Mirror mirror on the wall. It’s been a week since a masked gunman assassinated the CEO of UnitedHealthcare outside a Manhattan hotel in broad daylight, shocking the nation to rapt attention that only grew more pronounced as the first bizarre details of the story emerged: shell casings at the scene of the crime marked with the words “delay,” “deny,” “depose,” a discarded backpack stuffed with Monopoly money, and the haunting, smiling face of a handsome young man at Starbucks captured on camera just before the hit. But as immediately gripping as America found the story, the murder itself was quickly eclipsed by celebration of the crime, which was not only defended by academics, sociopathic media personalities, and social media influencers, but tacitly endorsed by “respectable” corners of the mainstream press (“Yes, murder is bad, but what can we learn from the killer and his fans?”). Ultimately, the sentiment was echoed and amplified from the highest ranks of American government. The victim in this story was no mere rich person, we were told, which would have been bad enough. He was a rich person working in healthcare, a Bad Industry full of Bad People. Americans are in pain. Americans are suffering! The psychotic online creatures who shape our culture were perhaps not justified in their celebration, but their celebration was understandable. Right?

Jesus Christ.

The media’s standard “both sides” framing of the “joy” that followed Brian Thompson’s assassination, far more than the celebration itself, has placed this country in enormous danger. The communists in my mentions have told me as much. Unfortunately, they’ve once again missed the broader populist trends across America, and misunderstood the amplifying power of the internet. They think this story will help them achieve their goals (class war, socialist revolution). But the internet can’t be controlled. As this discourse normalizes, I have no doubt billionaire former mayors of San Francisco (such as myself) will be at greater risk of violence. But billionaires can also afford private security. Can the same be said of mentally ill Substackers?