Luigi Mangione Conspiracy Theories Are Going Strong
WiredOn subreddits dedicated to Luigi Mangione, tens of thousands of followers pore over the links between the man who allegedly shot the CEO of United Healthcare and the number 286. This is the online world of conspiracy theories dedicated to Mangione, which have exploded in the week since he was arrested and charged with the December 4 murder of Brian Thompson. Even though his real identity didn’t match this idealized version, fans on TikTok and X embraced him anyway, buying hoodies with his image and writing songs dedicated to him, along with posting AI-generated music videos. While a huge fandom has emerged in support of Mangione, though, there is a parallel world online where seemingly just as many people are dissecting every single aspect of the shooting and Mangione’s arrest to try and find the “truth.” One of the earliest of these conspiracy theories relates to Mangione’s distinctive eyebrows, which were one of the main ways in which he was reportedly identified by a customer in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. On Reddit, where there is now a dedicated Luigi Mangione subreddit with 21,000 followers, one user took the time to “photoshop Luigi Mangione's eyebrows onto the UHC CEO shooter” to prove their point that these are not the same person.