The Top 4 Ways the Assassin Could've Drawn Attention to a Problem Without Murdering Anyone
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The cold-blooded, pre-meditated murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has precipitated a veritable landslide of discussion about health insurance industry atrocities. Amid the growing clamor for redress, it is becoming harder and harder to escape a conclusion I really, really don’t want to know: in present-day America, assassination (or terrorism, pick your semantic) works.
As a lifelong despiser of mobs, I am alarmed to see how effective this savage crime has already been. Pundits and citizens alike have flocked to various media to declare that what Luigi Mangina (as he will be known in prison) did is perfectly understandable. They then launch into horror stories of denied claims or questionable statistics about how many alleged victims the evil health insurance industry has put into an early grave. And while I absolutely agree that the industry could use some reform, it’s hard to escape the feeling that too many people think the killing was even a reasonable action.
Fortunately, other pundits are holding the line on public acceptance of political violence. “We shouldn’t look for rhyme or reason in his act of murder,” writes my colleague, Rick Moran. “Whatever tortured logic drove him to kill won’t be understood by the rest of us.”
Another fellow PJ Media writer, Scott Pinsker, is even more appalled by what he calls “the Kardashianization of our culture.” He observes:
“Fans” are already casting their favorite actor as the lead in the (inevitable) Luigi Mangione Netflix movie. (Actor Dave Franco was trending because of their resemblance.) Instead of being shocked and appalled by the premeditated murder of a CEO, these people grabbed their popcorn and are eagerly awaiting the second act.
He also aptly predicts:
First, Mangione will be the patron saint of the socialized healthcare movement. At the next major rally, you can be sure his name, face, brand, and likeness will be prominently represented.
But it won’t end there.
Over the next few years, Luigi Mangione will become the new Che Guevara for the greater liberal and/or Antifa movement. His face and likeness will be appropriated by all kinds of radical causes. Just like Che, his image will be reprinted on t-shirts, flags, banners, and more — his posters draped over the walls of countless college dorms.
The irony that it is socialized medicine that has led to these all-powerful, leviathan healthcare corporations’ total control over helpless individuals’ healthcare options is lost on these foolish mobs. Otherwise, Mangione might have taken his shot at the former president whose name adorns the current system of « Obamacare. » But shooting a leftist icon is never as cool as killing a corporate baron.
My point is that assassination is nothing more than the ultimate temper tantrum of a person who did not get his way politically. It is not to be lauded or rewarded any more than any other act of terror.
I mean, I get it: systemic change is hard, and it takes a long time. Who wants to put in years of hard work, laboring away within the system, when it’s so much easier (and more glamorous) to simply murder a figurehead? It’s the political equivalent fantasy to getting rich overnight — all success with no effort.
The truth is that Mangione had several courses of action open to him — more so than most people, in fact, on account of his native intelligence, privileged educational background, good looks, and access to the establishment. He is an Ivy League graduate and his cousin, Nino Mangione, is a lawmaker in Maryland. Luigi could have effected change in a number of ways that didn’t involve, you know — actually murdering another human being. Here are the Top Four:
Ivy League graduate, politically connected, good-looking — Mangione could’ve been a shoo-in for office had he chosen to run. As a legislator, he would have been in a position to effect the systemic changes about which he claims to feel so strongly. But of course, running for office is hard work; there’s paperwork, fundraising, campaigning, horsetrading — it’s so much easier to just blow away another American!
Mangione is by all accounts an extremely intelligent young man. He was valedictorian of his tony private high school class and went on to graduate from the exclusive University of Pennsylvania. If he knows so much better how healthcare should be funded in the United States, he could have specialized in the subject and gone on to advise politicians and corporations on the right way to do it.
Once again, this would have been a natural path forward for such a promising and well-connected young man. Mangione’s grandfather, for example, was a successful real estate developer who also owned country clubs, nursing homes, and a radio station. Business acumen was in his genes had he chosen to pursue this course. Rather than just murder the man whom he thought was doing it all wrong, Mangione could instead have made it his life mission to do it right.
Perhaps this would have been a more appropriate role for a person of Mangione’s temperament since he seemed to be more of an outdoorsy type and had a touch of a temper. A clever lad such as he could no doubt have authored witty slogans on signs for marchers to hold aloft in front of UnitedHealthcare HQ. And when the media cameras showed up to report, Mangione’s good looks and Ivy League manner could have done much to elevate the cause in the public consciousness. Community organizing has become a celebrated profession in the U.S., after all.
In conclusion, let us hope that the new administration will be successful in its efforts to improve the U.S. healthcare system — plans it already had and would have pursued without Mr. Mangione’s unhelpful stunt. Obamacare has always sucked, after all, and we are about to have an administration and Congress that was fixing to make much-needed reforms even before this disgusting assassination. Let us not ascribe the positive changes already underway to anything the aspiring new punk in Cellblock C did. I prefer to live in a country where murder is neither celebrated nor rewarded.
