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 
, 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.
Okay, I literally only started commenting on this site literally less than a week ago, so I want to drop a disclaimer before I start yapping that I don’t mean to misrepresent anyone’s positions.
I think there’s value in noting his various alleged and reported reactionary tendencies because when we’re on a site like Hexbear which is just largely us leftists, we should know where the line in the sand is among ourselves. But what’s the point? Well, the point is this: We should never expect perfection from “revolutionary figures” but there are figures who have come historically close to to it and whom are actually one of us. Those like Alexandra Kollontai, Fred Hampton, Leila Khaled. They deserve our recognition because only us leftists can ever pay tribute to their actions and recognize them for the heroes they are, whom should have given universal “lionization” in a just world. While we should seize the moment which things like this provides, someone like Luigi (unless there’s been a drastic change in his values in the months he’s reportedly gone cold turkey from his socials) hasn’t come close to earning the credentials to stand among those we should be paying our respects to.
I don’t think it’s pedantic to insist on this because us leftists are the most persecuted and censored political groups in the West in the entirety of its contemporary and when we’re among ourselves, we should not be elevating any random person to some heroic ranking when there are plenty of others to hold up as inspirational. That sort of thing among ourselves would detract from the important recognition that there really have been revolutionary figures who came close to perfection in terms of our ideals, whose memory has been completely suppressed from any public consciousness.
Yes, when I’m on R*ddit (fuck me, I literally vowed to never go back to that site again in one of my first comments here but this event is drawing me back in) or especially IRL, you can bet I’m not going to be going “Well actually, he’s likely reactionary and you should feel gross for supporting him.” I’ll pretend he’s a full blown Das Kapital-reciting Marxist-Leninist and “The Last Communist” if that’s what it takes to use this moment to instil some miniscule specks of revolutionary awareness in the average person I’m in contact with. If there’s anything that can be done to prolong this ephemeral moment of frankly miraculous class solidarity we’re seeing in the bombed out ideological wasteland of Western society by even a second more for the IRL communities I’m in, yes, I’ll “lionize” him to sainthood if necessary.
For example, the food bank org I volunteer with actually agreed yesterday to allow us to commission some small pamphlets with poems and personal testimonies on struggling with insurance (and lol someone suggested Luigi stickers if Nintendo doesn’t Oreshnik us with their legal team) for the distribution team to hand out during the food drive this holidays. Literally nothing, all things considered, but you wouldn’t imagine the amount of pushback from the civility libs just to agree to do something small like this. There’s also great examples of others using whatever medium they have at hand to help educate their audiences on the twisted nature of the American system right now, like Jesse Welles’ new song about United Health and its founder Richard T. Burke. But when we’re among ourselves, as leftists, we should know where we should really stand because there are real near-perfect heroes out there that deserve our support and whom have only us leftists to depend on for solidarity.
Do most people in this community even know that the Merrimack 4 - Calla, Bridget, Paige and Sophie - who are part of the Palestinian Action US group that heroically sabotaged productions at a Elbit Systems factory, the Israeli arms contractor, are currently in jail right now? Calla is a great comrade who I personally met while at an event for Cuban solidarity (IIRC, I think the Deprogram podcast also did an episode with her about Cuba) and is actually one of us. Luigi is likely well aware of the widespread support from the general population by now and the general population is already apparently all too happy to support him and send him things in commissary to show he is “not alone.”
But it rests with us leftists alone to stand with those like the Merrimack 4 and let them know their heroism has not been and will not be forgotten. Calla has been doxxed and harassed by stalker Israeli groups like Canary Mission and the shitstain incels on r/tankiejerk. The 14th is the halfway point of their 60 day imprisonment and this is usually the point in time where the initial wave of support slows down and the isolating pressure of the fascist prison system sets into the morale of the imprisoned
I actually have been meaning to ask the admins/mods (but I haven’t figured out if there’s a way to PM the mod team) if it would be okay to make a post on the mutual aid sub in 3 days time for the purpose of sending them gifts like letters or books, especially as they’ll be imprisoned through the holiday season and into the new year. If not, I’ll just ask now that anyone here who is considering sending Luigi any gifts to please instead consider sending a message of solidarity to others like Calla, Bridget, Paige and Sophie instead (or on their socials). Here a link to Calla’s Twitter with information on means of support for anyone interested.
In short, use the moment this event has provided when doing IRL work in whichever way you feel necessary but when we’re among ourselves, we should always remember there are those who deserve our solidarity and our attention to their memory far more than those the general public already recognize and whom are actually our own. This is why, within communities like this, there should be a clear distinction and reservations made, in my opinion.
Great post. Using the event is how we should engage in all circumstances. We don’t need to praise him to use him as a tool to get people to recognize a shared struggle.
That’s all good and fine but neither should people be banned or have their posts removed just because they contain memes that do praise him, like doing so is somehow too ideologically impure for this site.
And if the situation calls for praising him in order to best use him as a radicalization tool, then we shouldn’t be chided for doing so. As one of any number of possible examples, if I’m in a group of libs who are going on about how cool he is because of what he did, then I am going to laugh right along with them, agree, and encourage it. I will probably even throw out a “yeah, but he did also say some seriously shitty things too” if I get the chance, just to get them to think about those things as well, but what I definitely will not do is go into some diatribe about how actually
he deserves no praise because he got caught up in the same disgusting early fashy-pipeline US culture war nonsense that some of those libs also believe.
Of course here on hexbear we’re not (usually) in that group of libs and amongst only other leftists it is fair to expect our community be more ideologically correct and consistent. But sharing the meme that group of libs was loving and laughing at is not being ideologically incorrect and it should not be a removal or banworthy offense. None of us here ascribe to the reactionary garbage that has come out that Luigi believes (or believed, at least as of whenever he last posted about it). GoFundMe’s for him should be removed. Saying something in the spirit of the moment in a meme thread like “Luigi rocks!” where it’s all about a CEO getting got should not be removed.
Someone else in thread said that the mods want an ideologically pure reading group, not a site where we post memes. And that’s mostly is what is really at issue here, at least to me. Everyone is arguing about the minutia of precisely where the line is that cuts someone who did a cool thing off from our collective critical support. That’s not a bad conversation to have. But for fucks sake, don’t go around removing anything positive that people say about the person who, regardless of the purity of their intentions, just did something that everyone in this shithole imperial core is talking about and that all of us here want to happen on a larger (more organized) scale.
OP (edit: oops, that wasn’t OP. Sorry u/aocapitulator) is comparing Luigi to Dorner. I don’t think that’s accurate, but ok fine. We have a (very cool from everything I’ve seen) regular poster here who has Dorner in the telletubby sun as their PFP. It is a great PFP. But I would bet dollar to a donut (or whatever the fuck the saying is) that whichever mod who has been removing all the Luigi posts and comments would ban a user that changed their PFP to the smiling Luigi image right now.
Also, all the stuff Awoo said that got removed.
That’s out there, not in here, a distinction Praxagora was careful to make.
A distinction I was careful to make as well if you had read what I wrote.
Libs laugh at a lot of things we don’t. In those cases, it makes sense to make one’s own attitude clear when sharing a lib meme. For example, if they are lionizing the personal character of a transphobe (rather than just celebrating the shooting, as many posts currently on our front page do without issue), here on our communist safe space full of trans people it makes sense to disavow his transphobia to avoid any ambiguity.
removed by mod
you first, asshole.
wauw baby learned their first curse word,
please leave the adults section before you get hurt having to think outside your reactionary box
Oh the irony of such juvenile cringe behavior. lol. Thank you, sincerely, for proving so succinctly how all your insults to the users here are pure
Dm me when you do make it and I’ll put it at the top after double checking it.
The best post. Thank you for the perspective.
I have this photo of Leila framed on my wall.
amazing post, im glad you’re on hexbear now comrade
Beautiful. I feel exactly the same
Amazing post
This needs to be a sticky on the front page.
Fantastic. 100%. No notes.
Thank you!