A law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Associated Press said that at the time of his arrest, Mangione was carrying a handwritten document expressing anger with what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies and a disdain for corporate greed and power.
He wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world and that profits of major corporations continue to rise while “our life expectancy” does not, according to the bulletin.
Mangione had severe back pain from childhood that interfered with many aspects of his life, from surfing to romance, Ryan said.
Well, at least he seems to have a pretty accurate picture of the US healthcare system and longevity environment.
source: Suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO struggles, shouts while entering courthouse
On the issue of what group is responsible for most of the high prices of medical care in the US, I’ve heard that its mostly the hedge-fund and private-equity owned hospital networks that are the key beneficiaries of the current system, in terms of extracting maximum profit.
But of course, I’m sure there is plenty of blame to go around, with really bad incentive structures driving the entire system.
Given the huge and “positive” response on social media to this story, and broad news coverage and social media engagement by millions of people, I would suspect were going to see a lot more attacks of all sorts on the US healthcare system as it currently operates:
Online, fans exist for almost everything and everyone. Following the shooting death of Brian Thompson, a fandom emerged around his suspected killer that seemed unifying in a way few others have been. He became an avatar that anyone who’d ever struggled with a hospital bill could understand.
Many of the most engaged posts on X mentioning Thompson or UnitedHealthcare following the shooting “expressed explicit or implicit support for the killing or denigrated the victim,” the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) wrote in a report compiled before Mangione’s arrest. Rhetoric that was once more at home on 4chan or 8chan was spreading to other forums. “[T]his phenomenon was once largely confined to niche online subcultures,” the authors wrote. “We are now witnessing similar dynamics emerging on mainstream platforms.”
Mass shooters and other perpetrators of violence often become memes, NCRI senior adviser Alex Goldenberg told The New York Times, “but what’s disturbing about this is that it’s mainstream.” People reacted to the death of Thompson like it signaled the start of a class war.
Read the full story: The Internet’s Obsession With Luigi Mangione Signals a Major Shift (Wired)
相关：
Praise for United Healthcare CEO Assassination Goes Viral
