Getty ImagesUS singer-songwriter Ethel Cain has responded to a backlash after she posted the hashtag #KillMoreCEOs, following the murder of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in December.
Cain posted the original message while sharing a quote complaining about the influence of wealthy corporations and lobby groups on US politics.
It led a Fox News host to call for a boycott of her music.
The outspoken 26-year-old singer has now posted on her Tumblr blog: “I find it funny that conservatives try to paint me calling for the death and destruction of multi-billionaire CEOs as some radical ‘woke liberal’ standpoint. As if that even has anything to do with politics.”
Cain added that she is from a “deeply conservative family in the sticks of Florida”.
She said the US healthcare system had failed “each and every member of my family in a different way at one point or another, as is the case with pretty much every family in this scorched earth nation”.
She added that “the men in charge better hope they can keep their digital smokescreens running as long as they can” because “all hell is gonna break loose” if ordinary left-wing and right-wing people “realise they have the same enemy”.
Cain’s original post on Instagram stories, according to Billboard, shared a quote from former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich about the influence of powerful organisations like health insurance companies and oil and the National Rifle Association on Congress, and how “money in politics is the root of our dysfunction”.
Known for her provocative statements, she followed that with a post saying she wasn’t being reactionary or “edgy”, but that “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?”
It was necessary to “make them fear for their lives and hit them in the only place they hurt”, she claimed.
‘Sick and depraved’
In a discussion on Fox News, host Jason Chaffetz responded: “It makes me mad, it’s sad, it’s disappointing… it’s fundamentally wrong.”
Political commentator Guy Benson told the channel: “It’s sick, it’s depraved, and the message there is violence is the answer.”
He added: “This should be a very black and white moral issue, and it’s scary to see how much support that type of sentiment has got.”
Co-host Jackie DeAngelis added: “People need to boycott her.”
The station referenced a poll suggesting many college students and Generation Z sympathised with the suspect in Mr Thompson’s killing.
Luigi Mangione, 26, pleaded not guilty last month to murder and terrorism charges for the killing of Mr Thompson, who was shot outside a Manhattan hotel.
Some on social media praised Mr Mangione’s alleged crimes, often sharing their own anger at the US private healthcare system.
‘A different kind of pop star’
Cain’s latest comments come days after the release of her new album, Perverts.
She was ranked on Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Music list last year, has supported acts including Florence and the Machine and Mitski on tour, and has modelled for Givenchy, Marc Jacobs and Miu Miu.
Her records have earned glowing reviews, with Billboard describing her in 2023 as “a musical auteur” who makes “phenomenal music”, and the New York Times saying in 2022 she had an “elaborate vision of becoming a different kind of pop star”.
