Jason Johnson on CEO Murder Case: ‘This Is What Happens When You Have a Country that Worships Violence and Where You Don’t Regulate Guns’

Reid: “In nearly the same breath, FOX’s Laura Ingraham speaks about 26-year-old UnitedHealthcare suspect, and Daniel Penny, who was just acquitted yesterday in a Subway choke hold death of 30-year-old homeless man Jordan Neely.”

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Ingraham: “ — people, which I was sent in the commercial break earlier, crazy. He’s cute, he’s this. And people celebrating this, it’s a sickness. Honestly, it’s so disappointing, but I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. Gentlemen, thank you so much. And up next, the other big news out of New York, Daniel Penny, a lot of people think he’s a hero, and tonight, he’s not guilty. My take next.”
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Reid: “(Laughs) Wow. Joining me now is Jason Johnson, professor of politics and journalism at Morgan State University and host of the podcast ‘A Word with Jason Johnson.’ Vive la diffe-rance, Jason.”
Johnson: “We just witnessed a murder of irony. That was a murder right there.”
Reid: “Irony is officially dead.”
Johnson: “Irony is officially dead under any and all circumstances. We should not be surprised in this country that just re-elected Donald Trump.”
Reid: “I mean, the reality is, if you go back to the Trayvon Martin case, you can go back before that, you can go back to the justification for lynching around conservatives, whether the conservatives wearing the ‘D’ uniform or the ‘R’ uniform, conservatism itself has justified violence, January 6th, burning down Tulsa and Wilmington, overthrowing the government there. If it’s violence for the purposes they want, they’re cool with it.”
Johnson: “If the victim is somebody that I don’t like or the victim is someone they feel deserves it, then a lot of times people are willing to justify violence. It’s an unfortunate thing and it’s a very American thing, right? We worship vigilante violence. We worship action heroes, we worship Charles Bronson, all these people who take it into their own hands — “
Reid: “Al Capone.”
Johnson: “Al Capone, criminals and everything like that. I think the sad part about this, frankly, is that I am not going to pretend that in a country that’s been started and operated off of violence, that violence doesn’t sometimes solve things, but the man who was killed is a cog in a machine. It’s not going to change anything about how health care operates in this country. So you have killed a man, harmed his family, and the machine is going to keep going. So it didn’t really accomplish anything.”
Reid: “And the thing that is wild about it, this Luigi Mangione, he’s now, sort of, everywhere, there are people celebrating him, saying, ‘Don’t catch him,’ that sort of thing. You know, he did have his arraignment today and he stood up and yelled something about this is unfair, it’s not right, yadda-yadda-yadda. There he goes walking in today, he yelled something about — there he goes. He’s turning himself into sort a folk hero, and leaning into that. He’s probably richer than the guy that he killed. His family, he has generational wealth.”
Johnson: “Yes.”
Reid: “So he probably was wealthier than the CEO that he killed.”
Johnson: “Yes, this is Lex Luthor killing a storm trooper, right? And here’s the thing: The humanity of this is that no matter how much money you have, you can still taken advantage of by our unfair health care system. All the money in the world can’t fix a broken back. All the money in the world can’t save your grandmother. That’s where my empathy comes through. But the attitude that, well, if I can’t get things my way or I’m in pain, that singular violence is a way to go is a level of privilege that vast majority of people in America can’t exact.”
Reid: “And a lot of the people who are fully in love with Mangione are opposed to regulating the insurance companies. That’s how you could actually stop them taking advantage of left and right. I agree, the system is broken and insurance companies are bilking us. UnitedHealthcare is being sued for a reason. But like you said, they’ll just replace him with another CEO and keep doing it to you. But regulation would actually fix it. They’re against that.”
Johnson: “They’re against regulation because people don’t understand that part. They want the catharsis of this one-man action that will supposedly — it’s like everyone talking about the anesthesiologist a week ago, like, oh, that changed because of what happened? Probably not. That was a much more complex situation. If there was a general level of understanding about health care, if we actually had members of Congress who would engage health care as an actual issue, not just as a political ploy to be rebounded back and forth, you wouldn’t have these kinds of problems. But, Joy, this is my real concern. This is very real for you and me and everybody else who does anything. This person worked alone. I sincerely believe he very likely worked alone. Any crazy person who views somebody as the genesis of all their problems can go out and do this. That’s what happens when you have a country that worships violence and a country where you don’t regulate gun. Because if you couldn’t get access to guns, this probably doesn’t happen.”
Reid: “And this is the same approach that is taken by the right when it comes to gun violence. They’re like, oh, it’s very sad that 3-year-olds were killed, but — the answer would be regulating guns, but we’re not willing to do that.”