You may or may not have noticed how Mangione is such a horrendous murderer for killing one man. Yet one man, thompson, who killed thousands is such a moral man to be looked up to. I don't think that Mangione was right for killing thompson it's just that the greed of the insurance companies has gone too far. Yes security was stepped up by insurance companies but, that only means they will feel they can continue putting money over average American's lives. We won't stop it while trump is in power, hopefully for only four years, the next administration can stop them. It's just that the "average American" who voted for the fake blond idiot have to wake up and stop the madness.

who the GOP gave the red carpet treatment to, and got him out of a murder charge

Is run for President.

Republicans will now expand state and federal Hate Crime laws to include acts of violence against CEOs committed with bias toward their business practices.

And they certainly are shitting their pants over this.

Let em know you'll be back to their restaurant when the TV goes off.

One is Fox, the other is MSNBC

Dead serious.

I was unfortunately seated facing Fox.

that is why he gave himself up at McDonalds (c'mon, did he really sit there with his mask off to eat that food? he was ready to turn himself in without getting shot in the process).

Bragg will do his job, I don't doubt that, and he should. But I have to admit this was a successful vehicle for maximizing attention on these blood-sucking companies. Hopefully it won't be in vain. We'll see.

Last edited Fri Dec 13, 2024, 12:52 PM - Edit history (2)

I have been bemused by this story because while conservative influencers and a smattering of tone-deaf (supposedly liberal) scolds have been trying to deliberately miss the point regarding : 1) why this story seems to have some resonance across the political divide and 2) how the internet works (you don’t take every shitpost literally and clutch your pearls), it is actually kinda fascinating.

Obligatory disclaimer: no one is backing vigilante justice or violence just because some of us may not be as performatively outraged as ideal apparently. Dear me! Someone posted something on the net!

But I did find it interesting that apparently when Ben Shapiro tried his usual stale shtick of trying to use this to sow more hatred and polarization, some of the reactions were pleasantly surprising:

https://www.wired.com/story/internet-culture-luigi-mangione-major-shift-fandom/

It explains to some extent why progressives who are perceived as sincere (not crypto conservatives mind you, but honest progressives) like Bernie Sanders, AOC and Lina Khan have more bipartisan support than people perceived as cynically allied with corporate interests. It is one reason I really like Matt Stoller. I dislike Substack in general, but stay on because of the few really good writers like Stoller. Fortunately Ed Zitron now has his own site.

That is certainly the part of the left I support myself.

The corollary being that left as I am sometimes I think “bullshit”, when I see some stuff being sold as left. Like a bchool diversity program that boosts Jeff Bezos or Zuckerberg: “Building your own brand as a feminist!”
I am a feminist. I wasn’t aware that could be a “brand” and if so isn’t the “brand” already trademarked to oh I don’t know..Betty Friedan or really anyone but two irritating billionaires?

That is not diversity or feminism. That is cynical and it is setting yourself up to be (rightly for once) mocked by conservatives..

Those are typically very wealthy and out of touch people. Otoh sometimes I see Rogan bros of the more harmless kind I would view as less cynical or full of it. Not Rogan himself-Rogan is just another celebrity influencer. But his followers - however little I may agree with them, at least they are honestly trying to make sense of the world as many of us are.

People whose main product is hate and polarization like the cynical Ben Shapiro cannot like that. That people can find common ground on policies or simply choose not to hate their neighbors over differences in pov. There is even chatter on conservative Reddit supporting Single-payer healthcare. It has alarmed MTG about “socialist medicine”.

Of course I don’t buy fraudulent critics of polarization like Jonathan Haidt (a mediocre, middlebrow crypto con) who ignores that polarization is not always superficial, but sometimes based in real differences on policy (economic, ecological, scientific-really the three are tied and not as oil and gas giants want you to think).
But whether it is blah/hollow kumbaya or polarization that is about low effort divides (no policy changes but hollow performative stuff), maybe some people are tired of hating an imaginary other rather than callous and cynical market forces..

These people-celebrities, influencers, CEOs, politicians..they are not real people and there is a genuine weariness with them. They have such a disproportionate influence on all our lives..
The rare people or places I follow (DU’s admins/Nathan Robinson and some other oped writers) are making sense of reality too..not inventing it.

There was an interesting analysis in the Tyee by this writer I found via DU I really like called Andrew Nikiforuk. I largely agreed with it (well minus the bit about Slavoj Zizek who is too histrionic for my tastes. I don’t take issue with his views but I don’t buy the guy himself):

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2024/11/18/Reeling-Left-Must-Face-Great-Divide/

(Btw the piece is critical of democrats too and attacks many liberal orthodoxies, but is a good piece nonetheless imo. I don’t think it violates forum rules and besides it is a perspective to pay attention to.)

He said in an earlier post that working people are increasingly viewed as Legos on the chessboard to be cynically manipulated and exploited by corporate and political interests. Hard to argue with that…

I don’t get the confusion over Mangione’s politics. That is actually more common than a completely robotically partisan worldview. The Jacobin characterised him as a swing voter which seems to fit..

Besides by now the drivel online often has little to do with actual politics. You don’t have to be right wing to see people like Robin D’Angelo or stunts like the Race2dinner as full of it. That hijacks a lot of anti-racism because doing something non-performative and difficult would be effortful.

I was and am left due to genuine concern over factory farming, environmental issues, economic issues and yes actual real inequities (e.g.: which will affect for instance most of the very poor of global south when climate change hits).

But I increasingly admit that there is a not insignificant chunk of what passes for the left that even I have long privately thought is full of it. I tried to swallow it some, but the mood of the times permits one to shed the fluff one never believed anyway.

I see a lot of performative outrage, but it doesn’t actually translate to any real sacrifices for climate change or any genuine humanism. I see some of the laziest “left” politics sometimes..no personal sacrifice, no consistency..One gets jaded when that stuff is pooled in with real stuff.

This is less important but I also don’t always agree with some reactions and the incessant outrage over trivialities that online clickbait demands.

Confusing real and bs issues tires people and has nothing very left about it. That certainly doesn’t mean I am agreeing with the views of centre-right influencers like Haidt/the IDW/Noah Smith/this grating moron Yglesias etc. who spend all their time focusing on the most irritating voices on the left, amplifying them and pretending that is all of the left.

These are irritating right wing types amplifying what I privately consider a lot of bullshit faux leftists whom it is easy to catch on the wrong foot.

What they fail to get is that they are both the same types of people in terms of making money from drivel and wasting all of our time.

Nathan Robinson or rather another columnist at CA pointed out recently that such right wing trolls rarely dare target honest and serious leftists/anti-racists/feminists etc. whom you cannot catch in serious inconsistencies or find engaged in self serving rot.

Take Lina Khan-probably one of my favorite people in this admin. It is not very easy to dismiss her. Otoh there is a lot of left, right and centre bs that I do think by is drivel. It really is some sort of foul self perpetuating bs which will go nowhere. A lot of people who love the sounds of their own voices.

And only someone as crazy as MTG could turn someone as solidly respectable as Dr.Fauci into a polarising or even political figure rather than a committed and respectable public health official.

To make it all worse those sleazy tech creeps (Zuck, Musk etc) and their shitty platforms amplify that rot. A cottage industry of “tech critics” and substack writers then bilk that. It is all such drivel. I cannot believe that stuff is an economy.

I do acknowledge that it is wearisome..this neat divide you are supposed to adhere to with a lot of self serving and trivial stuff passed off as left cynically or at least cluelessly. It is why I am going offline.

DU is cool. I also have a few other left sites I like to follow, but mostly I think a lot of it is a junk economy.

The miracles of computer science - pointless drivel..

is when the prosecutors do a "pile on" where they try to come up with anything to charge people with, even if they know it won't stick.

Defense, or prosecutor.

since they have physical evidence (weapon, shell casings, finger prints, phone), plus there is an alleged "manifesto" and he had an online presence, then there might be more than just the "take out the UHC guy".

Strange times.

He came in from out of state to kill the victim, so federal prosecution would be warranted.

Unfortunately for him, with the orange asshole coming into the White House the feds will probably look at capital punishment for him.

Luigi is going to go to jail for a very long time.

I guess it is too early to suggest Joe Biden might have one more pardon to hand out?

(That is two bad taste jokes in one post, if you haven't noticed.)