Summary
Reddit is removing posts linking to Luigi Mangione’s manifesto, citing its longstanding policy against content related to violent acts.
The manifesto, tied to the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has sparked online fascination and debate.
While Reddit allows discussion of the manifesto within its rules, posts linking to its full text—shared on Substack by journalist Ken Klippenstein—are being removed, angering users.
Critics accuse Reddit of selective moderation, as some sympathize with Mangione’s frustrations over the U.S. healthcare system, which has come under renewed scrutiny after the incident.
There’s an Atlantic article by Charlie Warzel that references it to try to make his comments seem flippant. The news is heavily trying to create or avoid a narrative on this.
“When Mangione was caught, he had with him a note or manifesto of sorts, less than 300 words long. Near the beginning, it offers the following: “This was fairly trivial.” The phrase is cold, detached, and haunting. It might merely be the garden-variety bravado of a gunman. But the sentence also conjures a possibility that is much harder to sit with (and for the internet to latch onto). Of all the possible outcomes available, the least shared, argued over, and considered is one that the shooter alludes to himself—that what feels to all of us like an era-defining event may ultimately be unremarkable in its brutality, in its inability to effect change, and in how quickly everyone moves on.”
I feel like either of these interpretations is way off the mark. The phrase is more likely him suggesting that it doesn’t take a lot of work or a sharp mind to pull it off, which would be a nightmare for anyone trying to keep it from happening again.
If the transcript I’ve seen floating around is accurate, the phrase “this was fairly trivial” absolutely was about how difficult it was to pull off. The lines above and below it talk about super basic social engineering that anyone could do and the hard part of the tool engineering has already been done.
That reads like a sophisticated version of something a primetime Fox News anchor would say to control how their viewers understand an event. The author picked one specific line to quote and twisted the meaning to assassinate Mangione’s character and obfuscate the rest of the letter. It’s straight propaganda.
The Atlantic is just sophisticated propaganda for elites.