A plurality of young Americans now openly support terrorism. Yes, seriously. This sounds like right-wing alarmism or hyperbole, but it’s just reality, as revealed by a disturbing new poll.
For context, popular internet personalities responded to the cold-blooded murder of a healthcare CEO by celebrating and even sexualizing the alleged killer, Luigi Mangione. But observers had no way of knowing how widespread this sentiment was and how much of it was meant at least partially in jest.
Now we do.
A new poll from Emerson College found that a plurality of 18 to 29-year-olds, an astounding 41%, think the extrajudicial murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was “morally acceptable.” Nearly 20% indicated they were neutral on this question, and only 33% had the sense to say that the murder was “completely unacceptable.”
Support for the murder was significantly more common among Democratic respondents than Republicans and much more popular in this age group than in all others.
We’re left with an ugly truth. A plurality of young people in this country support terrorism, at least in this incident, and believe terrorism can be morally justified. After all, not only has the alleged killer been charged with terrorism in addition to murder, but his alleged actions clearly meet any common definition of terrorism: the use of violence against civilians to promote a political message, an incoherent and confused message the alleged killer himself admitted he was too ill-informed to articulate.
It’s hard to understate how perverse this moral “logic” is.
No one, no matter how horrible you think their deeds are, should be executed in cold blood with no trial or due process of any kind. If Thompson actually did something evil with his business practices, something these young people largely just assume at face value rather than actually prove, the proper response would be to charge him criminally or vote to change the healthcare policies in this country. (Ironically, the admittedly deeply flawed healthcare system they’re so upset about is … Obamacare.) But vigilante executions without due process are the stuff of banana republics and failed states, not liberal democracies.
As commentator Robert Sterling explained on X, the implications of this moral logic are astounding and sweeping.
“Are we allowed to assassinate the CEOs of other industries you view as harmful (e.g., fossil fuels), or is it open season only on insurance executives?
“Murdering Brian Thompson will do literally nothing to increase the availability or affordability of healthcare. Is it justified to shoot someone in the back simply out of frustration with the industry in which he works?”
“The largest insurance operator in the US is the federal government, via Medicare. Is it therefore acceptable to kill political officials, since Medicare also denies some claims?”
What’s more, most of these same young people would almost certainly find the assassination of the CEO of Planned Parenthood by a pro-life extremist morally reprehensible, and they’d be right. But there is no thought process one could use to support the assassination of Thompson that couldn’t be equally applied in these kinds of situations, too. Have they not realized this inconsistency, or do they just not care?
It’s also worth asking how, exactly, we got here. Many culprits are behind Generation Z’s moral rot, from the desensitizing effect of social media to the alarmist rhetoric these young people have been inundated with since birth to the disgraceful lack of moral clarity on this issue shown by their political icons, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
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But how we got here is almost a moot point. We face a situation today where a plurality of young people, who will soon inherit positions of power across this country, support political terrorism. All we can do now is wonder whether a nation where this sentiment becomes widespread can survive without tearing itself apart at the seams.
Brad Polumbo is the host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.