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Why We Lost Faith in Our American Institutions
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A few weeks ago, a lonely, disaffected young man hunted down an executive of a major American corporation and shot him in the back on a New York City street. Then, he casually walked away. Had he not stopped for a cup of Starbucks before committing murder, he’d still be a free man.
Just a few days later a major poll from Emerson College reported that 41% of those aged 18–29 felt that the cold-blooded murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was “acceptable or somewhat acceptable.”
Is it really acceptable to murder someone these days? Surely not.
Last week, popular comedian Bill Burr took to the airwaves to praise the accused shooter, yelling “Free Luigi” on live television. The shooter’s name is Luigi Mangione and he’s in jail on murder charges.
I think we can both agree that the U.S. healthcare system isn’t perfect. We’ve all had frustrating episodes of dealing with medical claims and approvals.
But I hope we can also agree that murdering a 50-year-old husband and father of two isn’t the answer. See, Mr. Thompson didn’t just have a family—he was part of a family. A family that will now exist without a husband, father, uncle, or brother. How sad.
On social media, a growing number of people are gloating over the killing. One post from Shauna read:
“I wonder if Luigi knows how iconic he has become… God be with you, brother. I lit a candle for you tonight.”
Another post from @paulrosssi445 read:
“Luigi Mangione is a national treasure. Remember that.”
Another user posted, “It’s hard to find sympathy for a CEO of one of the worst healthcare companies in the world…they eat off your family member’s grave.”
Princeton University Professor Anthony Zenkus posted on X/Twitter:
“Today, we mourn the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down...wait, I'm sorry—today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.”
Oh, but wait—it gets worse.
The 26-year-old alleged assassin was captured in Pennsylvania. While serving as a guest of the state, the accused murderer received over 140 messages. Those messages were comprised of 54 emails, 87 letters, and 163 cash deposits into his commissary account. These accounts allow inmates to purchase candy, snacks, and cigarettes while awaiting trial. That’s right—the messages and cash were in support of his efforts to kill another human being.
Should activists take extraordinary steps to drive change in our institutions ? |
This is probably AI, but these are the words Luigi engraved on the bullet casings that killed Brian Thompson.
What you probably haven’t heard is that the killer has never been insured by UnitedHealthcare. That’s right. Mangione injured his back in a surfing accident years ago. He later elected to undergo complex spinal fusion surgery, which failed.
But that surgery had nothing to do with UnitedHealthcare. It’s like suggesting American Airlines started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So what could have possibly caused a well-educated, Ivy League engineer to take such a drastic step? Well, in order to murder someone you have to be a nutjob and a psychopath, am I right? But I also think, in this scenario, Luigi Mangione lost faith in our institutions.
According to Pew Research, Americans have developed an enormous distrust of our institutions.
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Here are some examples of institutions that have lost our trust:
Tobacco companies. Do I really need to explain this one?
Food Manufacturers. American food manufacturers have colluded with federal government agencies to make processed foods more caloric and addictive. As a result, Americans are more overweight than at any other time in history. I wrote about this here. It’s disturbing.
Big Pharma. American drug companies charge us 10x the prices they charge consumers in other countries for weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Monjauro.
Corporate Media. American media conglomerates have forgotten their code of ethics. Last month, a jury ordered CNN to pay $5 million to a Navy veteran in a defamation lawsuit. Punitive damages will be decided next week. Fox News got popped with a $170 million judgment over coverage of voting machines in 2020.
State Government. The leadership of California appears to have made tremendous lapses in judgment leading up to a historic wildfire during a historic drought. Twenty-seven are dead, and thousands of homeowners are trying to pick up the pieces as the fires continue to destroy homes and lives.
Social Media. TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, is owned by the Chinese Communist Party. They’ve been collecting terabytes of data on American users every day. Their days of collecting our private information are drawing to a close.
From the news media to the federal government to pharmaceutical companies, Americans are losing confidence. It seems no institution is immune, including healthcare and insurance companies. Some of this distrust is well-deserved.
But the problem with all this distrust is that it often empowers the nutjobs and psychopaths among us—people like Luigi Mangione.
Since the shooting, UnitedHealthcare has lost $100 billion in market capitalization—20% of its value. Last week, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group admitted publicly “that there are systemic flaws that are working to drive up health costs for people in the country.”
I wonder if that kind of statement, following the murder of a key executive, only serves to empower people like Luigi Mangione. His actions cost the company $100 billion and forced the CEO to admit to systemic failures. Sadly, it’s exactly what he set out to accomplish.
Let’s hope it doesn’t embolden others to take similar actions.
I wish I had a quick and easy fix. That’s where you come in. My writing is intended to be a conversation. That means you have to participate.
Click the button below to start a conversation with me. Maybe we can come up with some ideas to fix the declining trust in our institutions.
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