According to Luigi Mangione's Goodreads Account, He's Into Psychedelics and Dr. Seuss

A 26-year-old computer scientist entrepreneur has been arrested in connection to the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. According to CNN, Luigi Mangione was taken into custody at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pa. after an employee notified authorities that he resembled the widely circulated images of the alleged shooter.

The very second Mangione's identity found its way to the internet, all of social media was eagerly searching for any and all information about him. Naturally, they first looked to X, Instagram, and Facebook which have all been very revealing in their own ways. Perhaps the most interesting find was Mangione's Goodreads account. It's the next best thing to reading his actual manifesto. Let's crack this thing open and take a look.

The first thing one sees when they log onto Mangione's Goodreads account is a classic quote from Socrates: Know thyself. It's an unexpected sentence because it suggests an interest in self-reflection, which is not something one usually comes across when it comes to an alleged vigilante killer.

The last book Mangione added to his Favorites shelf in January 2024 was Dr. Seuss's The Lorax. The themes in that book revolve around the dangers of technological progress. It encourages people to protect the natural resources of our world. It also condemns capitalism and consumerism, which may be related to the motive behind Thompson's murder.

Mangione liked a couple of quotes that also feel prescient, like one from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five: "America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves." It goes on to discuss the complicated relationship Americans have with money and our unwillingness to admit how difficult it is to actually earn it. As such, it posits that we end up hating ourselves, and the ruling class takes advantage of this.

He also gave Ted Kaczynski’s book a four-star review. If that name sounds familiar it's because Kaczynski was best known as the Unabomber. He was responsible for the deaths of three people and injured 23 others in a bombing campaign that was rooted in this neo-Luddite belief that technology was ruining the world. Mangione said while he deserved to be in prison, Kaczynski's words made him more of an "extreme political revolutionary."

As we were going through Mangione's profile, Goodreads made it private. On one hand, we understand because people are flooding it with new comments. On the other, something like this is a valuable tool when it comes to understanding his mind. If we are what we read, then Mangione's Goodreads points to a curiosity about the world and potential disdain for the healthcare system.

His To-Read section also included Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which has become known as an influential novel for libertarians and conservatives.