As inflation continues to rise, the money grabs companies utilize cause more consumers to be upset leading to increased questions on how people with such high incomes toward the top can always be searching for more. This issue became highlighted online as memes and anti-government ideas skyrocketed following the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. These posts only gained more fuel to their fire when within only two days of the incident other companies seemingly rolled back on controversial decisions they had made, such as Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s decision to place time limits on anesthesia during surgery.
Anthem’s decision had been met with backlash weeks before already including by medical boards due to the dangers it could pose as patients are denied life-saving procedures because of the length concerned their insurance company, which is not technically medically certified in any way outside of HIPAA. They were not the only company the public had eyes on, as McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski announced within 2 days, as well as the return of snack wraps in 2025. They were originally removed due to Franchisees’ concerns over how long they took to make, as McDonald’s has a policy of allotted time to serve each customer, an issue of corporate supervision as opposed to consumer popularity.
All these examples gave plenty of consumers online targets to call out how corporate greed can supposedly suddenly be managed once it is showcased the power people can have. Another topic of discussion is how United Healthcare claimed in public statements it felt deeply sorry for the family’s loss, despite the same footage of their CEO shown having died, other employees are shown walking over his body to be on time to a mandatory meeting. Brian Thompson was quickly replaced to ensure the company’s growth and function were not paused by the investigation.
Concerning the actual investigation, around Dec. 10 an arrest was announced of a key suspect after a McDonald’s employee was alleged to have recognized a man as the shooter by his unibrow. The man was 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, a prep school valedictorian and Ivy League graduate from a prestigious family in Maryland. According to reports, Mangione was found with a gun, bullets, multiple fake IDs, and a ‘handwritten manifesto’. Despite the lack of information being released that is relevant to the actual crime, the media has been hopping on investigating Mangione’s personal life to relate it to the supposed crime. One example that caused extreme criticism and disbelief from the public, was the claim he had ‘played assassin before’ in video games. Many expected an extremely graphic or violent game but were instead presented with Among Us, a game that qualified to bring its age rating down to 7+ due to its cartoon format and lack of genuine gore.
This slip-up from news sources by focusing on the wrong information has only increased suspicions about Mangione’s arrest being relevant to the crime at hand, with little to no proof being released. While Mangione has been playing up the role of public cameras, it has been deemed just that by psychoanalyst, playing. Many of his outbursts and random rants are supposedly consistent with people who claim they had done major crimes they had zero involvement in, often for money or attention. This has resulted in concern from both reporters and citizens that the wrong man is in custody intentionally, possibly even intending to throw police investigations in the wrong direction.
Despite the previous support toward the ‘killer’ when having no possible name, many have gotten whiplash with the change once Mangione was put into the spotlight. Many do not believe that he is the real criminal and even find his behavior ‘childish’ and ‘attention seeking’. Despite this, as of now, the investigation will continue to focus on pinning Mangione as opposed to uncovering any other suspects or accomplices.
Anti-government and anti-capitalist sentiments have been growing in the United States for years, failing to gain recognition for being such a largely accepted concept among American youth until more recently. Issues could be pointed out in the media’s lack of commentary and acceptance of these sentiments until someone’s death permitted a stronger headline, as well as the less than open-minded responses they’ve given to those who follow it. People are concerned with the direction of the nation and how it will affect them and despite the extreme situation the concept has found itself in, it is a start to opening up and changing the issues the citizens are stuck to deal with.
