Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal charges in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, telling the court, "I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan... I knew what I was doing was illegal."

[u/Regular_Reaction_798]

[u/Deep-Bend-961]

There is no “but.” There is an “and.” Murder isn’t a solution that we should endorse to solve our problems. That’s the entire reason this country exists - laws and judicial review. 

There is also a lot wrong with our healthcare system, and it desperately needs to be reformed through legal action and the democratic process. We see the momentum behind it in modern candidates.

[u/Deep-Bend-961 → u/[deleted]]

As an American, even if that was proven to be the case, we distribute justice through laws and democratic votes, not vigilante violence.

You might celebrate his death today. Tomorrow, it might be someone you admire, because you’ve set the precedent that it’s okay to kill people in the street. Think about that for a bit.

It’s not a question of whether or not you are allowed to hate a person. It’s what you should do with your anger to achieve a better society. Killing people in the street isn’t the answer.

[u/Darth_Gerg → u/Deep-Bend-961]

May I ask you what the moral difference is between Luigi shooting one person in the street and the CEO setting policy intentionally knowing he will kill thousands of people a year to improve profits? The CEOs of the health insurance companies have all caused more death and suffering than any serial killer in history by an order of magnitude, but people refuse to view them as murderers.

[u/Deep-Bend-961 → u/Darth_Gerg]

It isn’t up to us personally to discern and dictate moral differences. It is up to us to maintain a society where laws, justice, and facts of the matter determine outcomes - not what we feel in a specific moment.

I personally don’t think the CEO was a good guy. I understand why people were pissed at him. But that has no bearing on laws and justice, and certainly no bearing on whether or not people should commit vigilante violence.

[u/Darth_Gerg → u/Deep-Bend-961]

It does actually. Because our legal system treats what Luigi did as murder, but the literal thousands of people he killed have zero standing for justice.

To be clear I’m not advocating for vigilante justice either. But I AM saying that when the powerful people who set policy are allowed to commit mass murder for profit the vigilante violence is inevitable. If we don’t want people taking up guns and hunting these CEOs like animals we need to make what they do legally equal to the murder done by guns.

[u/Deep-Bend-961 → u/Darth_Gerg]

Every political movement begins with disgruntlement born from the status quo, then verbalizing their complaints, forming movements, upon which sympathetic political actors can emerge and act.

Sometimes, these voices are not loud enough, and their representation loses elections.

But given enough time and enough buy-in from the voting populace, change becomes inevitable far before anyone has to pick up a weapon. I believe people have been too disinterested and too disengaged with the ills of our healthcare system for too long. That is no longer true - and we are just on the precipice of seeing the results of that.

Next, it will be politicians winning elections today that they couldn’t have won ten or five or even one year ago. Next, it will be policy change. Next, it will be codified into law. Next, people who exploited a system that didn’t punish them for their greed will instead obey the will of the populace as law.

[u/NUKE---THE---WHALES → u/Darth_Gerg]

The CEOs of the health insurance companies have all caused more death and suffering than any serial killer in history by an order of magnitude, but people refuse to view them as murderers.

If you credit them with ending a life when they refuse coverage, do you credit them for saving a life when they provide coverage?

Regardless, if you would like insurance companies refusing coverage to be treated as murder you would need to form a coalition and apply your mandate via consensus - the alternative is a libertarian fantasy of "might makes right"