We’re all a little disappointed he didn’t turn out to be our Exact Type of Communist. You’re a little put out about his referencing Kaczynski and his Twitter retweets. Here’s why, despite that, I’m vehemently pro-Luigi and you should be too.
His arc is a normal dude in America. He’s a mid 20s Silicon Valley guy. He engages with mainstream ideas in his cohort, but is otherwise not particularly political. To the extent that he has an ideology, like for society at large, it’s the ideology of the dominant class.
He suffers under his material conditions, but like everyone feels powerless. Despite his position of relative privilege, he has an invisible disability, a really gnarly injury to his spine. He, like everyone else, and more than most, feels the injustice of the US healthcare system in his bones.
Kaczynski is the tinderbox that sparks the explosion, not because of Kaczynski’s ideology, but because of a simple proposition: political violence is possible.
From there, the man needs no political education. He doesn’t need Marx or Lenin. His education is literally welded into his spine. He knows What Is To Be Done, and he does it without Delay.
His (class) character should be judged not for muddled beliefs he had before he became a political actor, but rather for the political action he took. Not who he retweeted: who he killed.
GOOOOD post.
Barring shenanigans we'll eventually get this guy's motives. Obviously no matter the motive he speaks to a deep rot and also fervor in the American consciousness. However let's not get ahead of ourselves. The courage and heroism he displays is merely that of the man willing to kill. Its nobility depends on motives, and I think the potential his motive might not be so noble is still live (though it would be good if he was concerned about systemic injustice we don't have facts yet). If he did this because he thinks healthcare should be using more AI, is he still a hero? If he thought medbeds exist (I know he's probably not that kind of crank, but still).
However as a figure he speaks to the real rot and horrors of the system. We should keep our assessment on that level, especially since it's not like he's a representative of revolutionary praxis
You're exactly right about adventurism and its limits. What is to be done is not the murder of random figures, it is to dismantle the system. We have seen again that adventurism cannot do that any more than any other event or outrage. The only way to change the world is through organizing and creating a real mass movement.