Luigi Mangione and the Making of a Modern Antihero
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
He’s a kid from a rich family. He wasn’t affected, neither directly nor indirectly through a family member.
He didn’t stand up for his crime but ran away and lied. And he got caught because 1) he had to flirt with a clerk while he as on his mission and 2) he had to sit down inside a McDonalds when he knew the whole world was looking for him.
Looks like he was both afraid of the consequences and afraid that nobody would know that it was him.
His motto seemed to be, “If I can’t do anything worthwhile in this life, then let me get the attention I think the world owes me by killing someone.”
Like the guy who shot Lennon.
Total ego trip. Should have read a bit less Wait But Why and a bit more Tolstoy. What a wasted life! Killed himself more than his victim. Very sad and very useless.
common people, by definition, includes people outside the guy’s personal circle— the focus on his personal affiliation is besides, likely even counter, to your point. a conclusion that he was both scared of consequences AND wanted to get caught, is quite a stretch when it makes much more sense that dude was required to match his photo id, a normal practice checking in anywhere, and that he wanted food & wifi somewhere near his bus stop. and if that were the case, assumption that it’s out of ego rather than exhaustion or something is baseless.
even by your own logic, it “looks” like his actions were anything but useless, considering Anthem immediately reneged on plans to limit anesthesia coverage, and the House has now introduced legislation to break up healthcare conglomerates.
all in all, the beauty of a folk hero is not that they are one by precisely matching some definition, but that they arise as such out of the collective projection of the ‘folks’ view of their own struggle against oppressive systems. in other words, a single person doesn’t have to “get it”, because it’s not up to them. if we’re making reading suggestions, maybe try supplementing the corporate media blurbs for X/instagram/FB comments under literally any post about this guy (aka, what common folk are saying)?