f{"id":38194,"date":"2024-12-13T13:49:03","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T21:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38194"},"modified":"2024-12-13T13:49:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T21:49:04","slug":"the-reading-list-of-luigi-mangione-suspect-in-brian-thompsons-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/13\/the-reading-list-of-luigi-mangione-suspect-in-brian-thompsons-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"THE READING LIST OF LUIGI MANGIONE, SUSPECT IN BRIAN THOMPSON\u2019S KILLING"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An account linked to Luigi Mangione, a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare\u2019s CEO, left a trail of book reviews online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/matt-sledge\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/cropped-cropped-bw_granger-sledge-headshot-1-180x180.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/matt-sledge\/\">Matt Sledge<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/nikita-mazurov\/\">Nikita Mazurov<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">December 9 2024, 4:39 p.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/AP24339740616078-e1733779962957.jpg?fit=4000%2C2000\" alt=\"People stop to look at the reward poster with surveillance photos of a man suspected in the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson who was killed outside the the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY, December 4, 2024.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A reward poster with surveillance photos of a man suspected in the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson who was killed outside the the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan seen on Dec. 4, 2024.&nbsp;(Photo by Anthony Behar\/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WHEN THE IDENTITY<\/strong>&nbsp;of the person who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was a mystery, Americans grafted their own ideas about the gunman onto the little information available. Now that a person of interest in the case has been arrested, that imagined character is bumping up against the identity and writings of a named suspect, who appears to have left an extensive trail of book reviews, including for an anti-technology manifesto written by the Unabomber and treatises on managing back pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Along with a three-page, handwritten manifesto reportedly in the possession of Luigi Mangione upon his arrest, those online traces may offer insight into the motives of a man accused of a killing that touched a nerve for Americans exhausted with profit-hungry health care companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of the online chatter has centered on the book written by Ted Kaczynski, the man known as the Unabomber, who conducted a nearly 20-year campaign of mail bombings designed to reverse society\u2019s accelerating technological revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it\u2019s not terrorism, it\u2019s war and revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it\u2019s not terrorism, it\u2019s war and revolution,\u201d an account bearing the name and likeness of Mangione wrote on Goodreads in a review of Kaczynski\u2019s 1995 essay \u201cIndustrial Society and Its Future.\u201d \u201cFossil fuel companies actively suppress anything that stands in their way and within a generation or two, it will begin costing human lives by greater and greater magnitudes until the earth is just a flaming ball orbiting third from the sun. Peaceful protest is outright ignored, economic protest isn\u2019t possible in the current system, so how long until we recognize that violence against those who lead us to such destruction is justified as self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book\u2019s anarchist-inflected take on modern society mocked leftists and has recently found a second life on TikTok among people who reject the traditional left-right divide. In 2021, The Baffler&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thebaffler.com\/latest\/influencer-society-and-its-future-semley-millar?ref=compactmag.com\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">described<\/a>&nbsp;Kaczynski as an \u201cunlikely unifying figure, embraced on TikTok by both jaded environmentalists and right-leaning doomer nihilists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/jun\/19\/unabomber-ted-kaczynski-dangerous-anti-tech-manifesto-lives-on\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">have also cited Kaczynski<\/a>. \u201cHe might not be wrong,\u201d Musk said, of Kaczynski\u2019s insistence that tech had been bad for society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other books drawing Mangione\u2019s interest included a mish-mash of self-help bestsellers, pop psychology analyses, and self-optimization volumes such as Tim Ferriss\u2019s \u201cThe 4-Hour Workweek.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of Mangione\u2019s favorite books, judging by his glowing review, was a diagnosis called \u201cWhat\u2019s Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies\u201d by blogger Tim Urban. The author said in his description of the book that it eschews \u201cthe usual left-center-right horizontal political axis\u201d in favor of \u201ca vertical axis that explores how we think, as individuals and as groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI believe this book will go down in history as one of the most important philosophical texts of the early 21st century,\u201d Mangione wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Urban took to Twitter Monday afternoon with a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/waitbutwhy\/status\/1866201072793980969?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">comment<\/a>&nbsp;apparently directed at Mangione\u2019s appreciation for his writing: \u201cVery much not the point of the book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Kaczynski\u2019s book provides an obvious possible influence for political violence, other books in Mangione\u2019s reading history also stood out given his alleged target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They included at least three tomes about managing pain: \u201cBecoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance,\u201d \u201cCrooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery,\u201d and \u201cBack Mechanic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Twitter account bearing Mangione\u2019s name featured an X-ray of a back with a surgically implanted medical device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Details were beginning to leak out Monday about a manifesto that Mangione allegedly had on his person when he was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThese parasites had it coming,\u201d one line in the document said, according to a police official who&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/12\/09\/us\/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-shooter-monday\/index.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spoke to CNN<\/a>. \u201cI do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the NYPD did not yet have possession of the full, three-page document but that it appeared to betray \u201csome ill will towards corporate America.\u201dShare<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">We\u2019re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/join.theintercept.com\/donate\/now\/?amount=10&amp;recurring_period=months&amp;referrer_post_id=483219&amp;referrer_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2024%2F12%2F09%2Funitedhealthcare-ceo-luigi-mangione-reading-list%2F&amp;originating_referrer=&amp;source=web_intercept_20241213_article_longask_monthly_PianoReplacement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donate<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/matt-sledge\/\"><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/matt-sledge\/\">Matt Sledge<\/a><a href=\"mailto:sledge@theintercept.com\">sledge@theintercept.com<\/a>@sledge.41on Signal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An account linked to Luigi Mangione, a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare\u2019s CEO, left a trail of book reviews online. Matt Sledge,&nbsp;Nikita Mazurov December 9 2024, 4:39 p.m. (TheIntercept.com) A reward poster with surveillance photos of a man suspected in the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson who&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/13\/the-reading-list-of-luigi-mangione-suspect-in-brian-thompsons-killing\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}