The Assassination of Brian Thompson Shows How Sick the United States Has Become
When a significant part of the American public celebrates an extrajudicial murder, something is deeply, deeply wrong.
Like many other people, I was more than a little shocked by the assassination, in broad daylight, of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4. It was undeniably a shocking event, occurring as it did during broad daylight and launching a manhunt that only recently ended with the apprehension of suspect Luigi Mangione. Regardless of how one feels about this particular CEO or about the exploitative and callous behavior of far too many insurance companies — including UnitedHealthcare, about which there are numerous horrifying anecdotes — it is nevertheless more than a little horrifying for an extrajudicial killing to take place right where anyone could, and did, see it.
Just as that assassination happened, I was finishing up Frank Bruni’s new book The Age of Grievance. It’s a remarkable book and, among other things, Bruni argues that we are currently living in an age of perpetual grievance, in which everyone’s default position is to retreat into some form of victimhood or aggrievement. As a result, people from across the political spectrum lean in to anger and frustration and a horde of…
