Why Mangione is the Face of a New Social Movement

Manifestos and Revolutions Are Fueled By Pissed-Off Young Men

Steve, my historian husband, often says that the world’s biggest problems happen when too many young men are unemployed, disconnected, and discontent. He wrote his dissertation on the interwar years in Germany, so he’s always on the lookout for emergent fascist dictators. (He’s fun at parties, too!) My vigilant husband likes to say that the best way to avoid upheavals and civil wars is to give those guys jobs and babies.

There are plenty of warning signs to keep my husband on edge. America’s young men are underemployed, single, depressed, and glued to their computers and game consoles. Their votes for Trump this November were rooted in nihilism, despair, and populism. But populism doesn’t necessarily have to be a conservative force. That same energy is also brewing in anti-capitalist Reddit forums that worship Bernie Sanders, not Donald Trump.

On December 4th, Luigi Mangione, a handsome young man who looks like a Jonas brother, cooly gunned down the CEO of United Healthcare in the streets of Manhattan. Outraged by profiteering in the insurance industry and plagued by unknown demons, a smart young man used a 3D-printed gun to commit this act of violence. But unlike other shooters and assassins — who even remembers the guy who shot Trump this summer — Mangione is the face of a new social movement.

The economy isn’t great for young people today with the high cost of housing and a sucky entry-level job market, but it’s particularly bad for young men. The decline of union jobs and community life at the local pub has taken a toll on their livelihood and social life. Zoom meetings are a poor substitute for the comradery of the factory floor.

Young people don’t feel heard by our political leaders on other issues as well. Biden’s attempts to get student loan forgiveness were fruitless. He and other leaders are too old to be invested in the future of the planet or understand the threat of AI. The disconnect between America’s elderly leadership and its youth seems to be taking a toll on young men in particular.

These guys are cheering for Mangione in the message boards and other Internet back channels. He’s a hero to them. Mangione has inspired songs on TikTok.

Escorted in a courthouse in Altoona, Pennsylvania, a week after the shooting, Mangione yelled to the press that it was “completely out of touch and an insult to the American people and their lived experience.” What did that mean?

Young people are annoyed that news sources proclaim the job market is great when they spend months sending out hundreds of resumes and get stuck with a job selling life insurance policies to their grandparents. The headlines do not reflect young people’s day-to-day realities. They feel gaslit by the media, their professors, and politicians, so they are looking for new voices for truth — it could be Rogan or Musk or a valedictorian with a plastic gun.

Smart, popular, handsome, and employable, Mangione wasn’t the typical killer shooting random people from a water tower. Just the same, Luigi had some departure with sanity this year. He cut off his friends and family and was reading the Unabomber’s manifesto for fun.

Yet, even in a delusional state, he tapped into the Zeitgeist in a real way that will have a lasting impact. Too bad he’ll be behind bars for the rest of his life rather than giving speeches in front of Congress.

Just as Columbine inspired twenty-five years of school shootings, it’s going to be open season on CEOs in the coming years unless we make some serious changes in the status quo.

---

Related