Violence Is Never Acceptable, Even If the Target Is Dubious

In the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the internet has been flooded with varied reactions ranging from condemnation (as one should) to celebration and glorification, with the latter two representing a concerning share of the responses found.

It is possible that the scale of these reactions – celebrations, glorifications, or simple indifference to the suffering imposed on his family and friends as well as the immorality of the act of taking another’s life – is exaggerated. In other words, the sample of online reactions may not be representative of the general population.

That is my hope.

The opposite would mean that we have come to accept violence as a form of political expression, something that undermines the very foundations of any democracy.

While it’s understandable that many people harbor legitimate grievances with the American healthcare system, we should not mince words when describing what happened. If the act was indeed motivated by the failings of the healthcare sector or particularly UnitedHealthcare, then this could very well be defined as a terrorist act, as terrorism is defined as “politically motivated violence against civilians.”

UnitedHealthcare has faced significant criticism for practices that prioritize profits over patient care, such as having the highest claim-denial rate among major insurers, rejecting approximately one in three claims – a rate double the industry average – and employing artificial intelligence algorithms with a 90% error rate to deny coverage for medical services, overriding physicians’ recommendations. All these practices make it easy to understand why so many people feel anger and frustration and struggle to muster empathy for someone perceived as the embodiment of a broken healthcare system that puts insurers’ profits above patients’ well-being.

But rather than celebrating Brian Thompson’s death, it is far more constructive and humane to use our voices to denounce a system that exploits people in their most fragile moments—when they’re sick and in need of care. This is a more effective path to achieving meaningful change.

Adding to the list of immoral acts associated with UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson was also suspected of practices such as insider trading. That, however, does not negate the fact that he was also someone’s husband and father. His family and friends are no doubt grieving his loss. Even if we cannot respect his professional legacy, we owe it to them (and to our shared humanity) to extend empathy and acknowledge the indefensibility of taking a life.

While I find it hard to believe that Brian Thompson was born evil, his legacy certainly represents the normalization of cruelty. It’s possible that his moral compass was warped by a society where cruelty is rewarded and empathy trivialized. While I can’t definitively claim this was the case for Thompson, it is a plausible trajectory for anyone operating in a system that reduces people to mere numbers and incentivizes the banalization of evil with financial rewards. This reality should drive us toward reflection, critique, and reform, but it can never serve as a justification for murder or any form of violence—nor for its glorification.

According to Robert Pape, director of the University of Chicago’s Project on Security and Threats, political violence in the United States has been rising since 2017. “What I think we’re really experiencing as a country is the erosion against norms,” said Pape, as quoted by The Guardian. “That means, basically, seeing violence as a more normal tool, or acceptable tool, to resolve what should be straightforward civil disputes resolved in non-violent ways.”

This erosion of norms challenges the very foundation of society, whose purpose is to create an environment where people live free from violence or want. While democracies may not deliver perfect results, they remain our best option. As Winston Churchill famously noted during a 1947 speech, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Though quoting an existing saying, Churchill highlighted democracy’s imperfections while underscoring its superiority to alternatives.

Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Senator from Minnesota, echoed this sentiment when she described the killing as “a horrifying and shocking act of violence.” This is exactly how we should all see it—not only for the sake of our democracies but also for our shared humanity. Regardless of the victim’s misdeeds, failing to unequivocally condemn such violence risks further sliding into authoritarianism and chaos.