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.

  • CrawlMarks [he/him]
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    edit-2
    3 hours ago

    I have been struggling to think of how to say this constructively but it feels wrong to be mad a guy that did intresting and good things for posting badly. Like, we all post badly. That is why we are here. I think I have seen this emotion in the comments but I am not sure it ever worked out. We have an nearly unprecedented moment of clas solidarity and good vibes so it feels real bad to be upsets about posts at the moment. Especially as the posts don't seem relevant to the moment. So while the take is probably correct I haven't seen any discourse where it would be relevant or good to actually point it out. When someone says how cool the Luigi guy was doing a cool bit if asventurism it doesn't feel relevant to put him down for stuff not in his manifesto. Posting is not praxis. So there is a lower bound for how much posting can be the opposite of praxis. I feel like that is divisive and self defeating in a moment when we should be trying to do something with all this revolutionary energy. We appear to have half a thousand posts of people trying a dialectic process here but I am not sure we are approaching synthesis

    • buh [she/her]
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      edit-2
      4 hours ago

      Especially as the posts don't seem relevant to the moment.

      Right, like even among conservatives the discourse isn’t so much “this was based because he’s an epic bacon STEMlord like us”, it’s “I don’t feel bad for Brian after all the shit health insurance companies have put me through”

      • CrawlMarks [he/him]
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        edit-2
        3 hours ago

        Yeah, this seems like a new moment that call for new analysis

        • grandepequeno [he/him]
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          3 hours ago

          It's doesn't even require anything new, it's extremely obvious why people are OK with what this guy did and why they're sad he got caught

          • CrawlMarks [he/him]
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            2 hours ago

            It's new for us. I don't think I can recall such a thing. Maybe killdozer but even then that had thr kinda reactionary elements that really aren't present in this moment.