Tragic Death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Highlights the Harsh Reality of Internet Trolls
America’s most infamous journalist, Taylor Lorenz, has identified the culprit in the shocking murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
It’s Brian Thompson himself.
She claims that health insurance is horrible, questioning, “and people wonder why we want these executives dead?”
Lorenz gained notoriety at The Washington Post for revealing the identities of conservative online commentators she disagreed with and then expressing her displeasure when faced with backlash.
She departed from the Post after labeling President Biden a “war criminal.”
Her justification?
It was merely a meme!
While one might be inclined to dismiss this vitriol as the opinion of a lone individual — one who ridiculed those not wearing COVID masks as “raw-dogging the air” — Lorenz is evidently part of a larger trend.
On platforms like Bluesky and Reddit, praising the murder was prevalent.
“The key takeaway” from the incident, one user remarked, “is that no innocent bystanders were harmed.”
Comments such as that a father of two “deserved to die” proliferated as individuals admired his assailant, theorized about their motives, and speculated if Timothée Chalamet would portray him in a film.
Very few acknowledged a balanced viewpoint, expressing sorrow over the loss of life while critiquing the health insurance system.
No, this man they had never met was labeled “evil.”
“The humor directed at the United CEO isn’t solely about him,” journalist Ken Klippenstein observed.
“It reflects the predatory healthcare system he epitomized, which inflicts profound pain and humiliation on Americans.”
Is this the case?
Or do the jokes reveal a society that has grown so numb to the harshness of online exchanges, so detached from compassion, that a frenzied mob celebrates a man’s murder and clamors for more?
