No one except the most extreme political or religious fanatics encourages or embraces murder. Its prohibition is a bedrock value in every society and stated explicitly in laws, and religious and moral teachings.

But, of course, there are exceptions. About ¼ of all countries reserve the right to kill someone as punishment. Killing enemies in war is accepted, even celebrated. The U.S. and others have stretched this loophole to include undeclared wars, with presidents and politicians proud that terrorists such as Osama bin Laden have been “taken out.” Although technically illegal, the practice continues: in September, 2024, a U.S. airstrike in Syria killed 37 “militants,” including two officers associated with ISIS and Al Qaeda.

American courts generally demand that we find a motive for a killing before pronouncing judgment. We generally absolve people for killing in self-defense in cases of domestic violence or abuse, or in reacting to an unlawful attack. Recent cases have justified killing when people feared for their lives, even if they weren’t actually in danger: multiple police shootings of unarmed suspects, an unsettling disturbance on a NYC subway, young vigilantes patrolling Florida and “protecting businesses” in Wisconsin.

On Dec. 4, 2024, Luigi Mangione allegedly stalked and killed Brian Thompson, CEO of health insurance megacorp UnitedHealth Group. In 2024, it was the fourth largest in America, first in net profits of $22 billion, denied about 1/3 of all claims, and paid Thompson over $10 million. The killer used bullets inscribed with “deny,” “delay,” and “depose,” standard tactics used to reject insurance claims for greater profits.

At 3:42 a.m. on Aug. 24, 1970, at the height of Vietnam War protests, a van loaded with explosives blew up outside a University of Wisconsin building that housed a math research lab contracted by the U.S. Army, and other labs. A young science researcher, working late so he could vacation with his family, was killed and three others injured. The math lab suffered little damage; other areas and buildings were destroyed.

Separated by 54 years, the crimes share some characteristics. The motive for both was raising public awareness of political problems, and both attracted some supporters. In Wisconsin, leaflets claimed the bomb was intended to explode when the building was empty, and painted it as necessary to focus attention on thousands of deaths in Vietnam, including those caused by Army and Dow Chemical research programs that developed napalm and Agent Orange.

A poll in mid-December 2024 indicated 2/3 of respondents felt “denials of coverage and profits in the health insurance industry were partially responsible” for Thompson’s murder. At Mangione’s hearing in New York, protesters’ signs charged that “UHC Kills: Death by Denials” and that our country should choose “Health over Wealth.”

Michael Moore, the radical and brilliant filmmaker of tragic and funny films which skewer capitalism, corporate values, American education, gun culture, politics, and more, released the film “Sicko” in 2007. It highlighted the deadly sickness at the heart of for-profit health care and drug companies (choosing wealth over health), was nominated for an Oscar, and generally forgotten since (like Al Gore’s 2006 “Inconvenient Truth”).

Recently, journalists ask if he condones Thompson’s killing, mainly because Mangione writings mentioned him as an influencer. He states emphatically that in 35 years as a filmmaker and activist, he has never said or done anything that even hints at supporting murder.

But he understands the anger that apparently triggered it. Online, he writes, “People across America are not celebrating the brutal murder of a father of two kids from Minnesota. They are screaming for help, they are telling you [the government and corporations] what’s wrong, they are saying that this system is not just and it is not right and it cannot continue.”

Moore charges insurance companies with attacking average Americans by employing more people to deny medical care than there are doctors (about 1 million) striving to provide it. He also offers his tragicomic health care movie free (https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/a-manifesto-against-for-profit-health). But like a poker game, be prepared to “read ‘em [watch it] and weep.”

He states that we have “two broken parties” who created an immoral system, and advocates ”ripping it apart, and throwing it all away. We need to replace this system with something sane, something caring and loving — something that keeps people alive” like the other 32 of the top 33 developed countries in the world. His movie might inspire people to work towards that goal and engage in nonviolent “health warfare,” no matter how much money insurance and drug companies slip into politicians’ pockets.

Allen Woods is a freelance writer, author of the Revolutionary-era historical fiction novel “The Sword and Scabbard,” and Greenfield resident. His column appears regularly on a Saturday. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.