No, Luigi Mangione Didn’t Have ‘Political Motivations’
Ignoring the complexity of mental illness demeans us all
Working in the legal field, I interact with lots and lots of people with mental illness. We accept “court-appointed” criminal defendants, meaning people who can’t afford to hire their own attorney.
Socioeconomic status in a criminal setting often coincides with mental illness or drug addiction.
Often, it’s both.
Even my boss, who passed the bar in the late 1990s, still blames the mental illness in our clients on the drugs they take, rather than the other way around — that the mentally ill often self-medicate (poorly) to alleviate their symptoms.
Right now, Twitter is the usual dumpster fire of people screaming conspiracy theories about Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. That he was “set up by the police”, or that there’s somehow a connection to Jeffrey Epstein, or that the “American education system” made him this way.
I’m not a doctor, but Luigi Mangione is clearly paranoid schizophrenic. And the public’s obsession with his looks or his background, or whatever rambling “political manifesto” he left behind does nothing but demean every single person with mental illness.
Who knows why Mangione fixated on the medical insurance industry? He did have extensive experience with doctors and hospitals due to recent back surgery.
But one can assume that given his background and family ties, he wasn’t being threatened with foreclosure due to unpaid medical bills. It’s a leap to ascribe his outrage at the insurance industry to his personal circumstances.
John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan because he wanted to impress the actress Jodie Foster.
Those were simpler, more limited times, before 4chan or Discord or all of the other online locales where young, mentally vulnerable men can gather to feed each other’s delusions.
Mangione could have as easily fixated on car manufacturers or the NBA.
Schizophrenia hits young men in the prime of life:
A gradual personality change, signs of delusional, disordered thinking, a recent withdrawal from family and friends, all raise the possibility that the man caught Monday morning at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, was not entirely of sound mind. Mental health professionals tell us these are the common symptoms of schizophrenia and the mid-20s are the peak years for onset and diagnosis. — the Baltimore Sun Editorial Board, Dec. 11, 2024
How many murders are committed every day in America by young men afflicted with untreated mental illness?
We have a client right now who, if you didn’t know better, would seem fairly normal, albeit rambunctious and probably dabbling in illegal drugs.
“You know Tony’s bipolar,” his mom said to me on the phone yesterday.
“Yes, we’re well aware,” I answered. We’ve represented Tony before.
A few days earlier he had sent us a text saying that he wanted to explain some “truths” about his charge (bathing in a public fountain and then accosting his parents in their home). Unfortunately, he actually has two separate cases — the other one is for an assault at a campground — but he can only focus on the fountain case.
A warrant has already been issued for his failure to appear in court on the assault case, but as he is alternately unhoused or living with random people, he’ll probably never be picked up.
His mom either forces him to appear in court on Monday or we leave the file open forever while Tony brawls and bathes his way across Ohio.
And that’s the problem — you can’t “force” people into treatment. You can’t “force” them to take their psych meds. Half the time, like with Mangione, you don’t even know there’s a problem until it’s too late.
Brian Thompson wasn’t murdered in the first wave of some popular revolution against the health care industry. Luigi Mangione wasn’t set up by the police.
Thompson and Mangione are united forever as victims of the internet. It’s sad and it’s senseless. And within six months, we’ll have forgotten all about it.
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.
What an insightful piece. I hope a lot of people read it.