Littwin: There may be much to learn about the United Healthcare killer, but we should already know he’s no hero

When I was in college during the Vietnam war —  yes, I’m just that old —  we would often have late-night bull sessions about the ethics of violent protest, about whether we should support radical groups like the Weathermen, about whether MLK Jr. and Gandhi’s nonviolent protest was the purest, and most effective, form of protest.

And, yes, these bull sessions were often accompanied by cheap wine or the latest in illegal substances. And, yeah, I had the iconic poster of Che hanging on my apartment wall. But I also strongly agreed with the John Lennon lyrics about the fanciful embrace by some fellow lefties of Chairman Mao.

We agreed about the righteousness of taking over administration buildings on campus — exams were canceled at my school after the Kent State killings — and, since the campus was a few hours drive from Washington, about making it to as many protest marches as we could.

We also believed that the FBI and CIA, among other alphabetized agencies, were malignant forces and should be reformed, if not eliminated.

Like a lot of college kids in those days, I was pretty radical. I never embraced or committed violence, although I admit I could see the argument for it. But I loved the idea of attempting to, uh, levitate the Pentagon, just for the acid-dropping weirdness of it.

I was young, in a time of national crisis, and it’s fair to say that I still had a great deal to learn about life — and death — and nearly everything in between, including how to protect yourself against tear gas. And for most of us, the idea, and the dark romance, of using violence radically changed with the Manson family murders.

I give you this background only to say why I support college kids protesting against the killing of Gazan civilians, why I simultaneously condemn even the slightest praise for a terrorist group like Hamas, and how — this will all come together, I promise — I’m not shocked, but definitely disheartened, by the considerable support and sympathy for Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare company CEO.

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America’s health care companies are guilty of much. Thompson was the CEO of maybe the guiltiest such company. I agree with all that. But I’d like to think that maybe a paintball assault  would have been a better idea.

Is Mangione really a martyr or hero for his very public killing outside a Manhattan hotel, as many on the left and right seem to think? Is Thompson’s killing justified, or at least to be sympathized with, by the evil workings of health care insurance companies that routinely look for ways to delay and deny care while literally making tens of billions of dollars in profit?

Is it really something to laugh about, as a New Yorker magazine story asks.

Is the fear justified by some, including the New York police, that this could lead to more targeted killings of officials whose companies profit from questionable dealings?

The New York Times got hold of the New York City police internal memo on Mangione, which included reference to  a three-page manifesto from the alleged killer explaining his actions.

The headline, I guess, is that Mangione apparently wrote, “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”

The police report said Mangione, who comes from a wealthy family that founded several health care companies in the Baltimore area, appeared to view the killing as “a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and ‘power games,’” and that he “views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices.”

Yes, people are laughing. The online jokes about the murder — “I’m sorry, prior authorization is required for thoughts and prayers” — have come fast and furious, with tens of thousands of likes.

And because it’s America in 2024, killing-related merch is flying off the virtual shelves, although many of those sites have seen their ads removed.

And many people, if you can judge by the social media sites, apparently see the alleged killer as something like a hero. And the support is rationalized by the deserved contempt millions of us hold for health insurance companies in light of our direct experience with the corrupt industry.

And United Healthcare is apparently the worst offender of all in denying care. And so naturally, the company’s Facebook post about Thompson’s death was met with more than 57,000 laughing emojis.

I probably don’t have to convince you that we live in a mixed-up world right now. Republicans have become the party of the working class, even as Trump is embracing the new oligarchy, including nominating a cabinet that is worth more than $300 billion, and that doesn’t include Elon Musk’s outlandish total. Musk, by the way, contributed as much as $250 million to getting Trump elected.

What are we as a society for, and what are we against? Do we even know? Do we even bother to ask?

Trump voters oppose the so-called elite and the so-called swamp and the corporations that rob working people. I support their impulse.

But, unlike me, they support Trump, who wants nothing more than to be an elite of one who, in the most sleazoid, cheap-con-game way possible, sells a gullible MAGA universe Trump-branded Bibles and sneakers and watches and now, “Fight, Fight, Fight” fragrances. Worse, Trump kicked off the fragrance campaign by corruptly using a photo of Trump with Jill Biden at the Notre Dame restoration in Paris, saying that even enemies — like Dr. Jill— couldn’t resist the allure.

I’d like to see the health care companies taken on. I’d like to see active protest. I’d like to see those in power, and those who vote for the people in power, to actually deal with the issue. We thought Obamacare had taken care of much of the problem in denying care, but not surprisingly, many health insurance companies have found their way around the law. 

They routinely deny care, and denials, we’ve seen, usually go unchallenged. Who is going to do something about that? Will a killing really help? Does it really cheer you up?

Right now, states across the country, including Colorado, are cutting Medicaid rolls as post-COVID funding from the federal government is also cut. This is all being done during a Democratic administration.

Right now, Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who will be huge beneficiaries of the coming extensions of Trump’s first-term tax cuts for the rich, are apparently considering cuts to Social Security, even as Trump denies it.

But I don’t want to see anyone kill Musk. I’d like to see him magically disappear from the scene, but I know even that’s too much to ask.

What I want is to live in a society that rejects Musk and the other oligarchs as somehow a special class. I want to live in a society that expands Medicare, that supports expanded tax credits for families with children, that offers significant support for dementia patients and their caregivers, that believes health care is a right, that is not looking for magical budget cuts and somehow believing they will not actually hurt anyone. 

I want to live in a society where it’s basically considered wrong to kill a person, one of thousands who could be blamed, as a symbol of meeting injustice. That was the Unabomber’s theory of protest.

And I want to live in a society where it is considered right and moral and necessary to do the much harder work of changing the system that allows such injustice to thrive and flourish.

Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.

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