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.

  • HelluvaBottomCarter [comrade/them]
    ·
    6 hours ago

    I think this is more reasonable than nuking the dunking comms.

    Obviously nothing materially changed from last week. We were praising a reactionary last week. He didn't suddenly become reactionary when he was identified. Our awareness of it changed. That's what we're really reacting to here, is the change in our awareness, not who he really is. The community isn't more unsafe than last week. However it might be more annoying and uncouth because it's bad to praise bigots. The clear answer is to not praise him for being a bigot. Was he being a bigot when he shot a cis white CEO? Nope. So you can praise him for shooting all you want. Just don't praise him for being a bigot. Or pretend like him being a bigot is completely unrelated to his politics or who he was/is. That's not a big ask.

    I think people are taking this as "Don't talk about the shooting anymore and do a personal growth because you're problematic" which isn't it at all.

    • AOCapitulator [they/them, she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 hours ago

      More reasonable maybe but can they fucking restrain themselves for 2 weeks in a row from doing something without asking the users of the site how they feel?

      Like, I agree with what they're trying to say here even!

      It's just so frustrating

      I retract my statement, on reflection I think I'm just depressed and was mad my treats got taken away

    • SixthSunOfASixthSun@lemmy.ml
      ·
      6 hours ago

      I think people are taking this as “Don’t talk about the shooting anymore and do a personal growth because you’re problematic” which isn’t it at all.

      Honestly it's a fair read TBH. A lot of the "he's hot" shit is because people don't have anything else new or good to post about this but want to keep posting.

        • AOCapitulator [they/them, she/her]
          ·
          5 hours ago

          Agreed, the mods are right, but for fucks sake didn't they realize this was gonna blow up on them again? It was done the same way the last 2 changes were!

          Exhausting...

          • SixthSunOfASixthSun@lemmy.ml
            ·
            edit-2
            5 hours ago

            I agree that the comms changes fiasco was lulzy in part because the mods don't have an actual path to the kind of site they claimed want to build. Their desired site is practically in conflict with the other rules.

            As far as this change, there is no way to do this without the drama. The vast majority of pro-Luigi posters on this site need a wake-up call in terms of their understanding of leftism and their personal priorities. The pro-Luigi posting is based 100% on vibes. You're not going to get around that without having an emotional reaction. It's purely an emotional attachment.

            • AOCapitulator [they/them, she/her]
              ·
              4 hours ago

              You're probably right

              I'm just having such a fucked week and the adjustment was my only bright spot of enjoyment and this site was awesome and now it's just people mad at each other again and everythings shit again fuck this shit

        • SixthSunOfASixthSun@lemmy.ml
          ·
          edit-2
          5 hours ago

          What I meant by "fair read" is that the people who are "pro-Luigi" are posting a lot of positive meme in lieu of having actual topical conversations, and its fair to read into the statement that mods are "anti-Luigi" as a whole and would rather not see it. I think the mods are actually being incredibly generous with the leeway here. I'd ban anyone hot posting if it was up to me.