Luigi Mangione’s alleged assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shook the nation and led to an almost week-long country-wide search. In the days following the assassination, when no suspects had been identified, the Left quickly assigned a materialist analysis to the circumstances of the murder. There were a lot of statements about how the everyday brutality of the private healthcare system in the United States should excuse any violence against its main perpetrators. Leftists, in particular, argued that this act of violence is to be expected when millions of Americans are sent into bankruptcy due to medical debt and have to watch many of their elders age with no dignity because this country does not want to care for them. This narrative struck a chord with Americans of all political backgrounds, with the assassin becoming an online folk hero.
Running counter to this, in the weeks since Thompson’s death, corporate media centered its coverage on the family Thompson leaves behind or his story of climbing up the corporate ladder at United Healthcare—many elected officials like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Schapiro have put out statements decrying the actions of the assassin. Healthcare industry executives used the mainstream media to try to wrestle back the narrative through pieces like an Op-Ed by Brain Thompson’s boss, UnitedHealth Group C.E.O. Andrew Witty, where Witty feigns empathy with the many people who are discarded by the private healthcare industry and makes vapid claims about wanting to make things better. Thompson’s death is being framed as a tragic story of a family man getting gunned down in broad daylight for no reason. This media blitz did not move the needle for the general public. The core of the established media and political parties' argument is that no amount of justified critiques or anger at the healthcare system could be used to justify this assassination. They are stating that violence, in and of itself, should not be considered a tool or tactic for political change. But do they really believe that? Of fucking course not, but let me show my work.
When police finally apprehended Mangione in a McDonald’s, he held a handwritten manifesto rationalizing his actions as an attack on the private health industry, which he deems as “parasites,” that confirmed what many assumed: this attack was meant to send a statement to a healthcare industry which profits off of dying Americans. I am not here to debate the validity of revolutionary violence or analyze whether Mangione’s alleged actions, in particular, are righteous; instead, I want to look at how we as a nation consider violence depending on the circumstance. There are people much better equipped than I to discuss the theory behind violence as a political tool against one’s oppressor. I encourage Fanon as a possible starting point for that journey.
To begin analyzing how the ruling class thinks about violence as a political tool, let us start by looking at the brutal genocide of Palestinians that Americans have borne witness to in the last year, and the American government has fully supported it. Many of us have, in real-time, watched at least 45,000 people—this is 2% of Gaza’s 2 million people population pre-October 7th and would equate to the death of 6.6 million Americans—many of them children and non-combatants, being massacred at the hands of Israel’s brutal regime. This more vicious version of the slow genocide that went on for decades in occupied Palestine after an attack by Hamas, Gaza’s ruling political party, on October 7th. 2023. That attack killed at least 1,200 people and was immediately decried as one of the worst moments in modern history. Similarly to the coverage following Mr. Thompson’s killing, the media ran a stream of stories attempting to humanize every person killed or kidnapped by Hamas combatants, with a specific focus on the Nova music festival attendees.
The next phase of the disavowal campaign was to say that no amount of valid critiques of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians could be used as justification for this attack by Hamas. In this situation, violence again was seen as an improper political tool, with peaceful cooperation being framed as a realistic alternative to violence, which is laughable when considering Israel's treatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank. Further, the disavowal of Hamas’ attack on October 7th, when mainstream media and elected officials say nothing could justify October 7th, but October 7th justifies a modern-day genocide. We even have the same people giving their condolences to the family of Brain Thompson, signing bombs that could kill thousands. Thus, the ruling class believes violence is the answer as long as the recipients of that violence fall at the bottom of the socially constructed hierarchy.
To bring this point home, consider another example of vigilante violence in the United States: the murder of Jordan Neely by Daniel Penny. Jordan Neely was a 30-year-old houseless Black man who was a celebrated Michael Jackson impersonator. Daniel Penny, a white 26-year-old Marine Corps veteran, murdered Neely after putting him in a chokehold on a NYC subway car. Neely did not assault anyone, nor would he deserve death if he did, but Penny still took it upon himself to kill him in broad daylight. Based on the current reaction to Brain Thompson’s murder, people across the country immediately decried this kind of violence, right? Not quite. Conservatives across the country jumped to the defense of Penny because, and let us be honest here, they want to commit that same kind of violence. Many bigoted New Yorkers and Staten Island residents want to kill, or at least make disappear, houseless people who dare to bother them. Having lived in New York City for college, I knew those feelings were there, but I did not anticipate Penny would be fully acquitted. Penny’s murder of Neely was political and meant to send a message to houseless people and Black people to make themselves small because someone white might kill them for existing near them. They’ll get away with it, too, and sit in a luxury suite with the incoming President of the United States within a week.
The systems in this country do not discourage violence; they allow and even celebrate violence as long as it happens to the people it should happen to. That is at the crux of the politicians’ and the media’s response to the murder of Brain Thompson. People like him are never meant to murdered, they are supposed to grow old and wealthy. New York State is even considering running a hotline for CEOs to ease their concerns. America’s elites are supposed to be able to send emails and make pitch decks that ruin the lives of millions with no consequence. In some way, Luigi has burst that bubble. For that, this country will weaponize every tool of state violence at its disposal to punish him, including charging him with terrorism when Dylan Roof, who, by his own admission, wanted to start a race war when he killed 9 Black church attendees, did not get charged with terrorism.
I do not advocate for violence in the spaces I organize in. Still, it is not surprising to me, nor should it be surprising to anyone else, that Americans would celebrate the murder of someone who they think plays a significant role in making their lives worse every day. Healthcare executives do not fire guns but aim to extract profit from a system needed to keep people alive. These decisions kill at least 68,000 people every year. What is this, if not political violence, to ensure that people participate in the economy and have a job, lest they not have healthcare? Is this violence okay because it happens to primarily poor Black and Brown Americans? Of course not, but in America, you are paid handsomely and will have the ruling class of an entire nation mobilized to memorialize your death should someone kill you. I do not care to debate the merits of Luigi’s actions with people, but please, let us give up the charade. This country loves political violence as long as our ruling class chooses the recipients.
That’s All Folks
Thank you for joining me at the start of my writing journey this year, it has been a joy to share some of my thoughts with you all! If you enjoyed this piece or it brought up some interesting questions for you, please like, share, and subscribe. This will be my last piece of the year, and I am sending you all rest and healing cause 2025 is going to be a trip. Much Love, peace, and power in rest to Jordan Neely and everyone that Israel has killed in Palestine.