This Week’s Going in the Internet Hall of Fame

A suspect — UPenn alum Luigi Mangione — has been arrested in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. But I probably don’t have to tell you that if you spent so much as 10 seconds on social media on Monday.

By Kylie Cheung  |  December 10, 2024 | 1:57pm
Photos: Twitter/Screenshots Latest
This Week’s Going in the Internet Hall of Fame

Early Monday, a suspect in last week’s shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was apprehended at a McDonald’s — that’s currently being review-bombed on Yelp and Google Reviews — in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The suspect was identified as Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate who now faces a second-degree murder charge as well as three gun charges and a forgery charge. Mangione’s identity was always going to cause a stir, given the controversial debates his alleged actions sparked about the morality of cheering about the death of perhaps the ultimate symbol of capitalist greed: the CEO of a health insurance company responsible for condemning poor, sick people to death by denying coverage claims. All the frenzied coverage and discourse around Thompson’s death only compounded when the first photos of the man now identified as Mangione dropped, and the internet descended into a collective swooning session over the few visible, pixelated inches of his face. On Saturday, New Yorkers hosted a lookalike contest for the suspect in Washington Square Park.

Police followed a tip from a snitch at the Altoona McDonald’s and arrested Mangione, who had on him the suspected weapon, a barrage of fake IDs, and a two-page letter. Per the New York Times, the hand-written note read: “To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone,” before then condemning companies that “continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it.” When authorities shared Mangione’s name with the public, the internet — particularly Twitter dot com — descended into a predictable and shocking feeding-fest of jokes, conspiracy theories, deep-dives into everything from Mangione’s LinkedIn to his GoodReads, bisexuality rumors, and, of course, thirst. Again, a few inches of his face had the internet in a chokehold — suffice it to say, the shirtless photos of him, followed by his appallingly glamorous photoshoot at the county jail, did nothing to quell that thirst.

Over the last 24 hours, journalists have scrambled to verify whether or not Mangione wrote an online manifesto decrying the for-profit health insurance system. Meanwhile, internet sleuths and horny posters have been poring through every detail of his life that they (honestly, we) can find. He was the valedictorian of his high school and a fraternity brother at UPenn; he had unsurprisingly incoherent politics, beyond a clear disdain for the health insurance system — but, then again, that’s a sentiment that inevitably cuts across the partisan spectrum; he seems to have suffered a painful back injury that justifiably radicalized him; old friends of his told the Times on Tuesday his pain was sometimes debilitating and left him unable to date or be intimate; his (likely) GoodReads account suggests he has a variety of interests, from the Lorax to the writings of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. As his name would suggest, he hails from a big Italian family. And he seems to have gone AWOL a few months ago, potentially suffering from a mental health episode that I’d wager improved access to health care coverage could have mitigated.

On November 18, his mom reported him missing to the San Francisco Police Department. On Monday evening, his family released a statement, saying, “We only know what we have read in the media.” A reporter present for Mangione’s first court appearance recounted: “He was tall, about 6’1. He walked with his head up and made eye contact with the judge and the Commonwealth when they were speaking. He was barefoot and cuffed around waist and ankles. He spoke eloquently, with confidence. He appeared coherent and understood what was going on.” (6’1, you say???)

As you might’ve guessed, no one is being normal about any of this. Monday amounted to a veritable poster’s holiday; a public orgy of jokes and speculation; a collective episode of psychosis and frenzied posting as the world around us burns. It was a field day on Twitter and Bluesky comparable to Donald Trump announcing he had covid in 2020, the 2023 death of loathsome war criminal Henry Kissinger, the 2022 Oscars “Slap,” the death of Queen Elizabeth II that same year, or the day a Pennsylvania man attempted to assassinate Trump in July (big year for Pennsylvania, all things considered!). Except, I’d argue, the insanity and incoherence of Mangione’s arrest, paired with the deep relatability of hating the health care system, and the ongoing intrigue and endless torrents of unanswered questions, made Monday eclipse every poster’s holiday that came before it.

But why tell you when I can show you…

A lot of people have a lot of thoughts about McDonald’s right now…

Even more people are using Mangione’s social media accounts to dissect his politics and origin story…

Starting to believe the biggest determinant in young men’s political alignment is how much time they spend working out. Not because like some believe, exercise has some magical effects on mindset. Purely because hours in the gym means lots of time to listen to podcasts.

— Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 1:18 PM

Naturally, the horniness has continued…

Many are reflecting on his Italian heritage…

Posters have appraised his taste in books…

And, because this is 2024, made many a fan cam… 

There’ve been a lot of pop music and culture references…

There have even been biblical references…

As well as some insightful political takes…

And every other thought anyone could possibly have about this has been posted…

So… here we are! I have full confidence that the American criminal legal system is not prepared for how the nation’s collective, cultural reaction to this young man’s trial will inevitably play out.

 
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