A daily theater of the absurd is playing outside a New York courtroom. A mostly young female crowd is swooning over the alleged killer of a UnitedHealthcare CEO. Some have penned notes volunteering for conjugal visits if 26-year-old Luigi Mangione is convicted. Social media is awash with contentions the executive deserved to die for the sins of the insurance industry.
Mangione, arrested December 9, 2024, is on trial in New York State court on murder charges. He has been anointed a martyr by an astonishing percentage of young people who have grievances against the American health insurance industry. It's tempting to assume the unhinged attitude is not representative of the culture at large.
You may be shocked to learn a large swath of young people not only have no sympathy for the victim but think his murder was justified. Research conducted by Emerson College Polling found 41% of those aged 18-29 found it either "somewhat acceptable" or "completely acceptable" to kill CEO Brian Thompson.
The online demonization of Thompson, a father of two young sons, stands in stark contrast to the fawning adoration for the curly haired Mangione. There are memes featuring Mangione as the cuddly character Luigi in the Super Mario video game. Mangione is more hero than villain to some.
In another attack on a businessman, a 20-year old Texas man was arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI founder Sam Altman's San Francisco house. The assailant had a manifesto entitled, "Your Last Warning." It expressed anti-AI sentiments.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk's company became a target after his role to improve government efficiency and reduce funding and personnel. Tesla dealership and vehicles were set on fire. Charging stations were vandalized and an Oregon dealership was sprayed with gunfire. A Rutgers University's Social Perception Lab survey found 31.6% of adults agreed it would be somewhat justified to kill Musk.
It's characteristic to dismiss these incidents as an anomaly. Yet there is evidence of the mainstreaming of this brand of societal violence. The attempted assassination of President Trump by a 20-year-old gunman revealed the this deep vein of hatred and violence that ripples through our society, numbing too many to murder.
The aforementioned Rutgers research found that 38.5% percent of respondents believe the Trump shooting was at least somewhat justified. That's a sad commentary on society in a country that professes ballots not bullets are the hallmark of a democracy.
After the killing of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a national survey by CloudResearch found that 22% of respondents under 30 years of age agreed the murder was justified. Within that age group, those who identified as Democrats were most likely to call the killing justified (32%).
More recently, a 21-year old gunman unleashed a fusillade of 60 rounds of bullets near the White House. Secret Service agents opened fire, killing the assailant. The Maryland man had a history of encounters with law enforcement and mental health issues.
Politicians and the media take to the airwaves to practice amateur psychoanalysis after these acts and resulting polls. They always blame violence on partisanship, hate speech or one political party or the other. Their cohorts in research churn out polls dutifully supporting their thesis.
However, for those who want to understand this phenomenon, a Gallup Poll offers insight into political and social violence.
The nonpartisan group conducted research last December that offered sobering evidence that age is the strongest predictor of attitudes toward political violence. While overwhelming majorities of Americans say its is never okay to use violence to achieve a political goal, research confirmed young people are more likely to approve of it.
An astounding 30% of those 18-29 years-old agree that it is "sometimes" acceptable to use political violence. Among those 30-to-44, the percentage is 21%. Those 60 years and older find political violence the most antithetical: only 4% told pollsters they find political violence sometimes acceptable.
In each of the violent episodes recounted here, the shooter fit the 18-29-year old age profile. This isn't a coincidence. Research-after -research report documents that young males are more likely than other demographics to endorse violence.
Gallup discovered the attitude is "more prevalent among heavy social media users than those who use social media less frequently or not at all." Differences in views by political affiliation and education are smaller. The research uncovered no differences based on income or other socioeconomic factors.
Heavy usage of social media appears to have the strongest linkage to attitudes about violence among younger adults. The more hours they spend on social media, the more likely they are to condone violence. Some of the most ardent believers in violence are on social media five or more hours a day.
As a casual observer of social media, the most outrageous postings are often if not always the most viewed. Many contain disturbing images of violence against politicians and the wealthy. A surprising number of individuals post selfies encouraging mayhem and "wishing" people would die.
The Rutgers study reported a linkage between support for political violence and usage of BlueSky-- social media platform that leans left--including punitive attitudes toward ideological opponents. But you can find justification for acts of violence on other social media too.
Studies have shown that social media addiction among young adults can create extreme feelings of loneliness. The Gallup research found there is a correlation between loneliness and political violence, particularly among young males, aged 18-29 years old.
Gallup conducted similar studies in 1970 and 1995. The biggest shift in attitudes is among younger Americans 18-29 who are more likely today than in the past to "view violence as a legitimate tool" to bring about societal or political change.
A 2024 Harvard study further documented the social disconnection between young 18-to-29 year olds and the rest of society. It found that 24% of this demographic reported "frequently" or "always" feeling lonely. By comparison adults aged 65 and older, had the lowest rate of loneliness: 10%.
Blaming the super heated nature of our politics for every shooting has become reflexive. The lazy media gravitates to the politically acceptable answer rather than striving for intelligent examination. The root causes of a preference for violence by young adults is more than a wake up call. It is a blaring siren that must be answered by solutions not by shallow analysis that supports a pre-existing political narrative.
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