Passive social murder is the quiet, systemic practice of allowing people to die through inaction and neglect. This idea traces back to the nineteenth century, to minds like Friedrich Engels, who accused the capitalist systems of his era of knowing full well that certain conditions would lead the poor to early graves. It is the kind of death that does not come from a gunshot, but from the heavy, silent weight of a society that structures itself so that some lives are nurtured, while others are left to waste away.
