Singer songwriter Ethel Cain has sparked controversy after she seemed to weigh in on the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson with a hashtag calling for more corporate executives to be killed.
The 26-year-old took to social media on Friday with a series of Instagram posts where she shared her thoughts on the role corporate role plays in US politics.
Cain, from Tallahassee, Florida, shared a post by Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor, which condemned major industries including insurance collectives.
It described how these powerful companies ‘buy off Congress’ and that ‘money in politics is the root of our dysfunction.’
Cain shared the post to her own Instagram, but opted to add the hashtag #KillMoreCEOs just above.
The post seemed to be in reference to the recent assassination of Thompson, and appeared to voice her support for his accused killer, Luigi Mangione.
In a follow-up Instagram post, Cain informed her followers that what she was about to say was not to appear ‘reactionary’, ‘edgy’ or to ignite ‘shock value’ in any way.
‘I genuinely mean what I say,’ she wrote. ‘Corporations giggle at protesting. Why would anyone ever willingly come down off their throne that they’ve spent years building off the suffering of their fellow men?’
‘Nobody is getting visited by the ghost of Christmas future, no one is having a change of heart,’ she continued. ‘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.’
‘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,’ the post concluded accompanied with a shrug-face.
She followed it up with one more short post, which said: ‘the world is burning and it’s very clear who’s holding the matches.’
Mangione has become a somewhat pseudo-celebrity over the last few weeks after he was arrested on December 9 following a five-day-search.
The 26-year-old alleged assassin has received thousands of dollars in donations and hundreds of handwritten letters in jail.
Thousands of social media users have also gone online to applaud the execution since Thompson was first shot to death outside the New York Hilton Midtown.
Those who support Mangione as well as those who don’t wasted no time in sharing their thoughts on Cain’s controversial posts.
While some were in agreeance – even going as far as to say they were going to start listening to her music – others criticized her words as well as those in favor.
‘She’s not wrong,’ one comment read on X.
‘Our system has been completely taken over by corporate interests and the majority of us are paying with our lives, literally.
‘We can’t expect that same system to change itself. We must take matters into our own hands just like our founding fathers did.’
Another read: ‘She’s such a queen.’ ‘Evil sh**,’ said another. ‘Stop killing people.’ Someone else chimed in: ‘Rich girl posing as anti-rich lmfao, okay sure.’
‘This is f***ing insane,’ wrote a user. ‘This level of incite to violence is wild.’
Hundreds of comments on X were telling her to be careful and to ‘tread lightly’.
Some even questioned whether or not she was making such bold statements as a way to promote her new album Perverts, which released earlier this week.
But this isn’t the first time that Cain has alluded to her thoughts surrounding the UnitedHealthcare CEO killing before.
Around the time of Mangione’s arrest, Cain took to her Instagram story to share a separate post once again condemning massive corporations.
‘These companies don’t care about you, or your kids or your grandkids. They have zero qualms about burning down the planet for a buck, so why should we have any qualms about burning them down to survive?’ the post read.
‘We’re animals just like everything else on this planet, except we’ve forgotten the law of the jungle and bend over for our overlords when any other animal would recognize the threat and fight to the death for their survival,’ it continued.
Violence never solved anything” is a statement uttered by cowards and predators.’ Violence begets violence’ Cain wrote just above the post.