Less than two weeks after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on the streets of midtown Manhattan, his alleged assassin Luigi Mangione has been greeted not by universal condemnation for the brazen violence – but rather, a surge of enthusiastic support online for his so-called vigilante justice.
The Center for Internet Security (CIS), a nonprofit focused on cybersecurity that partners with government and law enforcement, released a new threat assessment bulletin warning that online support for the alleged shooter risks encouraging copycat attacks.
“Overwhelming bipartisan support for the attack” across social media “has resulted in several narratives encouraging similar violent activities directed at other healthcare executive teams,” CIS analysts said.
“The narratives supporting Mangione’s targeted attack likely serve to encourage like-minded individuals, particularly as Mangione continues to be viewed by the public as an ‘American hero’ and sympathetic figure,” CIS’ bulletin said.
Behind enemy lines folks
I haven’t seen anyone encouraging or even so much as hinting that a copycat should target police or courts. Feels like something made up to try to drive a wedge between the bipartisan support by splintering off “back the blue” type of people.
Let’s compare:
Osama Bin Ladin/Brian Robert Thompson
Number killed by own hands: 0/0
Number killed through orders to underlings: 3,000/51,000
Reason for killings: religious and geopolitical reasons/profit motive
Cause of death: execution by gunshot/execution by gunshot
Date of trial for killings: N/A / N/A
Date of issue of death sentence for killings: N/A / N/A
Response to killing: celebration by US president on national TV, celebration by commoners and elites / celebration by commoners, condemnation by elite.
Consequence to assassins for extra-judicial slaying: national praise / indicted for 2nd degree murder
Race and class: weird Arab guy in traditional garb / rich white man in a a suit
Where does the 51,000 figure come from?
About 68,000 Americans die each year from improper denials of necessary care. With UHC’s share of the private health insurance market and higher than average denial of claims, a conservative figure is 40 UHC customers per day dying from denial of care. Brian Robert Thompson served as the CEO of UHC for approximately 3.5 years. That comes to about 51,000 people dead at the hands of Brian Robert Thompson.
Is it fair to pin all of UHC’s murders on one man? Maybe not. But he gleefully took credit for the record profits that came from UHC’s soaring denial rates. He earned an obscene salary and bonuses from the record profits that those deaths produced. He took credit for all the consequences of these deaths; it is entirely reasonable to hold him morally culpable for them.
Make no mistake. Brian Robert Thompson killed approximately 51,000 people, or about 17 times as many people as Osama Bin Ladin. Brian Robert Thompson suffered for seconds. Osama Bin Ladin’s victims suffered for about an hour. Brian Robert Thompson’s victims suffered for months to years. And this is just deaths, not those who suffered injury, debilitation, or bankruptcy at Brian Robert Thompson’s hands.
Thanks for the response. Truly despicable the state of medical insurance.
Thank you. I have been very interested in a number of attributable deaths, and the comparison is an added bonus
I would say “my pleasure,” but this brings me none. It’s not a perfect estimate, but it is a reasonable first order one. The real number is likely somewhere between 30k and 70k. But really, at this scale, the numbers lose all meaning.
Luigi Mangione did not have the right to serve as Thompon’s one man judge, jury, and executioner. But make no mistake, according to all available evidence, Brian Robert Thompson was a mass murderer an order of magnitude worse than Osama Bin Ladin. When he hit the pavement on that New York morning, he did not stop falling. He kept falling, and falling, and falling. Right into the Pit of Hell itself. If there is a Hell behind this mortal realm, he is almost certainly burning there right now.
I like your way of thinking
Many thanks for bringing to light these facts and comparisons.
the police have a training traveling school called Killology and refer to themselves as “killologist.”
Sitting here thinking I thought they had branded it some bullshit like ‘warrior training’ to make it sound good…
God, the police are so fucking coddled. “This shit that has nothing to do with police? A threat to police.” Anytbing to direct more funding to these fucking babies.
No one attacked law enforcement for this thought. They are just fear mongering the police so they will want to protect the rich more.
He (Luigi) literally went out of his way to praise law enforcement in his statement. So yeah, this is all just bullshit, and it’s bad for ya.
That and make it sound like those supporting him are dangerous.
If cops start acting like bodyguards for rich people, they will for the next one.
you act like they haven’t for decades
No, i mean like literally bodyguarding, not just doing what they’re told.
Start?
Honestly this sounds like a reporter chop job to me. The only discrete mention of threats to law enforcement is protests, fake bomb threats, and Swatting.
They aren’t saying people are going to murder court officials and police.
Welp, its officially in. Anyone who sympathizes with Luigi is officially deemed a terrorist.
Soon, some senator will announce that he/she has a list of suspected
communiststerrorists who sympathize with Luigi Mangione. This will the know as theRed ScareGreen Scare. Mentioning the term “Green Mario” would be a death sentence.Super Mario Bros will be deemed as terrorist propaganda, and any related media would be confiscated. There would be no-knock searches carried out across the nation, many will be shot in the process.
If you are reading this, your are already on their list. If you are reading this, you are the resistance…
That doesn’t leave many people in the “not terrorist” category.
Brought to you by the “We’re all Domestic Terrorists!” party
🙃
Complete bullshit obviously…
But the fact they’re worried about it says A LOT about how they view themselves compared to a piece of shit responsible for millions of deaths from denied healthcare.
I keep running through the difference between the reaction to this vs elementary school kids dying to gun violence. It’s one CEO and everything in the media has galvanized to unite around a singular message of horrible violence. Hundreds of children have died and nothing changed. It’s fucking infuriating.
ACAB
It’s bastards, all the way up. Never forget.
I think we should crowdfund an art project. Specifically, just to send a message, we should erect a big bronze statue of Luigi Mangione. Put it on a main road close to UHC’s headquarters in Minnesota. Make the bastards drive right past the thing every day on the way to work.
Fastest “unfortunate accident” a piece of public art’d ever experience, just watch.
Then we’ll build it again, but even bigger.
CIS assessed it “highly likely that threats will continue to target [law enforcement] and other public offices participating in Mangione’s case.”
Translation: South Park they’re coming right for us, FIRE
It worked for Rittenhouse 🫥
Why would I-uh-they… target police?
Police didn’t deny no claims.
Heard of a few people claiming to the police they couldn’t breathe
In Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Mangione was captured on Monday, local police told ABC News they also faced threats and negative blowback for arresting the suspect, as did the McDonald’s where he was arrested.
CIS assessed it “highly likely that threats will continue to target [law enforcement] and other public offices participating in Mangione’s case.”
This is just sloppy reporting. CIS says cops and other officials will receive more threats, not that they will be in more danger. But it’s 2024 and ABC is a major news outlet that depends on keeping the government and (especially) His Majesty happy to keep their ota broadcast license.
This reeks of propaganda trying to sway the “blue liners” away from support for the coming class war. It makes sense. The “cop feelings > children lives” set are violently stupid and (usually) well armed.
“Overwhelming bipartisan support for the attack” across social media “has resulted in several narratives encouraging similar violent activities directed at other healthcare executive teams,”
This assessment has got it all wrong. People don’t want further acts of violence against healthcare executive teams. Or, I should say, not just healthcare executive teams. That thinking is far too narrow.
That’s why they’re all trying to reframe this story so hard. They’re worried a sentiment like this will wake people up to how many other executives are sociopathic murderers.
Ideally, there would be no more health insurance execs to be mad at, because the exploitative health insurance industry would be abolished. That’s what literally everyone except the health insurance execs and investors want.
Gotta give it to corpo news and pigs: They got class conscience.
Cops think they’re rich now? Or that their masters will do anything other than use them as grunts in the class war? Cops are working class just like most people, they’re just class traitors.
Class war has been happening for centuries, just for the last 70 years the poor have been idle or ignoring it while the rich kept advancing forward.
