thinking about Luigi, college kids, and an ode from a psychologist to young Chinese
Urgent for a sense of agency
Hi! This week’s newsletter is a bit fragmented, but I hope you’ll bear with me as I untangle these thoughts.
Everywhere I look, people are talking about Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. On Little Red Book (China’s more sophisticated version of Instagram), he’s become a liberal kids’ antihero—a fantasy figure with a girl-crush fanbase. Some claim they matched with him on Tinder, others recall sharing the same Hawaiian sky during vacations. People have dug up his Spotify playlists to admire his supposedly sensitive taste in music, celebrated his academic achievements, and speculated about his stellar grades. It all feeds into this romanticized image of Luigi, as if it could somehow justify his murderous act. The absurdity of mixing entertainment with the bleak reality of death feels deeply unsettling.
A friend, spurred by her communist ideals, likened Luigi to a Batman figure. She quoted his manifesto and pointed out the bullets left at the crime scene, engraved with the words ‘depose,’ ‘deny,’ and ‘defend’. These words echo the title of Jay M. Feinman’s 2010 book, Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.
It makes you wonder—just how broken is America’s healthcare system for someone to feel so utterly powerless that this becomes their act of protest?
While Luigi’s story dominates conversations, the struggles of university students in China feel equally urgent. Coincidentally, this week, a friend who works with a university counselor shared disturbing stories: students threatening to jump off buildings if their grades aren’t changed or harming themselves in front of teachers as a form of protest. One girl even smeared her blood on her teacher’s face.
Scary but true. My friend and I concluded that the gimmicks we used to scare our parents—small acts of rebellion—are now used by students on their teachers. But this isn’t mere rebellion; it’s rooted in a profound loss of control—over the unemployment rate, the slumping economy, and relentless family pressure. Lost in a sea of meaninglessness, they turn to bodily harm as their final protest.
Both Luigi’s story and the reality of Chinese college students reflect the same painful themes: turning violence inward onto the self, or outward onto others, no matter how innocent either party may be. At their core, these acts stem from a profound loss of agency in a world that feels increasingly indifferent and unforgiving.
It all feels so lost. Who exactly are we? What makes us exist? Is there anything we can do to make life, even in its nihilistic moments, a bit better? Do young people have a remedy?
I was reminded of something I omitted in last week’s post. My interviewee had completed his Ph.D. thesis on psychotherapy in China, concluding that it’s an important tool for finding inner peace. He explained that the external situation affects people’s sense of control—what they can and cannot influence. Psychotherapy allows people to turn inward, and that’s incredibly powerful. “But does that amount to social change? Or does it actually create social conservatism? That’s the bigger question.”
So to end this on a somewhat hopeful note, I want to share snippets from a recent article by a famous psychologist, Cui Qinglong (often called the "Internet Spirit Godfather in China") titled Reconstructing Life with a Sense of Agency:
“Human society is regressing, and in this context, you can understand the subtle meaning of ‘one man’s misfortune is everyone’s misfortune.’ The collective energy of animosity, anxiety, restlessness, uncertainty, depression, and anger surrounds us all.
Humanity is searching for an exit because the ‘payoff’ of the game is no longer straightforward. It’s not work we fear—it’s alienation, the death of self.
While the problems we face are vast, the solutions are small and personal. In the chaotic currents of our time, we control only the small streams where we can shape our own rise and fall. Here, at least, we can choose how to live—and live in a way that feels worth it.
In a game where accounts are inevitably deleted, the best we can do is savor the process. The most rewarding act, is to express your true intentions and emotions unapologetically.”
Until next week,
Rachel