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Luigi Mangione: What to make of online comments
A lot of online chatter has celebrated or shown solidarity with Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
MILWAUKEE - From the moment surveillance video of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's suspected killer was released, the case has captured the attention of social media users around the world.
A lot of online chatter has celebrated the suspect. A scroll through X or TikTok shows some solidarity with Luigi Mangione, rather than the man he's accused of killing.
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An outburst from the 26-year-old Mangione on his way to a Pennsylvania courtroom on Tuesday reverberated tens of thousands of miles away though screens and social media.
The case has even made its way to Marc Tasman's lectures at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The director of digital arts and culture at UWM said celebration of Mangione online, despite the fact he is now charged with murder, has spurred conversations among students.
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"I understand civil disobedience is part of a tradition of non-violent resistance, so this is not non-violent resistance. It's violence. It's a violent act. It's murder. It's an assassination," Tasman said. "You can say that it's reflective of a kind of frustration."
The favorable comments toward Mangione center on frustration with the U.S. health care system and health insurance, specifically. Tasman said the case could be an example that shows we aren't always aware of the consequences – or reach – of what we say online.
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"We're disinhibited. It's a little bit like being buzzed, like we've had too much to drink, and we say things that we regret," said Tasman. "Of course, on the internet, when we say these things, they're being recorded."
Tasman said he thinks Mangione's age has also made him more popular with younger online users.