“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ~The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
The Lorax quote is said to have been posted by Luigi Mangione, on one of his social media accounts. I can’t locate it, (I haven’t spent a lot of time looking, either.) But I’ve read enough that he’s written to accept it as truth.
By now, you know the person of whom I speak was apprehended in Pennsylvania, and charged with everything from forgery (fake IDs) to carrying a firearm without a permit, but not the murder of United Healthcare’s CEO, Brian Thomas. To date, he has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Deny. He is fighting New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s request for his extradition to New York. Pennsylvania has 30-days to obtain a warrant. “Defend.” In New York, they will charge him with the killing. But I cannot believe a jury would unanimously find him guilty? Case closed. “Depose”
Deny, Defend, Depose, words written on the bullet casings intentionally left behind at the crime scene, leaving no doubt as to the motive of the shooter.
The press is suPRESSing information about Mangione because they don’t want us to sympathize, idolize or, (god forbid) devise similar vigilante behavior. Handcuffed, when exiting the police van, he saw the gathered media and shouted, “It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” Then he was shoved into the Blair County Courthouse.
Mangione has a long list of book reviews on Goodreads. One of the reviews he wrote, a book I’ve also read, “Industrial Society and Its Future: Unabomber Manifesto.” Ted Kaczynski’s anti-tech views on: ‘the erosion of human freedom and dignity by modern technologies.’ In my opinion, K was right. Technology is/has destroying our humanity. His method of communicating his thoughts was highly flawed. The Uni-bomber killed three and injured 23. His victims were not the people he had targeted. Even if they were, what he did was domestic terror.
Back to Luis: Why would a popular, wealthy, attractive High School Valedictorian, with a master’s degree in engineering, and no prior record throw his life away? It makes little sense.
After reading about the victim, Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare, the insurance group with the highest rate of denial, garnering sympathy for him is not going to be easy. How many people did his actions kill? This man was involved in creating an app that would automatically deny 91% of claims, and he was under investigation for insider trading of company stock… Murder is wrong, but this is an unsympathetic guy if there ever was one. It’s one of those “things that make you go hmm.”
Deny Defend Depose
One photo on Luigi’s Twitter (🖕🏼Elon) bio is his post-surgical spinal X-ray. It shows hardware after a spinal fusion. His spine is still misaligned. I have the same spinal diagnosis- spondylolisthesis, unstable vertebrae, because of a break or degenerative disease, allows shifting that results in bones pressing on the nerves of your spinal cord.
I had an excellent surgeon. You don’t see the same crowding of vertebrae.
This isn’t about me, but I will confess, my spine has shifted since the surgery, and even though the pain in that area subsided during the short period I was on meds, the relief was short lived. The pain shifted lower. I have several other health problems, and for those reasons, I consider myself qualified to tell you, from experience, that relentless pain makes you crazy.
[Deleted paragraph with TMI.]
I mentioned a chat I had with a man who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. After sharing our medical history, he said- “It’s defeating, isn’t it?” That it is. Constant pain is defeating, disheartening of spirit.
The a letter written by Luigi being called his “manifesto” directs his words at CEOs in the healthcare industry. Considering the Seuss quote at the top of this post, it’s easy to guess Mangione felt he was acting as a martyr. He has successfully drawn awareness to a problem that we have become numb to, greed in for-profit healthcare. In his mind, someone had to do something. He sacrificed himself by killing the big boss at the most corrupt health insurance agency. Our for-profit healthcare system is whom he holds responsible for his life sentence to pain. My guess is that he doesn’t care what happens to him.
We in the United States deserve Universal Healthcare, like the rest of the free world. For profit, healthcare is diabolical. I can’t say it any clearer. What good is the middleman? Why is an app, or an adjuster, nullifying the decisions of medical professionals? This needs to change. Profiteering has no place in healthcare. “Luigi Mangione is a cold-blooded killer,” we are told. In his eyes, it was justifiable homicide. I don’t care if you admonish me for rooting for the man who killed a CEO responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of lives every year, and leaving more to suffer in pain — for money. I wish they hadn’t caught him because I think insurance CEOs’ scope of existence warrants fear, like those of us waiting for bills. If this many people celebrate the death of your colleague, because of his business, maybe it’s time to rethink your job and the values you set aside to do it.
Luigi Mangione’s Manifesto:
“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
He’s right.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable”. ~John F. Kennedy
*I do not condone murder, but I understand how unrelenting pain could blind someone from what they know is right or wrong. No need to put me on a “watch list.” My means of transportation, a stationary recumbent bike, won’t allow retribution. Nor would I commit a crime that would make it impossible to help those who rely on me.
This is an eye opening article about the corruption of an industry that should not exist.👇🏼
https://www.levernews.com/health-insurers-gave-120-billion-to-shareholders-while-denying-your-claim/