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What's your opinion about Luigi Mangione?

"Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare since 2021, was shot and killed outside an entrance to the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan, New York City, on December 4, 2024. He was in the city to attend an annual investors meeting for UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare. Authorities believe the attack was not random. Thompson had been criticized for UnitedHealthcare's rejection of insurance claims, and his family reported that he had received death threats in the past. The shooting occurred early in the morning, and the suspect, initially described as a white man wearing a mask, fled the scene."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Brian_Thompson

(edit) I would like to point out that Luigi Mangione is only a suspect and there are currently doubts about the integrity of the evidence.

51 comments
  • I think it sends an important signal that when people are pushed too far by the greedy capitalists, this may happen.

    I read about him and I understand what he was feeling. He is not a evil person.

  • I'm surprised these replies in an anarchist comm haven't brought up concepts like Propaganda of the Deed already. (that said, I know for a fact some people responding aren't anarchists)

    While I consider PotD of the 1890s-1900s to have failed in its intentions and is worth strongly critiquing, and while the crappy neo-Nazi imitation advocated by their popular text Siege has also been extremely ineffective, this assassination has provided an interesting case study - the killing of a healthcare CEO with no innocent bystanders is one of the least controversial extreme deeds yet. I've seen people even claiming this could become the new Columbine (we'll have to wait to see if that prediction is worth anything, but it would be nice to see the ruling class be shot up for a change).

    • I think the biggest issues with the gilded age PotD was that a lot of them hurt innocent people, or had collateral damage which hurt everyone in the case of a lot of the bombings. Not all of them by any means, but when innocent bystanders got hurt or killed it made the deed a lot less supportable. Plus there's just something about a health insurance CEO that makes literally nobody like them lol.

      • The innocent people, and also some who the anarchists wouldn't consider innocent but a typical citizen might. Again, a parasitical CEO, no-one likes them but their squealing fellow upper-class. And this really had the effect of clarifying the economic classes - the booj and their megaphones yelled in unison that this was bad, while the worker class, regardless of any cultural "left"-"right" divide, overwhelmingly said "he got what he deserved".

    • I think, taking the leaked manifesto as legit here, the guy was aware of this. One of the lines basically says "it seems obvious we need to take matters into our own hands and I guess I have to be the first to do it".

      That said, i think this works because it's not just propaganda of the deed. These masters of the world are still only human. They have manipulated the world so they get to decide what happens to who, when, and accept no input from anyone else. Well, when they use that power to cause millions of excess deaths it's no surprise their victims will (eventually, after much patience) simply step outside the social contract to deal with them.

  • Doesn't seem likely he's guilty to me. The police claim to have found him half a state away, with all the evidence on him? Lol

  • Don't really respond you these types of things. But for someone with cptsd with a shit ton of people in my past who manipulated me, gaslighting me, abused me and lied to me. I became very good at knowing if someone is lying to me and manipulating me. Also my autism has my pattern recognition extremely high and know people very well very fast and with high degree of accuracy, with even just a few genuine pictures of themselves.

    But this guy. He seems. Off. His pictures, his "manifesto" all of it. Seems like a abusive person trying to gaslight me and manipulate me into thinking "yeah! This guy did it! Look at the evidence".

    From my experience in my life. This doesn't seem right, things don't add up correctly. I don't know if he did it or not but from that picture of the assassin, the person is extremely generic and could be a lot of people.

    As always, question all information about it. Don't believe everything you read on the news as they are pretty much a propaganda machine, oh hell don't believe any social Media or anybody really. Fucking propaganda is so imbedded in this fucking country that it's hard to tell who's doing it because they want to Truth or want followers or just spreading misinformation.

  • Curiosity, resigned frustration.

    Whether it was him or not, whether evidence was real or not. If the goal was to spark a revolution, if it was to wake people up to their collective power, if it was to scare the elites...

    This person took action because they were desperate for change. But he didn't reveal anything we didn't already feel, and most people are continuing to do what they've already been doing: making memes about their malcontent in their comfortable communities.

    I imagine it must feel so disempowering to sacrifice the only thing you think you have left - your free life - in order to spark change, only to watch all those who approve still continue to do nothing at all.

    I like that the solidarity in conversation has drawn more attention to class rather than affiliation, that the profitable infighting between Team A and Team B (Left/Right, urban/rural, etc) has temporarily cooled while Americans look upwards.

    But if there is change, it's still a while away. The disenfranchised still have something to lose. They still think they can't matter, and the lack of meaningful change will continue to prove that to them. Complacent malcontent.

    It must be so miserable, being manhandled and denigrated by law enforcement, mistreated and neglected by imprisonment, dehumanized by the self-righteous; and see that the 'movement' your last hurrah inspired was the internet's Meme Flavour of the Month. The sheer impotence of watching everybody laugh and keep waiting for somebody else to save them.

    I can barely imagine how that must feel. To sacrifice everything and watch the world laugh.

  • If it was or wasn't him (and was someone else), it doesn't change that the action (or PotD) was the correct move imo. "Correct" forms of protests and legal actions only work so much in a system rigged against the working class. But the "peaceful" options never work against the rich/corporations. So I kind of hope more CEOs in all industries meet the same punishment for all lives that they have played with. Even if we are shown that dude hates leftists, doesn't change my critical support of his (or whomever it was if not him) action. But it will be very important for leftist orgs/groups/collectives to start going hard for waking up the masses while there is such a good point of unity to work from.

51 comments