It started barely minutes after the horrifying news broke that the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot in midtown Manhattan. Even before any details were available, the internet was awash in speculation that the company had refused to cover the alleged killer\u2019s medical bills — and in debates about whether murder would be a reasonable response.<\/p>\n
Soon there was a video of a man in a hoodie, face not visible, walking up behind Thompson and shooting him multiple times, ignoring a woman standing nearby before walking away. Could he be a hit man?<\/p>\n
Then came the reports that bullet casings bearing the words \u201cdelay,\u201d \u201cdeny\u201d and \u201cdepose\u201d were found at the scene. \u201cDelay\u201d and \u201cdeny\u201d clearly echo tactics insurers use to avoid paying claims. \u201cDepose\u201d? Well, that\u2019s the sudden, forceful removal from a high position. Ah.<\/p>\n
After that, it was an avalanche.<\/p>\n
The shooter was compared to John Q, the desperate fictional father who takes an entire emergency room hostage after a health insurance company refuses to cover his son\u2019s lifesaving transplant in a 2002 film of the same name. Some posted \u201cprior authorization needed before thoughts and prayers.\u201d Others wryly pointed out that the reward for information connected to the murder, $10,000, was less than their annual deductibles. One observer recommended that Thompson should be scheduled to see a specialist in a few months, maybe.<\/p>\n
Many others went further. They urged people with information about the killing not to share it with the authorities. Names and photos of other health insurance executives floated around. Some of the posts that went most viral, racking up millions of views by celebrating the killing, I can\u2019t repeat here.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that any news with shock value would get some of this response online — after all, trolling, engagement bait and performative provocation are part of everyday life on digital platforms.<\/p>\n
But this was something different. The rage that people felt at the health insurance industry, and the elation that they expressed at seeing it injured, was shocking. It was also widespread and organic. It crossed communities all along the political spectrum and took hold in countless divergent cultural clusters.<\/p>\n
Even on Facebook, a platform where people do not commonly hide behind pseudonyms, the somber announcement by UnitedHealth Group that it was \u201cdeeply saddened and shocked at the passing of our dear friend and colleague\u201d was met with, as of this writing, 80,000 reactions; 75,000 of them were the \u201chaha\u201d emoji.<\/p>\n
Politicians offering boilerplate condolences were eviscerated. Some responses came in the form of personal testimony. I don\u2019t condone murder, many started, before describing harrowing ordeals that health insurance companies had put them through.<\/p>\n
On a prominent Reddit forum for medical professionals, one of the most upvoted comments was a parody rejection letter: After \u201ca careful review of the claim submitted for emergency services on December 4, 2024,\u201d it read, a claim was denied because \u201cyou failed to obtain prior authorization before seeking care for the gunshot wound to your chest.\u201d Just a few days earlier, the forum had been a place where people debated the side effects of Flomax and the best medical conferences.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been studying social media for a long time, and I can\u2019t think of any other incident when a murder in this country has been so openly celebrated.<\/p>\n
The conditions that gave rise to this outpouring of anger are in some ways specific to this moment. Today\u2019s business culture enshrines the maximization of executive wealth and shareholder fortunes, and has succeeded in leveraging personal riches into untold political influence. New communication platforms allow millions of strangers around the world to converse in real time.<\/p>\n
But on a deeper level, the currents we are seeing are expressions of something more fundamental. We\u2019ve been here before. And it wasn\u2019t pretty.<\/p>\n
The Gilded Age, the tumultuous period between roughly 1870 and 1900, was also a time of rapid technological change, of mass immigration, of spectacular wealth and enormous inequality. The era got its name from a Mark Twain novel: gilded, rather than golden, to signify a thin, shiny surface layer. Below it lay the corruption and greed that engulfed the country after the Civil War.<\/p>\n
The era survives in the public imagination through still resonant names, including J.P. Morgan, John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius Vanderbilt; through their mansions, which now greet awestruck tourists; and through TV shows with extravagant interiors and lavish gowns. Less well remembered is the brutality that underlay that wealth — the tens of thousands of workers, by some calculations, who lost their lives to industrial accidents, or the bloody repercussions they met when they tried to organize for better working conditions.<\/p>\n
Also less well remembered is the intensity of political violence that erupted. The vast inequities of the era fueled political movements that targeted corporate titans, politicians, judges and others for violence. In 1892, an anarchist tried to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick after a drawn-out conflict between Pinkerton security guards and workers. In 1901, an anarchist sympathizer assassinated President William McKinley. And so on.<\/p>\n
As historian Jon Grinspan wrote about the years between 1865 and 1915, \u201cthe nation experienced one impeachment, two presidential elections \u2018won\u2019 by the loser of the popular vote and three presidential assassinations.\u201d And neither political party, he added, seemed \u201ccapable of tackling the systemic issues disrupting Americans\u2019 lives.\u201d No, not an identical situation, but the description does resonate with how a great many people feel about the direction of the country today.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not hard to see how, during the Gilded Age, armed political resistance could find many eager recruits and even more numerous sympathetic observers. And it\u2019s not hard to imagine how the United States could enter another such cycle.<\/p>\n
A recent Reuters investigation identified at least 300 cases of political violence since the 2021 assault on the Capitol, which it described as \u201cthe biggest and most sustained increase in U.S. political violence since the 1970s.\u201d A 2023 poll showed that the number of Americans who agree with the statement \u201cAmerican patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save the country\u201d was ticking up alarmingly.<\/p>\n
And the fraying of the social contract is getting worse. Americans express less and less trust in many institutions. Substantial majorities of people say that government, business leaders and the media are purposefully misleading them. In striking contrast to older generations, majorities of younger people say they do not believe that \u201cthe American dream\u201d is achievable anymore. The health insurance industry likes to cite polls that show overall satisfaction, but those numbers go down when people get sick and learn what their insurer is and is not willing to do for them.<\/p>\n
Things are much better now than in the 19th century. But there is a similarity to the trajectory and the mood, to the expression of deep powerlessness and alienation.<\/p>\n