Alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione has captured the attention of the nation. His actions, paired with his undeniably good looks, have rocketed him to hero status, and no small number of people are taking issue with that.
Chief among them are the soulless pundits who make a living spreading falsehoods on Fox News, who are already working overtime to turn the American reaction to Mangione into a liberal issue. Thirst traps, comparisons to Jesus, and everything in between currently overwhelm every other conversation about Mangione, and Fox News is pinning the blame exclusively on the political left.
Blonde buffoon Laura Ingraham recently went after “liberal wackos” for thirsting over an alleged killer, railing against the national urge to treat Mangione “as a folk hero.” Ingraham slammed liberals for “salivating over his Italian good looks.”
Ingraham is in no way alone in trying to pin the response to Mangione on the left, but she — like Marjorie Taylor Greene before her — neglects to consider her own demographic. Sure, liberals are both attracted to, and in full support of, Mangione, but we’re not alone. We’re joined by a bulk of the American public at large — including those on the right — many of whom share both a broad outrage over the state of our healthcare system and, apparently, a taste for smoldering Italian men.
As further details about Mangione emerge, Ingraham’s take joins that of Greene’s in neglecting to consider the history. It seems, based on what we’ve seen so far, that Mangione actually leaned harder to the right than to the left. He was raised in a Republican household, and his social media history indicates little support for so-called liberal ideals. The man even praised Tucker Carlson once — you couldn’t get less liberal if you tried.
More importantly, it’s not really Mangione’s looks that have earned him so many fans. Sure, we’re all prattling on about those eyebrows and that eye-catching smile, but that’s just how the internet works. We bury the real discussion beneath memes and thirst traps, but the truth is still simmering beneath the surface. The reaction we’re seeing to CEO Brian Thompson’s death isn’t positive because Mangione is hot — it’s positive because he, Thompson, allowed American lives to end, and all for greed. Not so others could live, not because there was no choice, but because money meant more than someone’s mother, father, child, or cousin.
That’s why Mangione’s quickly becoming a folk hero, not because he’s cute. That’s the shield behind which our outrage with the healthcare system, the soulless elites, and the detached and disinterested billionaires slowly grows. And it’s not a left or right issue — those godless policies kill all of us, regardless of political lean. We’re all done with the impossible cost of a broken leg, of a serious condition — hell, of having a baby. It’s become impossible to exist in this soulless capitalist wasteland, and Mangione’s actions are seen, by people on both sides of the aisle, as the first step toward real change.