How to think about the public backlash to the killing of a health care CEO

A man was killed. That’s the kind of thing people normally get upset about. But not this week. This week, when UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead in Manhattan, the internet erupted in cheers.

Many people, including many progressives and liberals, said they would refuse to mourn the UnitedHealthcare executive because of the habitual unfairness of health insurance providers like the one Thompson oversaw.

The backlash against Thompson spread across social media, from TikTok to Twitter, LinkedIn to Bluesky — typically acerbic jokes about the poster’s empathy being out of network or that Thompson’s claim to sympathy had been denied. Some users commented with “deny, delay, depose” — a reference to the three words reportedly inscribed on the gunman’s shell casings, themselves a reference to the well-known insurance system tactic of “deny, delay, defend” when warding off claims from patients.