The Sad Reason Why Gen Z's Response To The Slain UHC CEO Is So Different From Boomers
It has more to do with the reality of this country's healthcare system and how it's failed a majority of people.
Elena Efimova | Shutterstock Following the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, individuals have shared their varying reactions on social media platforms, especially young adults within Gen Z. The consensus among Gen Zers doesn't seem to be empathy for the loss of human life but rather a gleeful celebration of the repercussions that can happen to the CEO of an incredibly corrupt health insurance company that made its profits on the backs of denying sick people coverage to get the treatment they desperately needed.
Compared to baby boomers, who have taken on a more sympathetic tone, bringing up Brian Thompson's grieving family, and that murder should never be the answer to a problem. Despite the radically differing opinions from both generations, it seems Gen Z's less empathetic take on Thompson's death has more to do with the reality of the world we live in than anything else.
The sad reason why Gen Z's response to the slain UHC CEO is so different from boomers.
In a TikTok video, a Gen-Z content creator named Rachel Gaede pointed out that all the CEOs of major companies are crying out about Thompson's murder and admonishing anyone who believes that violence is the answer, but Gen Z is less than impressed with that excuse. Gaede brought up the fact that the reason Gen Zers are rolling their eyes at boomers' responses has to do with the simple fact of mass shootings in this country.
"You normalize gun violence to the point where we take days to weeks off from school to practice what to do when a gunman comes into our building," Gaede said. "We grew up in a generation where our lawmakers look at our dead kids, our dead friends, our dead peers, and they tell us the answer for that was a bulletproof backpack."
Growing up with the threat of school shootings has changed Gen Z's views on violent crime.
Gaede insisted that it's laughable how hypocritical the rich and privileged are when one of their own is gunned down in violence.
Gun violence, mass shootings, and school shootings — are all a part of Gen Z's childhoods. They've grown up hearing that sometimes bad things like this happen without any resolution.
Young people walk around with the knowledge that the coffee shop they're in could turn into a nightmare or that they have to quickly look for the nearest exit in a movie theater because, at any moment, someone could walk in with a weapon and start shooting.
More Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2021 than in any other year on record, according to the latest available statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC. That figure includes gun murders and gun suicides.
Gen Zers have no sympathy for Brian Thompson because they're tired of the healthcare industry.
Another content creator named Edward Liger brought up a recent article published by The New York Times about Brian Thompson being the "real working class hero" and not Luigi Mangione. In his video, Smith explained that the American people are not sympathetic to the healthcare industry because the healthcare industry has never been sympathetic to us.
"A Kaiser Foundation survey found that a majority of Americans with health insurance say that it is good. That ignores the 26 million Americans who don't have insurance at all, or the 45,000 a year who pass away for that reason," Smith argued. "We're cherry-picking data points in order to push a narrative."
In 2024, the average health insurance premium for families carried a price tag of $25,572 per year, while single workers paid an average of $8,951, representing a 6% and 7% increase from the year earlier. Aside from rising health insurance costs, Americans are also enraged over coverage denials, which a KFF analysis of nongroup qualified health plans in 2021 found impacted almost 1 in 5 claims.
The healthcare system has become less about helping sick people get better and more about exploiting sick people to put more money into the pockets of people like Thompson. Smith argued against the NYT article and proclaimed that people like Thompson aren't heroes in the slightest but have profited off of the suffering of the American people.
The reason Gen Zers aren't empathetic is that they don't feel sorry for a man who treated people poorly.
It's unsurprising that we're seeing such vitriolic reactions from Gen Zers. It's mostly rooted in exhaustion and being desensitized to the reality of a person getting shot in the middle of NYC in broad daylight. Why should Gen Zers care about a million-dollar CEO when lawmakers didn't seem to share that same empathy for the victims of school shootings?
Why should Gen Zers care about a million-dollar CEO of a billion-dollar health insurance company that had one of the largest percentages of denied claims for their clients? The United States healthcare system has built its business and profits on taking advantage of sick people who have no other choice but to adhere to their demands because they just want to get better. That's abhorrent and downright disgusting.
Thompson represented the face of an unfair system, and Magione's agenda shed light on a corrupt system that many Americans have little sympathy for.
Yes, murdering someone in cold blood in the middle of the street is awful. That shouldn't have happened to open people's eyes to the reality of how broken the healthcare system truly is. But Thompson's death has become a symbol of what happens to the greed and rot that has permeated this country for far too long.
Hopefully, now we can start having conversations about the systemic failures and how many of these institutions exist to benefit the rich and curse everyone else to live a life of inequity and struggle.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.