What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Shooter CEO Conspiracy Theories
To say that Luigi Mangione has captured the public imagination is an understatement: when an Ivy League-educated upper-class man allegedly murders the CEO of a widely criticized health insurance company, people will invest in it . But with this interest comes an expected flood of conspiracy theories and disinformation. Let’s unpack, discuss and debunk.
Did the police arrest the wrong person?
Within hours of his arrest, messages began appearing online questioning the circumstances of his arrest and arguing whether police had found the guy. This video from TikToker ThePrincessAndThePopper summarizes the allegedly suspicious circumstances surrounding the arrest.
“If I shot the CEO and got away with it, five days later I would absolutely walk into a McDonald’s without disguise or disguise, carrying with me a backpack, the murder weapon and a three-page manifesto describing my motives. “,” says Poppers, “I think it’s a set-up because the government doesn’t want us to think we can get away with things like that.”
Disclaimer: Mangione needed to eat. And he was wearing a mask. As for carrying evidence of his crime, it does not seem strange that a high-ranking fugitive would take with him everything he had. Maybe he didn’t want to risk leaving incriminating evidence wherever he was? Perhaps he did not stay anywhere and had nowhere to store his belongings. Maybe he kept the gun because he planned to shoot other people?
The fact that he was a plant cannot be completely refuted, but it is unlikely to be dismissed either. If authorities were trying to link the crimes to a man who “had nothing to do with it” at McDonald’s, they chose the worst jerk ever: Mangione from a rich, famous family, which means he likely has access to good lawyers. If he’s not involved in the crime, the law firm he’s already hired likely won’t have much trouble exonerating him, and what “message” does that send? This would mean that the real killer is still here, and what happens to the “message” if he kills someone else?
That doesn’t mean the cops arresting Mangione means he’s guilty – it’s just that authorities almost certainly believe he did it and believe they have enough evidence to prove it. Mangione’s lawyer says he hasn’t seen any evidence against his client yet , but I bet he will soon.
Do the photographs prove Mangione is not the killer?
When Reddit and the X “experts” start analyzing photos, things are going to get really stupid. This highly upvoted comment sums up the argument for the veracity of Mangione’s photographs:
“They flooded the images of this guy because he didn’t match the original images of the shooting suspect. This is a completely different person. The shooter looked German, but this guy is clearly Italian,” writes Redditor FriendOfDirutti .
I’m not sure what it means to look “German”, but many people point out supposed differences in eyebrows and other facial features in official photographs, adding helpful circles to highlight supposed discrepancies between the published pre-arrest mugshot and the mugshot.
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It’s hard to even refute these arguments because they’re so stupid, but here’s the thing: sometimes people look different in different photos.
Mangione’s photographs were taken with different lenses, different resolutions, different angles, and the subject had different facial expressions, so he looked different . To illustrate, here are two photographs of the same person, taken with the same camera, with the same lighting, the same background, and the same facial expression. The only difference is the lens:
But even with all the visual differences a photo can create, in the photos he looks like the same guy, or a very, very similar guy! Do better, conspiracy theorists!
Is the manifesto genuine?
The cloud of suspicion surrounding the alleged killer’s supposed manifesto is the most interesting aspect of Mangione’s conspiracy verses to me, because it’s a real gray area (at least for now). So let’s start with the facts: According to authorities , Mangione was captured with a three-page handwritten “statement of responsibility.” The police did not make public the contents of this “manifesto”, except for the following lines: “These parasites had it.” is coming” and “I apologize for any discord and injury, but it had to be done.”
Shortly after, a manifesto appeared online that was definitely fake: it was on Substack, which didn’t launch until after Mangione was arrested and in jail. But the second manifesto is more difficult to refute. Freelance journalist Ken Klippenstein published these pages , stating that he had “obtained a copy of the manifesto of alleged killer Luigi Mangione – the real one” and that “major media outlets also own this document, but have refused to publish it and have not even articulated it.” the reason why.” Does this mean it is genuine? No.
An “independent journalist” coming up with a document that everyone on earth wants to read immediately makes me suspicious, as does Klippenstein’s implication that “mainstream” news won’t publish the manifesto because of some bias. cause. He doesn’t come out and say it, but the message seems to be, “Guys, a correction has been made and someone is pressuring the press not to publish.” This is a classic conspiracy theory, but maybe the “mainstream media” is not endorsing the manifesto because its authenticity cannot be verified? Maybe the establishment media is working to verify this but won’t publish until they’re sure? Bottom line: Klippenstein’s manifesto may be real, but it may not be. We don’t know. And until there’s more than an unnamed source from one guy with no backing, we shouldn’t believe it’s real.
Did the cops write a manifesto?
While we can’t say for sure, we can still speculate based on the contents of the manifesto, just for fun. This TikToker says she’s a lawyer. She concluded that Mangione’s manifesto was written by the police. (Her TikTok on the topic has since been deleted, which led her to draw conclusions, as you can see here.)
Either way, I don’t know if she’s right, but this wouldn’t be the first time the police, for their own reasons, have given misleading information to a credulous media source like Klippenstein. Read the manifesto and judge for yourself whether it looks like it was written by an educated, well-read (judging by his GoodReads account ) person or “a cop trying to write like an educated person.” But don’t imagine that your conclusion is the truth, because we don’t know.
Mangione’s conspiracy theories are nothing special.
All conspiracy theories work the same way:
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Start with a conclusion, in this case, “something is wrong in this Mangione case,” and work backwards.
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Immediately dismiss official explanations, no matter how logical, as “propaganda” or “another media lie.”
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Identify or create small “inconsistencies” in a complex situation and use them to make big leaps of logic: “The eyebrows look different in these different photos, so Luigi Mangione is being framed” or “The police said he threw away his jacket and now he has a jacket ? This is not the same person.”
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Hand wave away any logical problems with your theory (“Why frame someone instead of just catching the real killer?”) by saying something like, “Corporations are trying to control us!” or “government/CIA/reverse vampires are hiding the truth!”
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Share it all on X, TikTok, or NextDoor and enjoy feeling special because you know something that everyone else doesn’t, or you’re brave enough to face the truth.