Hello comrades. In the interest of upholding our code of conduct - specifically, rule 1 (providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all) - we felt it appropriate to make a statement regarding the lionization of Luigi Mangione, the alleged United Healthcare CEO shooter, also known as “The Adjuster.”

In the day or so since the alleged shooter’s identity became known to the public, the whole world has had the chance to dig though his personal social media accounts and attempt to decipher his political ideology and motives. What we have learned may shock you. He is not one of us. He is a “typical” American with largely incoherent, and in many cases reactionary politics. For the most part, what is remarkable about the man himself is that he chose to take out his anger on a genuine enemy of the proletariat, instead of an elementary school.

This is a situation where the art must be separated from the artist. We do not condemn the attack, but as a role model, Luigi Mangione falls short. We do not expect perfection from revolutionary figures either, but we expect a modicum of revolutionary discipline. We expect them not simply to identify an unpopular element of society hitler-detector , but to clearly illuminate the causes of oppression and the means by which they are overcome. When we canonize revolutionary figures, we are holding them up as an example to be followed.

This is where things come back to rule 1. Mangione has a long social media history bearing a spectrum of reactionary viewpoints, and interacting positively with many powerful reactionary figures. While some commenters have referred to this as “nothing malicious,” by lionizing this man we effectively deem this behavior acceptable, or at the very least, safe to ignore. This is the type of tailism which opens the door to making a space unsafe for marginalized people.

We’re going to be more strict on moderating posts which do little more than lionize the shooter. There is plenty to be said about the unfolding events, the remarkably positive public reaction, how public reactions to “propaganda of the deed” may have changed since the historical epoch of its conception (and how the strategic hazards might not have), and many other aspects of the news without canonizing this man specifically. We can still dance on the graves of our enemies and celebrate their rediscovered fear and vulnerability without the vulgar revisionism needed to pretend this man is some sort of example of Marxist or Anarchist practice.

  • YEP [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    6·
    3 hours ago

    Oh you’re a better Marxist than him I should know better. jagoff

    No, you’re idealizing and separating of “legitimate anti-imperialist struggle” from greater class struggle is wrong. The CEO killer is a reactionary raised in a reactionary society it does not disqualify him from being proletarian. Hong Xiuquan was a religious reactionary nutjob but it did stop mao from labeling him a a proto communist (I know this word is sticky prior to capitalist development).

    I believe you are expressing a view based on unaddressed nationalism because you are willing to stratify the reaction(literal meaning) to global capital based on some intrinsic value assigned to those from the global south; I am asserting this is condescending and chauvinist. The struggle of syrians against western backed jihadists or the Palestinian resistance against the western colonial project in Israel is part of the same struggle against global capital. The buckling of the US healthcare system(private insurance kills 70,000 people yearly. see The Condition of the Working Class in England by Engel’s describe social murder) under the fascistic decay of capitalist society in the west is just manifesting itself through Luigi’s actions.

    Luigi is a reactionary but his actions have sparked renewed class consciousness. He is revolutionary, it is our mission as principled leftists work combat (not on like a personal level) and to cast his reactionary views into obscurity. His views are irrelevant to the manifestation of rebellion against the American fascist system even if this agent of change is not ideologically succinct and full of reactionary brain worms.

    I don’t think we should model ourselves on him at all, he is wrong about so much. But to view the event through this narrow view of Luigi’s identity and belief is wrong. I’m not trying to be agro I’m a bad writer and don’t know how to express my disagreement well.

    Side note typing out his name when writing on these topics is endlessly amusing. Tickles part of my brain.