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From Freedom News by Sonia Muñoz Llort

Guys like him shoot a CEO one day, and a lot of kids on another—they just hide their personal reasons behind “brutal honesty”

The last days have been full of news about Luigi Mangione, the shooter of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson. So far have we have understood that this is a young man from a very privileged background with some mixed political views to say the least.

What I do not grasp is how some of my dear fellow anarchists are still joining in the clapping for his actions. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for self-defence and not mourning for the CEO, but Mangione was not trying to free anybody. He had no connection to any mutual support, and never cared to share his privileges with the oppressed.

Also, have we started idolising individuals again?

It should go without saying that one CEO is pretty soon replaced by another one, and that the insurance companies will continue to crush people every time they can. These companies can make a show of reducing their refusal rates for a while, but they will continue rejecting patients, and the neoliberalised health care system will go on with business as usual.

But Mangione wasn’t even thinking about the fact that killing one CEO wasn’t going to change either the rules of this shitty game or ease anybody else’s burden.

He has been described as part of a Grey Tribe “typified by libertarian political beliefs, Dawkins-style atheism, vague annoyance that the question of gay rights even comes up, eating paleo, drinking Soylent, calling in rides on Uber, reading lots of blogs…and listening to filk”.

The term tries to capture an increasing number of people who use many terms to define themselves politically. But it also distracts us from the fact that if the assassin was a Black man, he would have probably been shot during his arrest.

I guess what bothers me most is that Mangione is completely aware of his privileges, and like many other white shooters is now enjoying the attention and the hero status he’s getting. Guys like him shoot a CEO one day, and a lot of kids on another. They just have their own personal reasons for it, hidden behind a display of “brutal honesty”.

To take revenge for his back pain and repair his hurt ego, Mangione assassinated a useless person, without any collective context or intention to liberate large groups of oppressed people. Revolutions can’t be created by technoliberal lone wolves, no matter how cute they are.

Comments

EmmaAintDead Thu, 12/12/2024 - 06:32

is the killing the point?

I don't think it is. had killing been the point, there were plenty of other people around the ceo to shoot as well. there were plenty of better weapons to pick from that would be better suited for the job.

the target wasn't interchangeable to the assassin. it wasn't this or a bunch of schoolkids.

unless the author is saying this on the basis of his race and gender, which if so, yeesh. why would any of them be racing toward your "collective context" if that's how you feel about them?

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 10:55

In reply to by EmmaAintDead

dare i say...a significant part of him wanted to get caught...

he knew what how he was being portrayed. He knew he was burned. he only kept the gun because he was thinking about suicide by cop, taking as many with him as manageable

he was either going to be a tragic hero or a joke.

the saddest part for me is that these kind of "brazen" people are so incredibly hard to find and maintain relationships with. if we had a few hundred with his dedication, murder and arrest would be so pointless, so much more could be achieved

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 11:43

In reply to by anon (not verified)

he probably couldve rigged up a way to lay low for years if he had put a little effort in, or known anyone with a car who could've nonjudgmentally given him a ride far away to the backwoods, or if he was train savvy

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 11:58

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Y'all fucks gonna cream your shorts when anarch revolutionaries and normie Luigis-stans intercept and break St. Luigi out of custody to disappear into the wind! I have seen it!

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 11:58

In reply to by anon (not verified)

1. Never wear all black
2. Don't use paid lodging
3. Get rid of your burner phone and gun immediately, that's the whole point of them
4. Lay low for 5 years, preferably by going to Canada or Mexico 6 months or so after the operation
5. Shave your eyebrows

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 12:57

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Y'all fucks need to stop LARPing as mastermind assassin advice givers. This is not Twitter and y'all fucks don't need to pretend to be experts because you're anon and there's no reward or dopamine hit. Go to bed.

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 13:02

In reply to by anon (not verified)

The intelligence of these shooters is on an upward trend. We're in a bull market for dead bourgeoises. Just trying to foster the people, man. Far out!

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 06:35

i hope once we have wiped out the CEOs we can move on to target worthless contrarian shitlibs who pretend to be "radical" and invent reasons to hate on luigi's courageous action

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 09:16

In reply to by anon (not verified)

She looks hot, but also your typical privileged Eurobourgie with the usual aristocratic leanings, living the good life in some academic Scandinavian ivory tower. Very easy to tell who's a real and revolutionary from up there!

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 07:29

I don't think anyone needs to applaud him if they don't like it, & no shit his politics aren't anarchist. Of course a young white dude with an elite background, widely perceived as handsome, is gonna get a better reception from the state & society than most people. But how could the author possibly know the following?

"He had no connection to any mutual support, and never cared to share his privileges with the oppressed."

"Mangione wasn’t even thinking about the fact that killing one CEO wasn’t going to change either the rules of this shitty game or ease anybody else’s burden."

"I guess what bothers me most is that Mangione is completely aware of his privileges"

"Guys like him shoot a CEO one day, and a lot of kids on another."

"Mangione assassinated a useless person, without any collective context or intention to liberate large groups of oppressed people."

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 15:25

In reply to by anon (not verified)

“Guys like him” is the most insane part of this to me. Because… he didn’t. He didn’t do the other thing, he did so what he did. I’m also not sure he really meets the mass shooter profile that closely at all (except for being a white dude and therefore worthy of everyone’s scorn and hate, grrr)

Speaking of brutal honesty, was anyone else kind of oddly touched by the part where he’s like, I’m actually kind of dumb politically, can someone else explain why capitalism is like this

Mushroom (not verified) Sat, 12/14/2024 - 13:13

In reply to by anon (not verified)

I will take imperfect, anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist views with action over pure, academic book anarchists who are just a bit too perfect, you know? Like they are following a script to push an anti-revolutionary agenda? This is the most potent hit piece on Luigi, and it is on anarchist news.
Is that a coincidence?
Beyond the content, what positive purpose beyond defending CEOs and promoting a wedge in the discourse against class solidarity in America would this be for?
Would such a hit piece come from the people setting themselves on fire to protest Palestine, people who are also not pure or perfect?

Hate to say it. EUROPEANS HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT IT IS LIKE HERE.

ananas (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 08:06

I do applaud because what he did started a wave and I personally have lost my belief in mass awareness and understanding of what is going on and the support I see towards his actions and the amount of times I read about the working class and hatred for CEOs is not something I see every day, as an anarchist I belive in good in each person i always act from that perspective but very often life brings you to places you no longer feel attached to ideology and start taking reality into considiration, and such waves bring hope back to me, and also I like the fact he didn't beat a girlfriend or watched violent porn or overeat to deal with his anger, he directed anger to the person who was responsible for creating it. I also don't want to separate a person's ideas from their actions but I believe anarchist lives inside each one of us and the anarchist inside of him did that action, his main persona might not be anarchist but I am not interested in what kind of son or friend or whoever he was I am interested in this action.

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 10:43

In reply to by ananas (not verified)

"he directed anger to the person who was responsible for creating it"

This is absolutely key. Getting skin in the game. Immediatism means letting your anger out, doesn't matter if it's immoral or illegal. He refused to play their game anymore and started playing a new one called "I'm going to kill you". This game is the bourgeois obsession, until it's reflected back on them like a mirror.

lumpy (not verified) Mon, 12/16/2024 - 15:24

In reply to by anon (not verified)

uh ... so how do you track who has decision making power in a hierarchical organization then?

is it no-one's fault? or middle management upwards or what?

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 08:40

"Hello, fellow anarkids!"

How can this libsoc outlet keep publishing in the name of anarchy after all the authoritarian, reformist, Leftist shit they pulled for years, if not decades?

Useful idiots.

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 08:48

Hello OP, go take a walk off the shortest pier you can find. Preferable one on fire.

Signed,
anarchists

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 10:10

but maybe you've noticed, the thing freaking out the establishment is not so much the killing but the nonchalance of the average joe, nay, the applauding of the act by regular people.
sure, Luigi has scattershot politics, but so do most non theory heads, and hardly anyone being sad for the ceo is what is heartening here.

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 10:13

Honestly, underlying all the bad takes from “revolutionaries” re: Luigi is the horrifying realization that this man just went out and single handedly did more to advance revolutionary consciousness than literally anything done by any of us combined in a generation. We now know that our unpopularity is not because of our extremism, but actually because we aren’t going hard enough. Turns out going very hard and succeeding against a resonant target is all it takes. Any and all theoretical energy on this topic by those who consider themselves revolutionaries or insurrectionaries would be much better spent grappling with this new reality.

Redpanther/Bad Kitty (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 14:43

In reply to by anon (not verified)

I was surprised by the widespread sympathy for the shooter. I'm sure the wealthy were even more surprised, and horrified.

One very practical matter we will have to grapple with: Now that the class war in America is seen as a shooting war, we can EXPECT the wealthy to start hiring out the killing of anticapitalists. (NEVER MIND that the vast numbers of people who have little or no sympathy for the slain CEO have no coherent anticapitalist ideology, or even self-ID as conservative.)

These killings will be skillfully made to look like random crime, or to appear as accidents. The wealthy have VAST resources to deploy, and are masters at opacity.

The only restraining factor here is that these killings could backfire badly.

We can also expect anyone who has cheered on the assassin to be doxxed by the FBI and put on a list.

We really DO live in a class war, and we need to understand the consequences.

Redpanther/Bad Kitty (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 18:31

In reply to by anon (not verified)

I NEVER would have expected anything remotely like the mass outpouring of sympathy for the shooter.

What would it take to destroy capitalist slavery?
A sufficient number of working people able to take over and self-manage the provision of human needs.
We are a LOOONG way from that.

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 19:33

In reply to by Redpanther/Bad Kitty (not verified)

Hating rich people (especially those easily pigeonholed as “bad greedy ones”) and feeling a vicarious thrill for Robin Hood type outlaws (especially hot ones) is not “revolutionary consciousness,” it’s already extremely normal. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it’s just not the same. It doesn’t teach the public a fucking thing about the system we live in and how to get out of it, except by negative example. Connecting those dots is closer to “revolutionary consciousness-raising,” and it starts with not getting caught up in every new trend in mass sentiment. The implication that revolution is caused by consciousness is also very questionable.

GEF (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 19:59

In reply to by anon (not verified)

To be raising a "revolutionary consciousness" to me reads like setting a very very high bar, in an imaginary realm when everyprole's connected by a Hollywood-level of proletarian unity... But precisely because of it being yet another unattainable ideal, it collapses at every new gen of college kid lefties once they graduate and get a job up or down the social ladder.

Bar-setting is also a form of gatekeeping. As they're keeping their revolution for all those (2-3 in their area, at most), who'll comply with their outdated, romantic, deterministic view of radical social change.

The proselytes, these bar-setters (like Freedumb Mews) really never got anything concrete or articulated to provide for the proles they always seek to mobilize.

The guy who shot that CEO had.

Sore losers: 0
Jailed winner: 1

You wanted him to be more Left-leaning so to satiate your need for narrative comfort? Well that was *your* job, in the first place... :-(

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/13/2024 - 19:44

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Hating rich people is one form of seething ressentiment which raises its head during times of hardship. The great irony is that it is this very same ressentiment which drives the capitalist machine and makes poor people pursue self-absorbed and often selfish materialistic activities like voluntary wage slavery, the manipulation of other ressentos, and a strict morality of blame and indifference to the plight of otherwise innocent bystanders.

lumpy (not verified) Sat, 12/14/2024 - 13:39

In reply to by triviabot (not verified)

anon doesn't understand that most people have to work for food and shelter, which allows anon to dismiss all economic coercion as "everyone's just jealous of the rich guy"

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/13/2024 - 21:33

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Diff anon. Agree with the prerequisite lol

It's not about hate. It's about the shit they have. It should be taken and given to people who don't want to control other people and things.

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/13/2024 - 21:38

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Also, the dead CEO was from a lower economic and social class than the Mangiome kid. Prior to graduating from Iowa State he was basically a prole. Def not blue blood like Mangione.

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 11:14

When you're a privileged academic but couldn't care less backing up your bullshit claims coz there's no faculty chair reviewing your thesis here, and assume an anarchist readership is going to be more lenient because "anarchism".

Again... fuck off, Freedumb Press.

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 12:21

JFC. Dude is likely going to prison for the rest of his life for popping an ultra rich parasite who made his wealth on people's suffering and so, so much death by insurance denial and OP wants to go on some radlib rant to discredit him? wiiild.

alex (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 14:05

this is ridiculous. he says he did it because they hurt his mom and i believe him. what is the problem here

anon (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2024 - 15:19

What interests me is not really this guy but the mass reaction to it, which in turn reveals the gulf between what people want and what is possible. Individualist terrorism begins in confusion and ends in tragedy. It’s rare for the US ruling class to seem as disconcerted by anything as by the recent outpouring of support. I’m not sure that really means anything or if it’s just more frustrated flailing by confused and powerless masses and no one is going to really learn anything from it… Symbols have importance, but in a limited and malleable way

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/13/2024 - 09:57

"He had no connection to any mutual support, and never cared to share his privileges with the oppressed."

fucking moron. this is just some marxist garbage

shit, it gets worse:

"I guess what bothers me most is that Mangione is completely aware of his privileges, and like many other white shooters is now enjoying the attention and the hero status he’s getting. Guys like him shoot a CEO one day, and a lot of kids on another. They just have their own personal reasons for it, hidden behind a display of “brutal honesty”.

To take revenge for his back pain and repair his hurt ego, Mangione assassinated a useless person, without any collective context or intention to liberate large groups of oppressed people. Revolutions can’t be created by technoliberal lone wolves, no matter how cute they are."

fuck off and fuck off again. individual action, without the need to be part of a group (or group think) is about as anarchic as you can get.

i don't know the details all that much, but the little i've seen, isn't troubling to me, not a hero (i don't have any), but your lame response is certainly problematic.

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/13/2024 - 11:12

I can't get over the part where she just full-on claims he was just as likely to shoot a bunch of kids?? How tf do u just make that kind of statement based on literally nothing besides milktoast id politics...like pretty sure the CEO he murked is the one responsible for the death of a lotttt of sick kids.

Also the bit where she mocks him for his back pain. whewww boi. As someone with chronic illnesses who was constantly dismissed when I was trying to get help for my pain, constant dizziness, double vision, burning sensations on my face and head, etc., fuckkkkkkkkkkk you. She just sounds like the dismissive "healthcare" system that little tick of a man represented. Like just to hammer that point home...much of my permanent nerve issues are the result of a tumor that was in my head that took months and months of multiple doctor visits, being constantly dismissed as just a hysterical woman, leaving doctor visits in tears while shelling out hundreds of bucks for no one to list to me, etc, before finallyyyy finding an ENT who took me serious enough to scan my head and find a fucking tumor that he immediately recognized was putting pressure on my brain and optical nerves, and informed me it was going to blind me at best and eventually kill me if they didn't remove it asap. Maybe I wouldn't have the constant nerve issues I'm left with today if this shitass healthcare system didn't make it nearly impossible to actually get help. But yeah, mock bro for his chronic pain GirlBoss slayyyyyyy

anon (not verified) Wed, 12/18/2024 - 00:13

"In a gloomy bar where everyone is bored to death, a drunken young man breaks his glass, then picks up a bottle and smashes it against the wall. Nobody gets excited; the disappointed young man lets himself be thrown out. Yet everyone there could have done exactly the same thing. He alone made the thought concrete, crossing the first radioactive belt of isolation: interior isolation, the introverted separation between self and outside world. Nobody responded to a sign which he thought was explicit. He remained alone like the hooligan who burns down a church or kills a policeman, at one with himself but condemned to exile as long as other people remain exiled from their own existence. He has not escaped from the magnetic field of isolation; he is suspended in a zone of zero gravity. All the same, the indifference which greets him allows him to hear the sound of his own cry; even if this revelation tortures him, he knows that he will have to start again in another register, more loudly; with more coherence.

People will be together only in a common wretchedness as long as each isolated being refuses to understand that a gesture of liberation, however weak and clumsy it may be, always bears an authentic communication, an adequate personal message. The repression which strikes down the libertarian rebel falls on everyone: everyone’s blood flows with the blood of a murdered Durruti. Whenever freedom retreats one inch, there is a hundred-fold increase in the weight of the order of things. Excluded from authentic participation, men’s actions stray into the fragile illusion of being together, or else into its opposite, the abrupt and total rejection of society. They swing from one to the other like a pendulum turning the hands on the clock-face of death."

-Revolution of Everyday Life

Only in this instance, people in the bar heard his broken glass & shouted encouragement

anon (not verified) Wed, 12/18/2024 - 03:41

A real anarch would laugh at ALL rich CEOs, because the CEOs are wallowing in their own materialist hell and are suffering a slow painful death in the shell of a flesh machine. Killing them achieves nothing, only the transference of the evil from the cEO to the ShOOteR, and lOng yEArs stARing aT tEh prIsOn wALL.
The true aNaRcH PeAcefULly aNd siLEntLy TiPtOes pASt tHe frAnTic maCHinAtions oF tHe COlleCtiVe hYsTerIA, crEAtiNg wORks oF oRgaNic bEaUty!

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