“For the past two weeks, online Americans have celebrated Luigi Mangione’s murder of a United Healthcare CEO. Here was an ordinary guy who finally lost it and struck back at the apparent injustice of our society. However, the school shooter in Wisconsin undermines the romantic visions of lashing out. These aren’t noble rebels fighting for a higher purpose–they’re deranged individuals striking out in nihilistic fury.
Many will object to the comparisons between Mangione and school shooters. They’ll claim Mangione only killed one person and his victim was a very bad man. This apparently creates a gulf between his violence and that of the Wisconsin school shooter. But the real difference is that school shootings are more taboo than assassinations. Mangione didn’t really have a serious purpose, as gleaned from his rambling manifesto. This once-promising young man with everything going for him lost his mind. He didn’t even have a legitimate grievance against the health industry as his family made millions through it. He
wasn’t even a UnitedHealthcare beneficiary. At some point, his crazed mind decided he needed to kill, and Brian Thompson became the target. If he had decided to shoot up a doctor’s office or the UHC headquarters, Mangione would have far fewer supporters. But since his lone victim was one wealthy white guy, people don’t have the same qualms.
Like school shooters, he one day snapped and killed for insane reasons. (
Blaming insurance companies for the state of American healthcaremisses the boat.) Unlike school shooters, he chose a socially acceptable target.
This allows Mangione to join the the internet’s pantheon of anti-heroes.
One viral post includedthe UHC assassin alongside Killdozer, the Unabomber, and the Bundy Family as examples of their ideal politics.
Only the Bundys had a semi-coherent ideology, being anti-government libertarians. The others are just malcontents striking out at normal society.
Killdozer was a local asshole who destroyed his hometown in a (admittedly very cool) bulldozer tank over a property dispute where he was in the wrong. He nearly killed people, but his failure to do so is remembered as proof of his noble intentions. The Unabomber was a deeply disturbed man who
wanted to become a woman. Failing to change his gender, Ted Kaczynski instead sent bombs to people advancing technology in his bizarre mission to send us back to the pre-industrial age. These aren’t people worth admiring. They’re contemptible, even if they do make good source material for documentaries.”
