“My empathy is outside the network”

When UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed in a targeted shooting in New York on Wednesday morning, politicians from his home state of Minnesota posted sympathetic messages on social media. But these supportive responses were soon drowned out by a very different tone, as people told horror stories about health insurance denials and made sick jokes comparing the CEO’s death to the way they were treated by the U.S -Health insurance system was mistreated.

A Facebook post from UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, said it was “deeply saddened and shocked by the death of our dear friend and colleague Brian Thompson.” But this post has collected over 11,000 laughing emojis at the time of writing, which far exceeds the darker emojis used to express condolences. Comments for this post have been disabled, but the shared posts included comments like “I would offer thoughts and prayers, but they are not covered because they are out of network.”

An Instagram post from the company was also blocked, preventing average users from commenting directly, but other posts on the platform also contained scathing comments. In a post last week about ways to cope with holiday stress, commenters didn’t hold back: “My empathy is completely out of control for this post.”

“Sorry. But my insurance and Medicaid don’t cover thoughts and prayers,” read one comment with hundreds of likes, echoing the sentiment that had turned into a meme.

“Judging by the public reaction, I think the bigger question should be why this isn’t happening more often,” another comment said.

Other comments became more personal, with people talking about being denied coverage by UnitedHealthcare and how they had to pay large sums of money to survive: “My uncle paid you for 22 years without missing a single payment and then he died , you refused his life insurance claim. You even had the courage to cash a check from him the week he died. Scumbags. Sometimes you get what you deserve. I hope you all suffer like my mother did. Last year she endured the nightmare of losing her brother and then almost filing for bankruptcy because of 22 years of denying a life insurance claim that you paid on time and diligently. Then you turn around and spit on his corpse. Your claim to empathy has been rejected. I hope you all understand what’s coming.”

Others made dark jokes: “It seems like the hole in his chest was a pre-existing condition. You must refuse to report.”

According to the Associated Press, UnitedHealthcare insures more than 49 million Americans and the company had revenue of $281 billion last year. The insurance giant is known for denying coverage using an artificial intelligence tool that has an error rate of about 90%, according to a lawsuit filed last year.

There were also videos on Instagram pointing out that the UnitedHealth conference in Manhattan started promptly at 8:00 a.m. ET, even though Thompson was killed around 6:45 a.m. The conference was finally canceled shortly after 9:00 a.m. And some tweets on

But the reactions weren’t all cheerful. There were many people who were against celebrating a murder. Thompson reportedly had two children and a wife who told NBC News that he had recently received death threats, possibly related to a “lack of reporting.”

“To the people who laughed at this post, it’s a shame the family lost a loved one and you still have to be an idiot. Remember, karma is a bitch,” one comment on Facebook said.

The reaction appears to be a marked change in the country’s tone, however imperfect the comments on social media may be. Normally, trolling and sadistic glee over someone’s death have been marginalized on extremist sites like 4chan or X since Elon Musk bought the platform. But the wave of anger and frustration over the health system on Wednesday was clearly felt online.

It makes sense that Americans are more relaxed about their sense of decency these days. Donald Trump’s re-election as president signaled a kind of right-wing populist nihilism, as the Republican leader embraced conspiracy theories, threatened to persecute his political enemies, and demonized immigrants in extremely racist ways. The sometimes solemn demeanor of such a large number of Americans on Wednesday felt like an embrace of the same kind of nihilism.

The United States has a history of enormous violence, but the past two decades have been relatively stable in terms of domestic bloodshed for political purposes. According to the FBI, the United States averaged about five bombings per day in the early 1970s, a simple fact not often remembered here in the 21st century. And a century ago, it was commonplace for dozens of people to be killed at once during labor disputes in the United States as workers and bosses fought for control. All of which means that this is likely the beginning rather than the end of people advocating political violence, especially as Trump prepares to take power with promises of retaliation. Peace and stability are not the norm.

The person who shot Brian Thompson is still at large and the NYPD is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. But even that news gave people on social media another opportunity to point out how much they had been harmed by UnitedHeath’s policies. As one user wrote on Bluesky, “The reward for the person who shot the CEO of United Healthcare isn’t even enough to cover 1/9 of the bill we got for 28 days of radiation.”