The new theories born on social media behind Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, have a Pokémon and a verse from the Bible as their protagonists. According to users, they are symbols used by young Italian Americans to indicate class struggle.
There’s a new conspiracy theory around Luigi Mangionethe 26-year-old Italian American accused of shooting dead Brian Thompson, the CEO of the US healthcare company UnitedHealthcare. This conspiracy theory sees to the center Pokémonthe most popular pocket monsters in the world. In more detail, the matter concerns one of them: Breloom. It is a grass-fighting Pokémon introduced in third generation. In the Pokédex, i.e. the register that collects all the creatures created by Nintendo, occupies number 286.
The connection between Breloom and the Bible
It all started from an old photomontage used by Mangione as banner for your profile on X. This image featured Breloom, a lateral x-ray of the spine and Mangione himself shirtless during a trekking walk. All this was enough for the web to give birth to a theory according to which Pokémon number 286 was used by the 26-year-old as symbol of class struggle against the rich.
This is why Instagram and even more TikTok have been invaded by content starring Breloom against the current capitalist system. Among the most popular videos, there is one with an image of the pokémon and in the background the song “Do You Hear The People Sing” taken from the musical Les Misérableswhich talks about revolution and the voice of the people. The Pokémon in recent days has also ended up among the Google trending searches.
What social profiles tell us about Luigi Mangione: why he hated the healthcare system
Added to all this is biblical interpretation. According to those who are creating these theories, well beyond the limits of conspiracy, Breloom’s Pokédex number is nothing more than a reference to the Bible verse 28:6which reports: “Better is the poor man who walks in his integrity than the perverse man who walks in duplicity and is rich.” In general the number 286 seems recurring in Mangione’s online life (some even say it coincides with the number of posts on X, where he now has thousands more followers). A series of coincidences that were enough to give birth to a theory on class struggle told through symbols that unite sacred and profanenamely the Bible and Pokémon.
Not just Pokémon: the other video games linked to Mangione
Ever since his identity was made known, Luigi Mangione has become almost an obsession on social media, through references to nerd culture. The internet was filled with ironic images depicting the 26-year-old accused of murder in the guise of Luigi from Super Mario Bros.the character from the iconic Nintendo series. In this case the memes play on his Italian American origins. Then there are some newspapers, such as NBC Newswho reported the news according to which Mangione was a regular player of Among Usthe game about social deductions that was all the rage during the pandemic. Sure, maybe leaving that aside Among Us was played by nearly half a billion people in 2020.
