Ethel Cain is expressing her thoughts on the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
On Friday (Jan. 10), the 26-year-old musician shared a quote on her Instagram Story from former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, discussing how powerful groups like the NRA, Big Oil and insurance companies influence Congress. “Money in politics is the root of our dysfunction,” he wrote.
Cain added the hashtag “KillMoreCEOs” to the post. In a follow-up Instagram Story, the “American Teenager” singer clarified that she wasn’t aiming to be reactionary or “edgy.”
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“I genuinely mean what I say. Corporations giggle at protesting,” Cain wrote. “Why would anyone ever willingly come down off their throne that they’ve spent years building off the suffering of their fellow man? “Nobody is getting visited by the ghost of Christmas future, no one is having a change of heart. It’s simple, you make them fear for their lives and hit them in the only place they hurt or nothing will ever get done.”
Cain concluded her message: “I don’t even see how that’s an incredibly radical idea. It seems quite straightforward to me. ‘Violence is never the answer’ wrong. Sometimes it is.”
This isn’t the first time Cain has hinted at her views regarding the death of Thompson, who was shot and killed in New York City in December. Around the time of suspected killer Luigi Mangione’s arrest, she wrote on X, “Violence begets violence.”
After Mangione’s arrest, it was revealed that the 26-year-old had a three-page manifesto criticizing the U.S. healthcare system. Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to state murder and terror charges, also faces federal charges of stalking and murder, which could carry the death penalty, according to the Associated Press.
Cain has long been outspoken about her political views. Following Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential victory, she expressed her rage in a Tumblr post, decrying the U.S. political system and condemning how the electorate has been divided.
“The problem is that America has beaten down its people for decades and gotten them weak and desperate and now promises a way out, a way to transcend and rise above, through selling out their fellow man,” Cain wrote. “An embarrassingly large chunk of white men are just straight up nazis these days as a way to dissociate from the rest of the carnage around them, even if they’re broke and uneducated and from an impoverished background themselves.”
A vocal critic of both the Republican and Democratic parties in the 2024 election, Cain argued that modern political discourse has fostered widespread hatred and warned that the newly elected president is far from the only issue facing the nation.
Cain also delivered a direct message to Trump supporters: “If you voted for Trump, I hope peace never finds you. Instead, I hope clarity strikes you like a clap of lightning and you live the rest of your life with the knowledge and guilt of what you’ve done and who you are as a person.”
