Great piece. I've reserved commentary on this entire ordeal because, as you mentioned, the facts of the case weren't clear.
The internet take economy has been an embarrassment, chock full of bad faith analysis, pearl clutching, and apparent advocacy for anarchy.
As to the final line of the piece, which is spot on, recall two separate people tried to whack the former president like five months ago and everyone's already forgotten.
"How many murders are committed every day in America by young men afflicted with untreated mental illness?" And, for that matter, how many were committed by such men in the past?
I live daily with a mental illness (autism) that is frequently inaccurately and portrayed by others, as is schizophrenia and other disorders of this kind. Ignorance of the symptoms and a neglectful attitude towards seeing them in others maddingly continues to persist, not just with the general public but with corporate culture's insistence on monetizing everything for profits. As a result, there have been and may be thousands of people out there who are denied good mental health for the most arbitrary of reasons.
Combine that with the fact that it is ridiculously easy in the U.S. to obtain and use a deadly weapon, and you have a powder keg repeatedly ready to go off...
As always, fantastic writing, Bev. I had not paid close enough attention to him to detect his particular flavor of mental illness. We all have a flavor, don't we? Mine is Neapolitan. Anyway, my guess is that we collectively forget about this by (or before) the time Trump takes office because we're gonna have 10,000 other things a day coming at us by that time, making it mentally impossible to even remember a thing that we all can't stop talking about right now. We humans are a fickle bunch, with the attention span of a TikTok video. (Mine is often shorter than that.) I've already forgotten what I was talking about.
Your conjecture here is not unreasonable. Assuming that Mangione was in fact the shooter (as the evidence so far seems to indicate), it will be interesting to see if mental illness will figure as a mitigating circumstance in his defense.
Once he's extradited, his attorney will immediately file NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity). Just his behavior in the courtroom even shows he is not well.
That's seldom a desirable option, I'm inclined to think, but it would seem to make sense here. He should at least give it a try--and for the reasons you've outlined. His attorney, I would think, is going to have to show that Mangione was incognizant of the gravity and the consequences of the action. The killing appears to have been meticulously planned, though, including measures for eluding detection. Also, the killer seems to have had a "rational" objective, that of calling attention to the health insurance industry, by means of the direst "propaganda of the deed." All that could work against him. I share your revulsion, by the way, for the various "celebrations" of this miserable affair.
NGRI almost never works because you have to prove that the defendant didn’t know the difference between right and wrong, that he doesn’t know who his attorney is or the role of the Court, and that he can’t meaningfully participate in his defense. Which, of course, even mentally ill people can do.
Well said. The way we treat people with mental illness and their families in this country is horrible! Even if they do want to take meds, it's not easy to get them diagnosed and on meds! I speak from experience.
My grandfather and my mother had bi-polar disorder. My grandfather never received the help he needed and committed suicide in his 50's. My mother searched for help for years, and never properly diagnosed and medicated until she was 60 something!
She lived to be 94 and the last part of her life was happier, thanks to the meds she took without fail. She's a good example of how our mental health system is a piece of crap.
The rambling and the social isolation and the lack of insight…. Plus who knows what anesthesia or pain meds did to him? What a waste of life all around.
You cut off the next sentence in the Baltimore Sun's quote to support your dive into rank speculation that you're sure he's a schizophrenic.
Let me add that:
"Did Luigi Mangione suffer from it? That’s highly speculative but that possibility haunts the case — and at least offers some rational explanation of so much irrational behavior."
Humana had a policy that they wold pay for generic medicine - when available - to save their customers money. They denied my request to change from a name brand inhaler for asthma at $49.00 to a generic for free, even though they were identical, having been invented in England in 1966.
They said it was not on their 'list' of approved drugs, even though the two were made in the same factory - I asked the manufacturer. The manufacturer stated that they were the same drug and the only difference was the packaging.
It took me OVER TWO YEARS to bring my case to federal court (that's 24 months of medicine at $49.00 per month verses free inhalers). While I won the 'MORAL' victory of having the judge agree with me, the wording of their policy made it impossible for me to win.
$1176.00 needlessly spent on medications I had to have to be able to breathe. There are few actions that wake you up quicker from a sound sleep than the feeling of suffocation!
Luigi Mangione is my hero - he has done what so many of us wish we could do if only symbolically. And no matter how much you are revolted by his actions, every single person who has been denied an insurance claim and suffered the consequence has felt the say way, every single one of you!
Brian Thompson is a blood-sucking leach, but more than that he is a symptom of what our society allows - the usurpation of our right to pursue happiness as healthy people in a free society.
Mangione should pay for his actions - as so many others before him have - he should be a traveling lecturer, informing the public of the danger of giving so much power over to the very agencies whose job it is to protect our health.
Great piece. I've reserved commentary on this entire ordeal because, as you mentioned, the facts of the case weren't clear.
The internet take economy has been an embarrassment, chock full of bad faith analysis, pearl clutching, and apparent advocacy for anarchy.
As to the final line of the piece, which is spot on, recall two separate people tried to whack the former president like five months ago and everyone's already forgotten.
Grim times indeed.
I completely forgot about the assassination attempts LOL
"And within six months, we’ll have forgotten all about it."
That's the way news cycles go nowadays. We get too much news about too many things.
Good article!
Thank you! Yeah, there will be some other disaster to think about.
What an insightful piece. I hope a lot of people read it.
It's just so sad that the platforms warp what is really a pretty clearcut case of mental illness. People are really heartless idiots.
"How many murders are committed every day in America by young men afflicted with untreated mental illness?" And, for that matter, how many were committed by such men in the past?
I live daily with a mental illness (autism) that is frequently inaccurately and portrayed by others, as is schizophrenia and other disorders of this kind. Ignorance of the symptoms and a neglectful attitude towards seeing them in others maddingly continues to persist, not just with the general public but with corporate culture's insistence on monetizing everything for profits. As a result, there have been and may be thousands of people out there who are denied good mental health for the most arbitrary of reasons.
Combine that with the fact that it is ridiculously easy in the U.S. to obtain and use a deadly weapon, and you have a powder keg repeatedly ready to go off...
As always, fantastic writing, Bev. I had not paid close enough attention to him to detect his particular flavor of mental illness. We all have a flavor, don't we? Mine is Neapolitan. Anyway, my guess is that we collectively forget about this by (or before) the time Trump takes office because we're gonna have 10,000 other things a day coming at us by that time, making it mentally impossible to even remember a thing that we all can't stop talking about right now. We humans are a fickle bunch, with the attention span of a TikTok video. (Mine is often shorter than that.) I've already forgotten what I was talking about.
Your conjecture here is not unreasonable. Assuming that Mangione was in fact the shooter (as the evidence so far seems to indicate), it will be interesting to see if mental illness will figure as a mitigating circumstance in his defense.
Once he's extradited, his attorney will immediately file NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity). Just his behavior in the courtroom even shows he is not well.
That's seldom a desirable option, I'm inclined to think, but it would seem to make sense here. He should at least give it a try--and for the reasons you've outlined. His attorney, I would think, is going to have to show that Mangione was incognizant of the gravity and the consequences of the action. The killing appears to have been meticulously planned, though, including measures for eluding detection. Also, the killer seems to have had a "rational" objective, that of calling attention to the health insurance industry, by means of the direst "propaganda of the deed." All that could work against him. I share your revulsion, by the way, for the various "celebrations" of this miserable affair.
NGRI almost never works because you have to prove that the defendant didn’t know the difference between right and wrong, that he doesn’t know who his attorney is or the role of the Court, and that he can’t meaningfully participate in his defense. Which, of course, even mentally ill people can do.
Well said. The way we treat people with mental illness and their families in this country is horrible! Even if they do want to take meds, it's not easy to get them diagnosed and on meds! I speak from experience.
My grandfather and my mother had bi-polar disorder. My grandfather never received the help he needed and committed suicide in his 50's. My mother searched for help for years, and never properly diagnosed and medicated until she was 60 something!
She lived to be 94 and the last part of her life was happier, thanks to the meds she took without fail. She's a good example of how our mental health system is a piece of crap.
Really excellent article.
Thank you. The mental illness aspect of all this is really getting buried under the nitwittery.
“And within six months, we’ll have forgotten all about it.‘
Unfortunately, it won’t even take that long. Next week, we will think we kind or remember his name, or that guy he killed…or was it the week before?
And after the next school shooting, nobody will even care about either of them.
The rambling and the social isolation and the lack of insight…. Plus who knows what anesthesia or pain meds did to him? What a waste of life all around.
The job of psychology is to make revolution impossible.
You cut off the next sentence in the Baltimore Sun's quote to support your dive into rank speculation that you're sure he's a schizophrenic.
Let me add that:
"Did Luigi Mangione suffer from it? That’s highly speculative but that possibility haunts the case — and at least offers some rational explanation of so much irrational behavior."
Good article. I've been puzzling about what, exactly, went wrong with him, and "schizophrenic break" is the best answer so far.
Prediction: that's what his lawyers will pursue, too.
Humana had a policy that they wold pay for generic medicine - when available - to save their customers money. They denied my request to change from a name brand inhaler for asthma at $49.00 to a generic for free, even though they were identical, having been invented in England in 1966.
They said it was not on their 'list' of approved drugs, even though the two were made in the same factory - I asked the manufacturer. The manufacturer stated that they were the same drug and the only difference was the packaging.
It took me OVER TWO YEARS to bring my case to federal court (that's 24 months of medicine at $49.00 per month verses free inhalers). While I won the 'MORAL' victory of having the judge agree with me, the wording of their policy made it impossible for me to win.
$1176.00 needlessly spent on medications I had to have to be able to breathe. There are few actions that wake you up quicker from a sound sleep than the feeling of suffocation!
Luigi Mangione is my hero - he has done what so many of us wish we could do if only symbolically. And no matter how much you are revolted by his actions, every single person who has been denied an insurance claim and suffered the consequence has felt the say way, every single one of you!
Brian Thompson is a blood-sucking leach, but more than that he is a symptom of what our society allows - the usurpation of our right to pursue happiness as healthy people in a free society.
Mangione should pay for his actions - as so many others before him have - he should be a traveling lecturer, informing the public of the danger of giving so much power over to the very agencies whose job it is to protect our health.