Political violence is no longer limited to extremist groups.
It’s hard to think of political extremists as people whose brains are on fire from a constant media diet of weird podcasts, YouTube wannabes, and conspirators. join in thinking “Do your own research,” said Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at a black church in Charleston. South Carolina In 2015, known to hang out on white supremacist forums, Robert Bowers posted frequently racist content on the right-wing website Gab, where he wrote, “Your optics, I’m going in” Before killing 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, Brenton Tarrant’s statement explains why he killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch. Church New Zealand in 2019 was full of 4chan jokes and memes, indicating he spent a lot of time on the platform.
At first glance, Luigi Mangione is the suspected murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Seemingly not fitting into this mold, Mangione is active on social media. But in the most ordinary way He appears to post on Goodreads and X has photos of himself on Facebook and It is reported that Spent some time on Reddit talking about his back pain. Perhaps additional details will appear that complicate the picture. But no matter how strong his political views, In the end He has been charged with the murder of a man in Midtown Manhattan. and is reported to have written a statement in which he called health insurance companies “parasites”. This makes the picture more complicated. It doesn’t seem like an extremist in a feverish swamp in some obscure corner of the dark web. At first glance, Mangione may just be an ordinary guy. That’s a bad habit. Or perhaps the killings show how mainstream political violence is emerging.
Mangione’s apparent Goodreads profile shows that he has read books by famous science writer Michael Pollan and Dr. Seuss (he gave Lorax five-star reviews) on what is believed to be his X account, he follows a very popular group of people. (and ideologically diverse), including Alexandria Representative Joe Rogan Ocasio-Cortez, Ezra Klein, and Edward Snowden, at least in one case. He praised Tucker’s views. Carlson on Postmodern Architecture His harshest sign is the sympathetic review he gives to a manifesto written by Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, but as writer Max Reed. point outThat’s it. It’s not strange. As for the many politically active young people who align with Kaczynski’s environmental and anti-technology views, though it is unlikely that many will be in lockstep with the Unabomber’s tactics.
There are still a lot of unknowns about Mangione, but that hasn’t stopped people from celebrating his purported cause. In fact, his lackluster social media presence may make him easily identifiable. only up Jokes about Thompson’s death spread across nearly every social media platform. And it hasn’t stopped in just a week since the shooting. People filled the comments on videos and posts about the shooting with unsympathetic replies. points out the reputation of UnitedHealthcare in denying the claim and ponders the suffering Thompson is responsible for leading the Network Contagion Research Institute, a non-profit organization that tracks and analyzes online extremist groups. Found that Six of the top 10 most engagements on X were about Thompson or UnitedHealthcare. In the aftermath of the shooting “Expressing explicit or tacit support for killing or slandering victims” These responses were not divided politically either. When conservatives Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro made a video complaining about people dancing on Thompson’s grave, people push back in the comments and called out the commenter.
In this way, Mangione’s actions and responses defined a new period. Violent political acts are no longer limited to extremist groups with outside views. But it has been widely accepted. This story has been circulating for years: jokes about “eating the rich,” guillotines, and class warfare. It’s become something of a meme for the online generation since the late 2010s. Lighter versions of this sentiment sometimes trickle down to a wider audience, like last year when people Killer whales clapping online to attack yachts in the Iberian Peninsula Many young people are angry at the economic benefits they have gained from being born into an era of extreme wealth inequality. and making jokes about tackling problems with violence After Thompson’s murder This feeling escaped from the containment wall. flooding comment sections and social media feeds
This response may not be abnormal. Instead, it is an ascendant response. America has yet to experience its own year of leadership. This was the period in Italy from the 1960s to the 1980s in which political violence and general chaos became the norm in response to economic instability and increasing extremism. But political violence in the United States is slowly but steadily becoming more common. Over the years it has risen to new heights. since 1970and mostly of ideologically motivated murders since the 1990s have been committed by far-right extremist groups.
Experts have different theories about what drives this. But many agree that we face more political violence. before the trend disappears The response to Thompson’s death was not just from people reveling in what they believed to be vigilante justice. But it could also be a sign of things to come. As my colleague Adrienne Lafrance wrote, “Americans tend to underestimate political violence. As Italians initially did during the years of leadership,” Mangione’s alleged actions and the public response suggest that there is an appetite for cause-focused political violence. That these actions cannot be done or applauded only by online freaks. There are millions of men who see the world the way Mangione does, and millions more who are willing to cheer for them.
