I think more and more Americans have what C. Wright Mills called the "sociological imagination".

We pour tons of effort into punishing visceral, direct violence like a stabbing or shooting. But if white collar crime is being committed that leads to the death of hundreds of thousands of people, it's rare that anyone sees jail time. Maybe you could argue the decisions of Brian Thompson made only account for maybe 10% of why XYZ died but when you scale that out, you could easily argue this to be a form of white collar mass murder.

I think the younger generations are increasingly aware of this disparity in justice. If you find it hard to understand the celebration of violent vengeance but don't feel the same inability to understand the celebration of Jeffrey Doucet's retribution, then perhaps you are lacking the sociological imagination.

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retrac 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm reminded of this recent Pew Research poll [1] about whether people believe their fellow citizens are moral.

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/03/05/in-25-countr...

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wavemode 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What "white collar crime" was Brian Thompson guilty of? As I understand it, he was merely the CEO of an insurance company.

Nobody likes how insurance companies do business, but that doesn't make it "crime".

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solid_fuel a minute ago | parent | next [-]

He didn't say "white collar crime."

He said "white collar mass murder."

The implication here is that it is wrong even though it is not currently illegal.

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polishdude20 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Its less about "crimes" and more about a moral or ethical boundary that people feel is being crossed.

	▲	culi 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah think of it as a moral crime. Someone can achieve tax evasion completely legally but that doesn't make it fair or right.

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wanderingjew 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What a crime is is determined by the population. For a very long time, the population has given the idea of a "justice system" to... Well, the justice system.

Things have deteriorated lately, and the population does not see the justice system as effective.

It is completely expected that we see vigilantism, but it is in no way extrajudicial.

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lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Nobody likes how insurance companies do business, but that doesn't make it "crime".

The way they "delay, deny, defend" as a matter of course shows a lack of a good-faith execution of the insurance agreements, to the point that a sane world would understand it as extremely obvious (and documented!) fraud. Sure, it is de facto not fraud, but tell that to someone who didn't get insurance payments which they were owed to pay for life-saving treatments (or, I guess tell it to their grave).