By Christian Cullen, Staff Writer
For the first time since his killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione has popped back up in our internet feeds. Mangione made his first court appearance and recently released a statement thanking people for supporting him since he’s been in jail.
Simply put, this killing was one of the biggest moments that the US has had in a while. This was, objectively, a major moment of the class war and evoked very important conversations about class in America, as well as the need to fix a very broken insurance system. That is, until the internet made Mangione the meme of the month.
I am not going to state my opinion on whether what Mangione did was right or wrong. I am interested in the internet’s reactions to it.
Instead of grappling with why there was a positive reaction to what Mangione is accused of, there was a scornful nature to the coverage. Rather than meet the issue where it was at, there was an avoidance of engagement with people’s very real anger and dissatisfaction with the healthcare system. That is why nothing will change.
The internet and, to a greater extent, American society, have begun a worrying trend: making jokes and memes about serious incidents. Instead of discussions about the morality and justification of what Mangione did, people were more focused on his abs. Instead of actual change to the healthcare system, people talked about what Mangione had read on Goodreads. This extends further past Mangione, but he is a useful lens through which to view this problem.
The byproduct of our base reaction being to make the funniest meme or the wittiest tweet is that no actual change occurs. The discussion becomes unfocused and less serious. American class consciousness can never truly be realized if people are more occupied with jokes rather than material change.
There is also a disturbing lack of empathy involved. Wherever you fall on the argument about insurance companies, a man was murdered in broad daylight. That is not good. Our overreliance on the internet has numbed us to the realities of the world. We have become less empathetic and less caring. This has occurred in part due to the internet. It is easier to not feel connected when the connection happens through a screen.
There are more examples than just Mangione, in terms of the failings of social media. While there have been activism resources shared, this case serves as a reminder to watch out for performative activism. There are more comments on the internet than people in the street. That, at its root, is the problem with social media. Mangione, in spite of a poor method, reignited a conversation about our healthcare system. There were small protests here and there, but at the end of the day, it fizzled out.
There needs to be a fundamental change in how we operate as activists and as people. While social media has been a useful tool for engaging people and spreading information about topics at times, its costs outweigh its benefits. It separates us from those we are trying to help and trivializes the inflection points of change. When tragedies happen, instead of an outpouring of support, there is more often an outpouring of vitriol.