The cold-blooded, targeted murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as he walked into a Manhattan hotel early last Wednesday morning has grabbed national attention, focusing some of it on America’s troubling embrace of simple cruelty, and of violence. There’s chilling video circulating widely of the hooded, masked assassin pulling out a gun with a silencer, shooting Thompson in the back and then, as the businessman crumpled to the ground, pumping additional bullets into him as he died on the sidewalk. Thompson had a wife and two sons, one who had just graduated from high school and the other still there.
In a different time, in a different America, in a nation more like the one we believe we remember, there’d be uniform outrage at the murder, sympathy for the victim, empathy for his family and friends. But we’re in a different place, where cruelty and cheap vitriol dominate. Thompson’s company posted a statement on Facebook expressing condolences to his grieving loved ones, describing him as “a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him.
” Within 48 hours some 80,000 people had responded to the post with laughing emojis. That didn’t count those who “loved” the announcement of the killing, or who “clapped” at it. Posts commenting on how attractive the assassin was, or which called upon those with potential information for law enforcement to withhold it, or identifying other health insurance executives who might be usefully next.
