As the country watches Luigi Mangione’s trial, BVN students reflect on corporate apathy and health care’s gradual undoing.
Since Luigi Mangione’s Dec. 4 murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, digital discourse surrounding the suspected shooter has rapidly spread across various online platforms, with some young people praising his vision for socioeconomic justice and others condemning his violence. Amid the frenzy, BVN students explore the barriers of expressive ethics and civil disobedience in an era of political advocacy.
Though details revolving around the assassination continue to surface, authorities confirm that Luigi Mangione is a 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate charged with murder in the shooting of Brian Thompson, and he is currently being held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. There, he awaits a likely mid-February court appearance and potential conviction on 11 charges, including murder in the first degree in furtherance of terrorism, according to The New York Times.
A BVN student who requested anonymity described this particular charge to be unfair, stating that Mangione’s actions don’t align with the accepted definition of terrorist activity.
“Terrorism is the calculated use of violence, especially against everyday people, to create a climate of fear in a country,” the anonymous source said. “Luigi wasn’t targeting everyday people, or even a group of people, nor was his goal to scare the American public. While murder is wrong, Luigi’s goal was to counter peoples’ fear and mistreatment surrounding class and access to care that should be accessible to everybody.”
Sophomore Shea Satterwhite emphasized Mangione’s culpability, though they also claimed that his actions were likely an attempt to dismantle a broken American system, not to share class commentary. In fact, a recent study conducted by the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) found that approximately 45,000 annual American deaths are connected to a lack of health coverage — a staggering figure for a developed nation.
“[Luigi] shouldn’t escape jail time because he made the punishable decision to shoot and kill somebody. I can’t agree with his actions, but I do think they relate less to class than others seem to think,” Satterwhite said. “Luigi was a successful man in no need of more money . . . I think it could’ve been easier for him to feel empathy for [peoples’] physical pain and health care access problems because of his own chronic back issues. He was probably struck by the fact that we have enough funds to support our own ailing citizens in this country, but not enough compassion.”
In this vein, the anonymous source said that the suggestion to simply “work up the ladder” — advice often given in response to complaints about economic divides — can’t possibly resolve all financial troubles.
“The American idea that you can achieve anything if you work hard enough just isn’t true all the time, as much as we’d like it [to be.] Wealth and influence are usually more important than hard work and talent in this country. Some people are born at the bottom and never given a chance to rise,” the anonymous student said. “Murder is never something to dismiss, but at the same time, I can’t agree with people who support . . . the morality of certain billionaires . . . when those billionaires’ actions have shown us that they’re corrupt. A constant belief in effort-based worthiness and merit in a system that places money before either of those things feels a little misguided to me.”
Satterwhite stated that these conceptual “ins-and-outs” and the broader societal significance of Mangione’s situation have largely been lost to digital irony.
“I haven’t been able to be a part of any big discussions about Luigi’s actions because most of those conversations happen online and only involve his looks, which is such a surface-level thing to talk about when his actions and beliefs say so much about the state of this country,” Satterwhite said. “The Luigi situation is difficult for lots of people to talk about upfront and in person, probably because so many conversations about it are happening online in the form of comedy.”
Though irony may limit direct discussion of Mangione’s accountability, students continue to think about activism’s objectives and potential. The anonymous student condemned murder, but also claimed that civil disobedience may be necessary to end certain instances of oppression.
“Most historically disadvantaged groups didn’t get their rights from being completely compliant, though obviously any sort of political violence should never be mindless or murderous,” the anonymous source said. “You can’t blame those disadvantaged people for their unhappiness when their lives are run by individuals in positions of power, influence, and money, especially because we live in a country where all of those things have and continue to be abused.”
Satterwhite somewhat differed in their perspective, asserting that advocacy can and should be peaceful to realize protesters’ ideals.
“When a person commits a violent act in the name of a cause, they push themselves further from the justice that they’re fighting for. Onlookers will be more likely to believe that the person who committed the act is out of their mind, and because of that, the protester’s opinion won’t be taken seriously,” Satterwhite said. “The assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO was definitely a statement, but there are more effective ways that the thoughts behind it could’ve been expressed. Now the ideas themselves might be lost to violence.”
