This is a special post for quick takes by Everett's Cat. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.
In conversing with people that state the alleged shooter of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Health, Luigi Mangione ruined his life by carrying out an act that to him seemed necessary and activist.
I have trouble with these quick assessment, that he ruined his life. In an attempt at thinking rationally about this situation. My first thoughts, outside of this is a horrible event that happened, is did Mangione really "ruin his life," and if so, how might one dictate or navigate statements, that such person ruined their life by conducting such an act. What might be a way to evaluate such an immediate take such as the ones I hear in similar cases?
In life you make choices; usually you lose something and you gain something. There are two ways to interpret the statement that he "ruined his life":
The first is trivially true. The second depends on one's utility function. From certain perspective, all activists are ruining their lives. The activists seem to disagree.