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 
, 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.
Yes, I think this is the fundamental problem. At bare minimum, I feel like he has to actually die or at least lead a successful national liberation struggle before he can be a hero. I think liberal society grooms people to focus on actors over action. For me personally, Luigi as an individual outside of his funny Italian name is whatever. For very different reasons, I didn’t want him to be a card-carrying communist (because that would invite a massive escalation in state repression that current orgs are not close to being prepared to handle) nor some groyper fascist (because that would vindicate their shitty fascist ideology in the eyes of some people). Him having incoherent politics but clear motives is a plus. The problem is that his incoherent politics are mostly reactionary.
He should’ve never been caught. He should’ve been a mysterious figure that people project their own politics onto, from communists to fascists. Now that he’s been caught, people are going to focus entirely him as a celebrity figure over what his action represents. And in a somewhat predictable fashion, the actor, which I repeat is completely unimportant compared to the action, is now the topic of a struggle session in this website. You can see why liberal society wants to focus so much on actors over action. As an action, this website was completely unified with everyone on the same page, but as an actor, this website is now having some cringey struggle session.
A CEO getting liquidated by some techbro named Luigi is funny in its own absurdist way. It’s like if some Nazi soldier chauffeuring some Nazi general accidentally drove into a minefield and killed the general in the process. You don’t need to like write ballads about that soldier for being a working class hero nor write tl;dr polemics about how that doesn’t absolve the soldier from being a Nazi. You don’t need to take anything from that other than a funny moment in history where some Nazi dude accidentally drove into a minefield and killed a Nazi general in the process.
oh yeah u make some excellent points there. especially over his politics. i think i agree. it would obviouly be pretty awful if a member some small communist or anarchist group did it, the repression would be terrible. it being this guy is perhaps a good thing. but maybe also in terms of drawing some of the right towards the left. because like reactionaries are often kinda close (in a fucked up way) to identifying the the problems,but their analysis is bad and leads them towards reactionary solutions. and this tendency is massively abused by the right wing “thought leaders” who just lie to them constantly. when i’ve managed to talk to people with reactionary politics and managed to remove some of their brainworms, it’s because i manage to find common ground with them in some small way and build on it, go through the process of correcting their analysis and offering real solutions rather than lies. they feel unjustly wronged, and they have been. just not by the people they are told are responsible.
like this local farmer guy i know. he was never a full on reactionary, and tbh he’s actually such a lovely guy. but he was falling into a lot of conspiracy theories, and into the trap of thinking that because the “left” is in power here, and they’ve basically abandoned rural areas like this, that leftwing politics can’t help us. but you know, we agree that the government has failed us and that all politicians are evil. we agree that climate change is coming for us. that’s something to build off, and we did. and i haven’t heard any weird reactionary takes from him in aaaages.
despite some of the libs being all moralistic about it, it’s also delightful to see that many of them, people from all sides tbh, are just celebrating what happened. it creates an opening for the left to step up in an outreach sense.
but yes he should never been caught. and tbh i am not convinced they’re not just framing this guy. but something like this has to be planned meticulously, and if they do it right they won’t be caught. which is kinda why i’m so suspicious of luigi getting caught. he left no useful evidence basically, seemed to have planned everything pretty well. and then just goes into a macdonalds and gets caught. if there are any similar lone actions inspired by this one i hope that they are never caught or known. and yes the left must organise, both in trying to make use of the ideological opening this creates, and in terms of direct action. not necessarily murdering people, but using a diversity of tactics. perhaps including propaganda of the deed, since the public reaction to this seems to have been so positive. but whatever the case,
don’t. get. caught.
my next tattoo, i have been planning for a while but some recent events have put it on my mind a lot, is “kill your heroes”, something i very much live by.