Contrasting Folk Heroes: The Cases of Penny and Mangione

After a five-day manhunt, Luigi Mangione, a twenty-six-year-old Ivy League graduate, was arrested and charged on Monday with the widely publicized assassination of the UnitedHealthcare C.E.O. Brian Thompson. The case seized public imagination, and there has been a torrent of commentary celebrating Mangione and denigrating Thompson, including fan edits of the alleged shooter to posts sharing personal anecdotes of denied health-insurance claims. “Mangione is going to be seen as a folk hero across the aisle,” the New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino tells Tyler Foggatt. What does the lionization of a suspected murderer say about the health of our society? 

This week’s reading:

• “How Daniel Penny Was Found Not Guilty in a Subway Killing That Divided New York,” by Adam Iscoe
• “A Man Was Murdered in Cold Blood and You’re Laughing?,” by Jia Tolentino
• “What Will Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Accomplish with Doge?,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells“
• The Fall of Assad’s Syria,” by Rania Abouzeid

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