Internet flooded with merch glorifying murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO

Merchandise glorifying the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is widely available on the 'net. NBC News found 100 items with relevant text and images to be scandalized by. CNN reports that companies are rushing to "stop online support" for the suspect, arrested yesterday at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona.

Some of the merchandise features drawings or images of the shooter taken from the initial video of the shooting. A suspect, Luigi Mangione, was charged with murder Monday. There has been significant online fanfare surrounding the shooting, with many people making light of the killing or outright celebrating it. The targeting of Thompson and the shooter's message have been widely interpreted as a commentary on the state of the health insurance industry, with many people sharing stories of coverage denial, mistreatment and financial hardship they've faced within the system. 

It's ironic that that they count "Deny Defend Depose" among messages glorifying murder: they refer to bureaucratic strategies used by insurance companies such as UnitedHealthcare to avoid paying for their own customers' medical claims. The words were found inscribed on shell casings dropped near Brian Thompson's body after his murder in New York City last week, and form the killer's presumed motives.

UnitedHealthcare is among the most cruel and indifferent health insurance providers, failing to cover nearly a third of its own customers' treatments, sued by the U.S. government for illegally and routinely denying claims, and generally representing the worst of a healthcare system that profits from human suffering.

As for Mangione, he appears to be a true child of the algorithm, with politics that commentators are desperate to read the left-right spectrum into but don't make an awful lot of sense beyond the arcing brain sizzles of someone who reads all the tweets. He lives; we'll find out soon. But nothing makes him look more like a hero than politicians and pundits insisting he isn't. If they want peace, perhaps they shouldn't condone quite so much violence when it is to their tastes?