Luigi Mangione transferred from PA, to NYC pic via Getty Images
Deny, Delay, Defend, a motto that has echoed throughout the country like a war cry. This assassination shook the nation on December 4th, 2024, when Luigi Mangione allegedly travelled to New York City and shot Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health Care, twice in the back and fled the scene leading to a nationwide manhunt.
Five days later, Luigi Mangione was arrested while sitting at a McDonald’s eating breakfast in Altoona, Pennsylvania, when a worker at McDonald’s spotted Mangione and called 9-11 and alerted police and was unable to obtain the reward money due to not calling into the tipline.
Since Mangione’s arrest he has been flooded with thousands of followers, love interests and people who have contributed to his legal defense in the sums of the six figures reaching into seven figures.
Social media has been inundated with memes and posts in favor of and in agreement with Luigi Mangione’s actions on the United Health Care CEO as most Americans have seen the health care system as corrupt.
Controversial Journalist and podcaster Taylor lorenez has been in the headlines recently for comments she has made about the accused assassin saying, Here’s this man who’s a revolutionary who’s famous, who’s handsome, who’s young, who’s smart, he’s a person who seems like this morally good man which Is hard to find” these and other loaded comments has come at a price as she has been fired from two outlets the Washington Post, as well as Vox, and now writes for Substack a website that allows for freelance writers to have a platform where subscribers pay for the content.
Other comments that have raised concerns about Taylor Lorenez shortly after the assassination of Brian Thompson, she posted on the platform X, “People wonder why we want these executives dead.” After this post got a lot of traction on social media, Media pundits like Piers Morgan had her on his show to talk about what she meant when she went further and mentioned that “I do believe in the sanctity of life and I think that’s why I felt, along with so many other Americans, Joy unfortunately, maybe not joy but certainly not empathy” Taylor told Piers Morgan according to Fox News. She has since claimed to be taken out of context.
This has come on the heels as both sides of the political aisle having elevated certain people who have committed heinous acts such as murder, or attempted to commit crimes such as murder, on the left it’s been people like Luigi Mangione, Matthew Crooks who tried to kill President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Karmallio Anthony who stabbed a student athlete at a school track meet. On the right, it’s been people like Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penney who have been the folk heroes that have been the poster boys for their ideology.
This begs the question of whether this is something as a society we should be celebrating, since this will only lead to more people taking up arms and putting the law in their own hands and doing what the system should be doing.
It’s normal to feel outrage about the system and to want to do something, but these actions are not the right way to get anything done. This is how movements have been dismantled and discredited.
Voltaire once said, “If they can make you believe absurdities they can make you commit atrocities.”