The martyrdom attributed to a man not yet found guilty
By: William Levy
On December 4, 2024, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, the CEO of health insurance company UnitedHealthCare was shot and killed by an unidentified, masked killer. For days, people and police alike speculated if this shooter would ever be found with such a lack of evidence surrounding the events. Eventually, on December 9, Luigi Mangione was arrested on speculation for the murder at a fast-food restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Whether or not you agree, the fact of the matter is that Gen-Z has demonstrated enormous support for Luigi Mangione and his alleged crime–the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Support for the Movement
It’s been misconstrued that some people have only come to Luigi’s defense because they find him attractive. While this is definitely the case for some, it disregards that a huge portion of his support has an ideological basis.
I find that the tweet above summarizes what that ideological basis is: a distaste for the upper-class. “I don’t feel terrorized…because I’m not a billionaire,” said a NYC protester about Luigi. One would have to be living under a rock to not recognize Gen Z’s growing frustrations with the wealthy (recall AOC’s Tax the Rich dress at the Met Gala and the support it received.) It is no surprise, then, that killing the CEO of a company worth billions would generate the support it did from Gen Z.
An Emerson College poll shows that 41% of voters ages 18 to 29 found the UnitedHealthcare CEO killing to be somewhat or completely acceptable, a percentage far higher than any other age group. In comparison, only 8% of people ages 50 to 59 found the killing to be acceptable. I believe there are two factors shaping just why Gen Z has been so unsympathetic to the murder. For one, Gen Z has a certain enmity against major U.S. institutions, and health insurance is certainly no exception. They saw UnitedHealthcare specifically as the worst of the insurance bunch, given the company had the highest denial rate and used automated tools to increase their percentage of denials.
By virtue of that fact, murdering the man at the top of the company elicited a sense of justice being served. As an interviewee stated, “We are all victims of the healthcare industry. Someone has to pay for it.”However, there’s an additional factor at play. A viral TikTok video, with 2.2 million likes and over 8 million views, said to the world, “Y’all really raised the school shooter generation and now you’re asking us for sympathy.” Their message was clear: why should young people care about a CEO they deem corrupt when third-graders die every year and no one at the top does anything to change that tragedy. They expressed their frustrated sarcasm in the comments of the TikTok.
“Deny. Defend. Depose.” These were the words written on the shell casings found at the scene of the murder. They are an echoing of the tactics insurers use against people–denying claims, defending the denials, and deposing the action in court–intended to explain the motivations behind the murder. Gen Z, continuing its support for the movement, has taken these words as a mantra. A social media trend arose where people write “Deny. Defend. Depose.” on dollar bills, illustrating the slogan in an anti-capitalist context. Others more extreme in their support have gotten the words tattooed on them. Notice the amount of engagement both posts received. The message is undoubtedly mainstream.
Support for the Man
Nothing can be taken entirely seriously for Gen Z, though. It did not take long after Luigi was alleged to be the killer for the romanticizing to start. In fact, he received a surge of 300,000 followers on X following his arrest, with people professing their love for him. Some called him good-looking, some said they wanted to date him, and some were too explicit to restate.
Edits took TikTok by storm, some with like counts of over half a million. Here’s a salacious example with some provocative lyrics. The comments of these edits are full of obsession that is comparable to that an A-list celebrity would receive.
Shirts picturing a shirtless Luigi–an ironic sentence to write–took a NYC market by storm. Time and time again, the young man’s physical appearance is celebrated like some sort of vogue.
Look-alike competitions sprouted across campuses in New York, Texas, and our very own UF. If we know anything about these contests (Zayn, Timothee Chalamet, Paul Mescal,) they are rooted in romantic fantasy.
It’s also worth mentioning that UF Health and UnitedHealthcare had a dispute earlier in September, 2024, the results of which left patients with United out-of-network at UF Health locations statewide. This included students who have United through their parents. UF Health continued to see desperate out-of-network patients, risking the fact that United might not reimburse the hospital network.
CEO of UF Health, Dewar, stated “We’re not going to leave the Medicaid population just to fend for themselves.” This dispute and its damaging effects for those on and around campus left a sour taste against UnitedHealthcare, and might further explain the support from our own UF students for Luigi’s alleged actions against the CEO.
However...
This all may be a double-edged sword. Throughout their idealization, one thing remains constant: Gen-Z already assumes Luigi is the UnitedHealthcare assassin. He is paraded as the sexy vigilante, but really he’s only been alleged of committing the crime. At least in the social media sphere, Luigi Mangione has been rendered guilty until proven innocent.
William Levy is a second-year Political Science major at the University of Florida. He is an online writer for Rowdy, on the DEI team for Swamp Records, and an engagement coordinator for MODE. He frequently argues with people on social media.