The recent case of Luigi Manon exposes a sinister shift in how our government weaponizes terrorism charges to protect corporate interests. When prosecutors labeled him a terrorist instead of charging him with murder, they weren’t just misclassifying one crime—they were laying the groundwork for a massive expansion of state power against citizen dissent.
Let’s be crystal clear: Government officials aren’t stupid. They know exactly what they’re doing. When Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas discussed the case, he barely mentioned the actual incident. Instead, he fixated on what he called “alarming” social media reactions—people’s justified anger at a predatory healthcare system. This wasn’t a slip-up. It was calculated.
“We’re seeing concerning rhetoric,” Mayorkas warned, using the classic authoritarian playbook of painting critics as threats. He spoke about monitoring social media and tracking “anti-government sentiment”—code words for surveilling anyone who dares question a system that kills 70,000 Americans annually through denied care. This is how authoritarianism creeps in: first they monitor, then they label, then they silence.
The public’s reaction wasn’t celebrating violence—it was a nationwide cry of anguish from people who’ve watched loved ones die because insurance executives needed another yacht. From cancer patients denied treatment to diabetics rationing insulin, millions of Americans have experienced the cold brutality of corporate healthcare. The government’s response? Label the critics as terrorists while protecting the real perpetrators of mass suffering.
United Healthcare’s body count makes any individual act of violence pale in comparison. When people talk about “blood on hands,” they’re not using metaphors—they’re referring to the thousands of death certificates bearing the invisible signature of insurance denials. The company isn’t just unpopular—it’s a machine of systematic violence operating under legal protection.
Comedian Bill Burr exposed the dark truth when he noted that insurance companies suddenly started approving more claims after the incident. Fear momentarily forced executives to acknowledge human life over profit margins. But rather than fix the murderous system, our government chose to protect it, by criminalizing the desperate and angry voices of its victims.
There’s a straightforward solution that would prevent similar incidents: single-payer Medicare for All. Every other developed nation has universal healthcare. They don’t have CEOs getting rich by executing people through denied coverage. They don’t have families choosing between medication and food. They have a rational system: everyone pays in, everyone gets care.
But instead of basic human decency, we’re watching the machinery of state power swing into action. The terrorism charge isn’t just legal overreach, it’s a deliberate strategy to equate corporate criticism with domestic terrorism. When authorities can’t defend mass death for profit, they criminalize those who dare name it for what it is.
The arrest of a woman in Lakeland, Florida, for expressing frustration during a phone call with Blue Cross Blue Shield isn’t an isolated incident, it’s a preview of what’s coming. The message couldn’t be clearer: accept your role as compliant consumers in a system that profits from your suffering, or face the full force of state persecution.
This isn’t about Luigi Manon anymore. It’s about whether Americans will organize and stand up against this blatant corruption of government power, or whether we’ll let fear and surveillance crush the last remnants of our right to demand better. The time for polite requests is over. We need massive, peaceful protests. We need coordinated civil disobedience. We need to flood Congressional offices with calls and letters. We need to organize voter drives focused on single-payer healthcare. Most importantly, we need to refuse to be silenced by those who would rather label us terrorists than face their own complicity in a system that kills for profit.