How Luigi Mangione became a martyr

It was hard to expect that, by the end of 2024, the Internet could have a new antihero – a murderer who, with his extreme act, would open the floodgates to a social debate that America, the world, and the so-called powers that be are not ready to confront. This is the case of Luigi Mangione, the killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, whose escape and subsequent imprisonment have plunged the global social media community into a complex debate on ethical and social issues such as economic inequality, the shortcomings of the healthcare system, and the role of justice in modern societies. Today, authorities and the press are formally treating Mangione like some kind of comic book villain – the images of his arrival in New York, dressed in his orange prison jumpsuit and surrounded by a small army of black-clad police officers, not to mention the mayor of New York himself, have something absolutely theatrical, almost dramatic. How can a single man in an orange jumpsuit require such a high level of security? Beyond the photos, the charges that dominate the news include aggravated murder with terrorism under New York State laws – an accusation that elevates his revenge against the CEO to an ideological act. The fact that the terrorism charge was issued in the same hours as yet another school shooting has raised questions about the political nature of the charge itself, given that Mangione killed a single man while school shootings often result in dozens of victims, or figures like Kyle Rittenhouse, who became a sort of conservative idol. Now Mangione could face life in prison and, according to some, even the death penalty. And someone, writing on X, wondered why the authorities in a religious country like the U.S. are not realizing that the treatment of Mangione is actually turning him into a martyr.

Indeed, Mangione has already entered, by popular acclaim, the list of infamous anarchist figures that includes Ted Kaczynski and Gaetano Bresci. One of the most surprising aspects of the case is the level of popular support Luigi Mangione has received, especially among younger segments of the population. According to a CloudResearch poll conducted shortly after his arrest, 27% of American adults said they felt "moderate" or "great" sympathy for Mangione; 12% believed the murder was a justifiable act. Among adults under 30, support for Mangione rises to 28%, while it drops to 5% among those over 50. The reasons for this empathy are tied to the frustration of ordinary people with the American healthcare system and, more generally, the enormous social disparity prevalent in Western society. In particular, the insurance company whose CEO was killed was notorious for denying many insurance claims, even using AI to send automatic rejections – a flawed mechanism that has indeed caused the death of many people left without medical care. Mangione’s supporters wonder whether there is not a disproportion between the killer's guilt, having killed only one person, and that of the victim, whose actions may have caused the deaths of thousands. The harshness of the charges against him testifies to the panic the episode has caused among many members of the ruling class, who, through the press and television, are labeling the glorification of violent acts as a form of protest as “disturbing” and “dangerous.” Meanwhile, on social media, the hashtag #FreeLuigi has gone viral, with thousands of users sharing personal stories of struggles against ineffective insurance companies and healthcare systems.

One of the most controversial aspects of the case now, as explained by Forbes, is the possibility of a “jury nullification” – a legal situation in which jurors, despite recognizing the defendant's guilt under the law, decide to acquit him for moral or social reasons. Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, pointed out that the risk of jury nullification is particularly high in this case, given the polarization of public opinion. «I’ve never seen a murder defendant receive so much support. To some, Mangione is a kind of hero», Rahmani admitted, while Mangione’s words in a note made public, reading «These parasites had it coming», are finding growing support as they echo across the Internet. For this reason, the jury selection process will be crucial, and District Attorney Alvin Bragg will need to ensure jurors are not biased in his favor. Nonetheless, the real issue highlighted by the Mangione case, on the level of ideological principles, is what we might call institutional dissonance, meaning an attitude of authorities anchored to formal norms and values that ignore the cultural, social, and moral changes of the population. In short, everyone in America knows why Mangione is receiving the support he does and is considered a kind of folk hero, yet politicians and experts speaking to the press seem surprised that frustration with the flaws in the healthcare system has culminated in a murder.

Increasingly, throughout the West, there is a noticeable tendency for institutions to use the law as a shield to avoid addressing the reality of social change, highlighting a rift between institutions, which are supposed to represent citizens, and the citizens themselves, who see their demands ignored – the case of healthcare in America being a prime example. Just recently, for instance, a meme appeared on the Internet that ironizes on the headline of a Times article about Keir Starmer's UK government (and therefore entirely unrelated to Mangione's case or any other case) that reads: Don’t replace the culture war with class war. The headline has now been completely decontextualized and turned into a meme that uses it as a phrase attributable to an elitist establishment trying to distract the public with issues of representation and identity, often important on a purely semantic level, to keep public attention away from the ever-growing issue of class disparity. This phenomenon is happening to some extent in the U.S., given the weight that so-called “identity politics” has had in recent elections. However, in the U.S., access to healthcare is an issue for everyone, regardless of political orientation, and perhaps the Mangione case has gone viral because it has brought to light an uncomfortable truth: the “culture war” can easily become a “class war”. But what does it say about a society and, above all, a political class that it takes a murder to bring such issues to the table?