Polls in 2024 revealed that more than three-quarters (78 percent) of respondents believed that the United States “is headed in the wrong direction”; and that over half (55 percent) say that our political and economic system needs major changes.[1]  However, only one-fifth (20 percent) as yet think that violence may be required to reform the situation.  That’s still a large share compared to most bygone times. 

            In light of these reports, the reaction to the story of Luigi Mangione is interesting.[2]  Mangione is accused of murdering Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare (UHC).[3]  Mangione immediately became a media sensation and, to some, a folk hero.[4]  Some 124,000 “laughing face” emojis were posted in the Comments section of UHC’s on-line statement about Thompson’s murder.                                              

This idolization of a guy who shot his victim in the back stuck in the craw of lots of decent people.  Matthew Continetti spoke for many when he wrote that the murder tested “America’s ability to distinguish right from wrong” and “far too many Americans have flunked.”[5]  As do we all, Ingrid Jacques found the inhumanity of the response “alarming to witness” and the Washington Post found the response evidence of a “sickness” in society.[6]

What to make of the murder itself?  Seemingly not a “random act of violence.”[7]  The early investigation of the murder produced evidence of careful planning.  The man accused of the killing remains a puzzle.  In the absence of anything beyond police leaks and gleanings from internet searches, people assigned their own preferred meaning. 

Thus the Wall Street Journal wondered if Mangione had adopted “the populist theme of blaming seemingly distant and faceless corporations for social ills.”[8]  Most commonly, commentators immediately assumed that it is related only to problems with health care costs.  Explanations appeared of how health insurers are merely the surface of a much more complicated problem.  What about Oxycontin?  What about Boeing’s planes and space vehicles? 

Or they posit that “congressional gridlock” lies at the root of high health costs.  What if “Government is [just] the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex”?[9]  What if NOT fixing the problems is just what big money donors want…and get?[10]  Regarding another case, the Washington Post argued that tolerating antisocial behavior can lead to vigilantism.”[11]  Is that going too “populist”? 

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[1] “The way we were in 2024,” The Week, 27 December-3 January 2024, p. 26. 

[2] “Mangione: Why did he become a folk hero?” The Week, 27 December 2024-3 January 2025, p. 19. 

[3] A loving husband and father, who reportedly made $10.2 million. 

[4] Not the first: The hanging of the abolitionist John Brown, Virginia, 1859; Nick Cave – The Ballad of Jesse James – YouTube and The Highwaymen Chasing scene the Gang 🌟

[5] Matthew Continetti in National Review, quoted in “Mangione: Why did he become a folk hero?” The Week, 27 December 2024-3 January 2025, p. 19. 

[6] In USA Today, quoted in “Health insurance: A CEO’s murder and an explosion of rage,” The Week, 20 December 2024, p. 6. 

[7] Like, say, a mentally disturbed guy with “a record as long as a CVS receipt” (stole that from a “Law and Order” episode) setting fire to a sleeping person on a NYC subway car. 

[8] Quoted in “Suspect in CEO murder raged against ‘parasites’,” The Week, 20 December 2024, p. 5. 

[9] Attributed to Frank Zappa, but who knows. 

[10] For example, Leaked emails show what Clinton told executives in private | PBS News 

[11] “Daniel Penny: A hero or a murderer?” The Week, 27 December-3 January 2025, p. 18.