The Infantile Veneration of Luigi Mangione
with John McWhorter
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Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson, has become something of a folk hero among a certain set progressives. In a nation where the health insurance industry has profited by inflicting so much pain on so many, the narrative goes, it was inevitable that someone would take matters into their own hands. While Mangione’s alleged crime may not be praiseworthy, they’ll say, it’s understandable. Perhaps this, finally, will spur the industry to rethink its practices. It doesn’t hurt that Mangione is well-educated, attractive, and fit.
There is something infantile about this glorification of what I imagine we’ll find is a rather troubled person. After all, if the health insurance industry is as amorally rapacious as its detractors make it out to be, why would one more death cause it to change its ways? Executives will hire more security, more care will be taken to keep tabs on potential assassins, but absent legislative action, nothing will change as long as the bottom line stays fat and the shareholders are happy. The idea that a multi-billion-dollar industry will voluntary reform itself because of one assassination is sheer fantasy.
I think Mangione’s fans know that. They’re taking a twisted kind of solace to soothe their own sense of powerlessness. Despite the wild unpopularity of health insurance companies, there is currently no clear path to change it through normal means. So Mangione fans invested their frustrations in an icon of their own creation, half folk-hero, half-meme. But the image of the committed radical with six-pack abs and a perfect smile is just that: an image. The reality is that a man is dead, his wife is now a widow, and his children are fatherless. The health insurance industry will chug along the same as it has for years, necessary claims will be denied in the name of profit, and those who suffered before Brian Thompson’s death will continue to suffer.
Far from a sign of political consciousness, the veneration of Mangione suggests that nihilism has taken the place of political will among the very people who claim to want change. I happen to think that we do need more equitable healthcare in this country. Too many people are forced to choose between health and penury. But if Luigi Mangione is our best idea, then reform, too, is a fantasy.
Three questions for those who celebrate the murder of Brian Thompson:
1) What if someone shot Fauci on the presumptive grounds that his help in funding GoF research led to countless premature deaths? Fair game?
2) If you're opposed to the death penalty, are you OK with private citizens committing public executions of those they consider "guilty" of some perceived (or real) crime? In other words, do you advocate vigilantism?
3) What if Mangione had missed and instead shot and killed a 4-yr old girl nearby? Would you express admiration for his "noble intentions"?
Your comment that we need more equitable healthcare suggests that more government intervention is needed. I hope I’m misunderstanding your meaning. There can be no doubt that the high cost of “healthcare” is due to Obamacare and other government regulations in this domain over a long period of years. What we need is a healthy dose of deregulation not more government medicine.