO pay increased 1,209.2% since 1978, while a typical worker’s pay increase 15.3% in the same time frame. In 1965, CEOs were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker. In 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker. Did the CEO job somehow get 323% harder?The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and hasn’t increased in 15 years. The minimum wage was established to ensure that jobs pay enough to support families. Could you support a family on $7.25 per hour?

How long do you expect people to put up with being pushed around without pushing back?

Interestingly, the positive responses to this murder are not happening exclusively on one political side. Everyone is pissed off about our healthcare system and the wealth inequality that exacerbates the problem. Ben Shapiro, a popular far-right-conservative podcaster, did an episode mocking anyone implying Luigi is a hero. His listeners weren’t happy about it. He got ratioed. By his own listeners. Again, everyone is pissed off.

We can either tax the rich, or watch — without surprise — as more CEOs, or others in power, are targeted by killers. People need justice. You can only push people so far before they take things into their own hands. If the courts won’t bring it, people will find another way.

To be clear, violence and murder doesn’t need to be the way. When people say billionaires shouldn’t exist, it doesn’t mean they need to die. It means: tax billionaires out of existence, and close every billion-dollar corruption loophole. I understand the CEO was not a billionaire—just a multimillionaire. But he was the head of a corporation that made $32 billion dollars, while delaying and denying people coverage. Why didn’t every one of those $32 billion dollars go to covering insurance claims? Why in the world would be allow healthcare to be for profit? Why would we allow companies to make extreme wealth for shareholders, while making the lives of their customers measurably worse?

If you’re not there yet: Get on board. It’s the morally correct position. There is no moral defense for the existence of billionaires or any kind of extreme wealth. Billionaires hoard resources, and there’s no reason we should allow that. There’s a meme that crosses my path every once in awhile that says:

“If a monkey hoarded more bananas than it could eat, while most of the other monkeys starved, scientists would study that monkey to see what is wrong with it. When humans exhibit this same behavior, we put them on the cover of Forbes magazine.”

The solution? Tax them so much, that they are no longer billionaires.

It’s Not Magic!

There’s another conversation we need to have. The health insurance system in America is horrible. Just awful. There’s nothing good to say about it. This is not new. The corruption in health insurance was a plot point in The Incredibles — an animated movie for children — a full 20 years ago. It’s a known thing. But Americans are expected to fund it, accept it, and spend years of our lives dealing with it, with little to no benefit, and ultimately, and sadly often enough, getting wiped out in the last few years of life.

A few days ago, I did an Ask-Me-Anything on Instagram about my recent surgery, and it morphed into a massive discussion about healthcare systems, tax philosophies, the cost of childcare, pensions vs. self-funded retirement, the mental burden of lack of social safety nets, profiting off sickness, healthcare tied to employment, myths around socialized medicine, America’s attempts at instituting a better system, and how we approach needs as individuals versus communities. I’ve received thousands of messages in response to this discussion, many of them completely heartbreaking. (I’ve saved 200 pieces of the discussion in these highlights: Healthcare, Healthcare 2.)

It’s a longer conversation and I want to write more about it. But today I’ll just say: It’s not magic! It’s very possible for Americans to have a healthcare system that offers much better results at much less cost. And it’s not me, a random citizen saying this. It’s experts and economists saying this, accompanied by deep research with clear workable examples.

Frustratingly, there are only a handful of national elected officials who seem to support universal healthcare, but I sincerely hope one of them will step in and use this opportunity to spur change. Right this minute is a great time to put an ambitious, life-changing, national healthcare plan into the public discussion. Because as we can see clearly in the response to the CEO’s death, healthcare is a topic that everyone, across the political spectrum, knows is important. Not just important, it’s not hyperbole to say this is literally an issue of life or death.