The social network obsession with Luigi Mangione tells us a lot about the present

The CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was killed a few days ago in New York by a mysterious man who then fled on a bike. While the NYPD issued statements and details, social media users developed a certain obsession with him. Even before his alleged face was revealed—only seen through blurry security camera footage, hidden under a hood and mask—the mysterious killer was already a hero, a legendary figure, a modern-day Robin Hood. Now, it seems his identity has been unveiled. Allegedly, it’s Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Italian-American and model student, who was identified and detained at a McDonald’s just hours ago. And if you think this identification has slowed the wave of social media memes, you’re wrong. It did the exact opposite.

Luigi Mangione Is the New Obsession of Social Media

The guy is attractive. Very attractive. Among the information that has surfaced—true or false, it doesn’t really matter here—are his political views, his high-level academic career in computer science, a mysterious event that led him to isolate himself and research the workings of the U.S. healthcare system, his readings of controversial and anti-establishment books, and his passion for Pokémon. All these details, fed to users, have sparked jokes, thirst tweets, and fan cams, flooding social networks during the night of December 9th to 10th (Italian time). And no amount of calls for calm, for waiting for due process, or for considering the fact that he’s a young man and a potential murderer, or reflecting on the digital footprint and the ethics of seeking out shirtless photos to repost with captions like "Husband material", can stop it.

The situation is actually more complex and nuanced than it might appear to an outsider. UnitedHealthcare is an insurance agency operating in the medical field and—given how healthcare works in the United States—handles tasks such as approving or denying reimbursements and coverage for individuals in need of medical exams or treatment. When healthcare becomes a paid service, there’s always someone looking to profit or save as much money as possible. It’s undeniable that as average living conditions decline in the U.S., the tug-of-war between "them" (medical insurance companies) and "us" (the citizens) has become more dramatic and intense, more desperate. The social problem, therefore, exists, and Luigi Mangione has only forced us to confront it. And now?

We Need Heroes, and Memes Spare No One

Two forces intertwine, as often happens in these non-places called social platforms, where anything goes because nothing exists, or at least we convince ourselves that’s the case. On one hand, there’s the rigid determination to take nothing seriously, to approach everything with superficiality, ignoring its nuances and tragic undertones—meme lordship and rage bait as a way of life and strategic approach, which keeps things at a distance and provides protection (and a certain ego boost when it works and gains public approval). On the other hand, there’s our need for heroes, for someone to shake up a status quo that doesn’t work for many while working all too well for others. In the middle, if everything turns out to be true, there’s also a traumatized young man who decided to respond to a systemic issue with violence, and who now faces an uncertain path. At no point, or at far too few points, does a political reflection emerge, a critical approach to a boundary episode, a drop that could make the vase overflow—if the vase weren’t too distracted, rigid, absolute, amused, and superficial.