We still don’t know much about the suspect, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, beyond his Goodreads reading list. And not much else has been reported on what led him to take such drastic action.
But after Mangione allegedly assassinated health insurance titan UnitedHealth’s Brian Thompson, many Americans saved their pity for the CEO of the $22 billion company. Folks online living paycheck to paycheck half-jokingly asked, “Who’s next?” After Mangione’s arrest, the hype only intensified, with both the right and left online meme machines kicking into full gear.
“In this country, we call Ubers instead of ambulances, take fish antibiotics instead of the real thing, and ignore obvious medical issues because we fear bankruptcy more,” highlights Mother Jones Creator @katmabu. “Many of us have watched our loved ones die, or ourselves sat through years of pain because companies like UnitedHealthcare won’t cover medically necessary costs.”
Now, there’s still a lot we don’t know and are likely to learn about the suspect. For example, we don’t know what exactly led him to take such drastic action. And with reporting still developing on all fronts of this story, vigilante justice is pretty much never the answer—though the context of our current times made it understandable to many posting online and conversing in real life.
“Whatever your opinion on Thompson’s murder is, many Americans’ lack of sympathy is something real, something we have to grapple with,” argues Kat.
Mixed into all of this is the right’s penchant for double standards and racism. Remember Daniel Penny, the guy who choked Jordan Neely, a Black man, to death on the subway? Well, he was found not guilty of negligent homicide after a jury deadlocked on his manslaughter charge. He was then not only lauded across the right-wing online ecosystem but was the vice-president elect’s guest at a recent sports event.
So this week, Kat wants to talk about how elites and pundits have failed to shape this narrative and distract the left and right and what that says about Americans’ relationship with a deathly health care system.
