This is a very good article indeed. However, I take exception to the phrase:
“Corporate money in politics is a popular and perhaps worthy bogeyman”
No “perhaps” about it. And “bogeyman“ implies that it is an imaginary entity, the product of a fevered and paranoid imagination.
I would argue that it is very much at the heart of much sickness in our society and the dysfunction of our government. I’m disappointed to see it so blithely dismissed in an otherwise very thoughtful essay.
Violence begets nothing good. That’s why I wrote this novel instead of trying to go out and deep-six some poor misunderstood CEO of a rapacious, death-dealing corporation.
Except there isn't "mercy, always mercy". In this country founded on violence, genocide, and forced labor of enslaved humans, mercy has never been part of the equation. This outpouring of shock and horror because another confused, damaged, white guy chose to work out his issues by murdering a prominent, rich CEO, instead of the usual, more vulnerable targets, seems odd. Surely those going to great lengths to scold everyone to get back in line, and knock it off with your awful memes, must know that no one is coming after rich CEOs. They are, and always have been, an insulated, protected class who are free to inflict suffering, but never expected to face consequences of any sort. Regular people know our lives will just continue to get worse, nothing is going to change, and all we can do is share gallows humor.
Brian Thompson's murder is exceptional. Because Luigi Mangione murdered a "somebody" and not just another "nobody", he will face the highest penalties possible under the law. Daniel Perry murdered Jordan Neely, an unhoused, mentally ill, Black man. Perry was acquitted and walked away a free man. His defense was crowd funded with millions of dollars.
I don't think anyone worried about the safety of rich, monstrous CEOs who murder, and bankrupt people from the safety of their comfy offices, need fret too much. Angry young men with unregulated weapons will go right back to their usual targets - people at parades, grocery stores, gay bars, peaceful protests, or defenseless schoolchildren. Violence against the vulnerable will always be acceptable, and tolerated in the US. The CEOs who profit by making our lives miserable, and who support gun violence by supporting Republicans can rest easy, unless all the memes and jokes are just too much for them to bear.
First - no one should celebrate the death of a person. No duh.
Second - that the death of a person should bring cause of celebration ain't so good. No duh.
But at the end of it all - you are speaking of a place that still understands decency.
I've been at the end of all decency standing on no decency at all and wonder - should I be decent towards those who afford me no decency?
The answer must be yes, of course! We who are on the side of decency will be decent towards all, even if they've provided none towards their enemies.
But then, at the end of all decency what must you do to defend yourself? Is it possible that we must do some indecent things to protect ourselves? Or must we always faint and forgive those who HAVE NO DECENCY AT ALL? And die like useless worms before their indecency?
Just wondering.
I'm going to add - decency is a privilege. I'm sorry, but it just is. I'm happy for all the people who get to be decent.
I think there is one other point to this story. NYC has tons of unsolved murders. Yet the murder of a prominent white man brought the power of the local, state and national law enforcement agencies together and solved the crime in just a couple of days. It underlines the idea that the justice system doesn't work equally well for the rich and for the poor.
Cancer survivor still fighting insurance here. Did he deserve to be prosecuted for any crimes he committed? Yes. Was he immorally profiting in an immoral medical insurance system? Of course. But no, one random guy deciding to kill him should not be celebrated.
The CEO's murder is tough for me, I won't lie. You are absolutely right, Stephen, but I am struggling feeling any compassion for him and other health insurance CEOs. Their families, yes, I do feel compassion for them. The response from corporate media and the health insurance CEOs isn't to examine the evil of denying people health care that they have paid for, it's to only protect themselves.
Yes, that SNL clip is from the period where I watched the show regularly in high school. I recall my mother and I dying laughing over this sketch. It’s also been 35 years since the SNL “Christmas special” that had included all the best Christmas sketches from the run to that point, and this obviously made the cut.
The Wilholt quote is completely out of place here. It has zero to do with the rest of the article. And, as I have said elsewhere, I hope they prosecute the guilty party, but our "war" on the wealthy will not be won in the courtrooms but there will be real class warfare. Oligarchs are trying to make the majority of us into serfs. Serfs dying young is not a problem as there are so many.
yup...we tried EVERYTHING else for DECADES and nada...This murder is simply what happens when all other paths of peaceful redress have been thoroughly exhausted...And when the institutions and elected officials tasked with protecting us from monsters like Thomson (and he WAS a monster) UTTERLY failed us...Marching and protesting didn't fix it, voting didn't fix it, pleading and begging didn't fix it. So neither condoning NOR condemning it matters. its a moot point...It is a collective stress response from YEARS of neglect and abuse...Like I said above my OFFICIAL stance and my personal stance aren't entirely synced up so to speak...but I only let my guard down in safe spaces like here...
And this encapsulates my discomfort because, well, it's kinda like the justifications for lynching innit?
I do get the (often misplaced IMO) feeling of justice some online people feel. However everything you point out is exactly why a lot of online people need to get hip with Murc's Law. Because the accountability will thus flow only to Democrats, given how the narratives about crime in Democratic cities are weaponized against us. It may be fun to join the online zeitgeist (and I will admit I replied with some jokes early on), but I even had to take a step back and say, "well this isn't going to help at all, and I bet the people responsible for bad things are going to find ways to make it worse for those who need help in response." And our responses could well be a justification.
I only caught a few early jokes via a few Substacks that shared them, but the only one I appreciated came live from a coworker, who (before Mangione was identified) proposed adding "D.B. Copay" to the folk hero lexicon.
Its that there IS a difference between punching up and punching down...Do we condemn Nate Turner for turning on his oppressors in the same breath as we condemn a lynching? I just can't see how that works...
Lets just say that I AM genuinely conflicted here. For me PERSONALLY it feels empty and performative to outright 'condemn' this act ( I still sincerely don't CONDONE it JTBC) ...But in the end I simply see it as "this is what happens when you keep poking the bear month after month, year after year, decade after decade and NO ONE comes to help the bear...People NEED a 'hero' now more than ever, and they will manufacture one out of whole cloth given the SMALLEST excuse/opportunity to do so...even if its a complete fiction...In many ways this act of murder is separate from the REACTION to it. The reaction is to injustices in the HC system, Thomson is just a proxy to that narrative...I feel literally nothing for him one way or the other...OTOH I feel VERY strongly about our abusive exploitative HC system...
I'll be glad when this is out of the news cycle...Its really conflicting for me...I don't like thinking the way that I am
The political effects of course will be purely negative--"even a rich guy can get murdered in broad daylight in woke NYC!" followed by "liberals cheer murder!" Never mind that right wingers cheered on Rittenhouse and Penny--not saying "this was a tragic situation but these guys did not commit murder" but rather "these are the heroes we need!"
What isn't going to come out of this is some reckoning with the problems of our health care system. And right now we just have to hope even the Obamacare protections are not gutted or scaled back over the next four years.
While the violent death of anyone is nothing to cheer about, the widespread reactions of celebration ARE revelatory of the simmering rage that exists amongst the populace toward the soulless, faceless corporate/“billionaire” class. This is a totally understandable response with regard to industry automatons whose actions result in grief, death, and staggering debt for many, many members of that populace.
IMO, we’ve reached the point in our political culture where the great divide is not left vs. right, but class vs. class. Is it “bring on the guillotines” time yet? Or will the peasants (that’s us) have to reach the point of starving in the streets first?
I agree there is a class distinction, but the working class in America mostly identifies with the wealthy. They find that aspirational. It’s often the trust fund cosplay socialists (like the man who murdered Thompson) who fantasize about revolution and likely would fold like tissue paper when the chips were down.
The dirty little "secret" is that a lot of Americans are perfectly fine with the millionaires and billionaires. The guillotines will actually be for the vulnerable minorities they blame for all their problems.
They're not just fine with them. Americans love billionaires, they just elected one for president, and they look forward to being one themselves one day. Any theory of modern american politics needs to incorporate this fact.
You’re not understanding what I’m saying. The historic guillotine moment was between the haves and the have-nots, the latter of which includes all of the vulnerable amongst us.
Honestly, I believe the bipartisan public reaction to the murder of Brian Thompson has revealed some real opportunities.
There's a dangling populist thread to be pulled here, and it's called Universal Healthcare.
Democrats need to yank that fucking thing every day right up until the 2026 elections and beyond.
We just need one, or more, of the high profile, popular young Dems to take the bull by the horns.
This is a very good article indeed. However, I take exception to the phrase:
“Corporate money in politics is a popular and perhaps worthy bogeyman”
No “perhaps” about it. And “bogeyman“ implies that it is an imaginary entity, the product of a fevered and paranoid imagination.
I would argue that it is very much at the heart of much sickness in our society and the dysfunction of our government. I’m disappointed to see it so blithely dismissed in an otherwise very thoughtful essay.
Violence begets nothing good. That’s why I wrote this novel instead of trying to go out and deep-six some poor misunderstood CEO of a rapacious, death-dealing corporation.
youtu.be/zS3YqUGO1t4?
People are missing the point—Marie Antoinette’s death was celebrated, why?
Except there isn't "mercy, always mercy". In this country founded on violence, genocide, and forced labor of enslaved humans, mercy has never been part of the equation. This outpouring of shock and horror because another confused, damaged, white guy chose to work out his issues by murdering a prominent, rich CEO, instead of the usual, more vulnerable targets, seems odd. Surely those going to great lengths to scold everyone to get back in line, and knock it off with your awful memes, must know that no one is coming after rich CEOs. They are, and always have been, an insulated, protected class who are free to inflict suffering, but never expected to face consequences of any sort. Regular people know our lives will just continue to get worse, nothing is going to change, and all we can do is share gallows humor.
Brian Thompson's murder is exceptional. Because Luigi Mangione murdered a "somebody" and not just another "nobody", he will face the highest penalties possible under the law. Daniel Perry murdered Jordan Neely, an unhoused, mentally ill, Black man. Perry was acquitted and walked away a free man. His defense was crowd funded with millions of dollars.
I don't think anyone worried about the safety of rich, monstrous CEOs who murder, and bankrupt people from the safety of their comfy offices, need fret too much. Angry young men with unregulated weapons will go right back to their usual targets - people at parades, grocery stores, gay bars, peaceful protests, or defenseless schoolchildren. Violence against the vulnerable will always be acceptable, and tolerated in the US. The CEOs who profit by making our lives miserable, and who support gun violence by supporting Republicans can rest easy, unless all the memes and jokes are just too much for them to bear.
I have some thoughts on this Mr. Robinson.
First - no one should celebrate the death of a person. No duh.
Second - that the death of a person should bring cause of celebration ain't so good. No duh.
But at the end of it all - you are speaking of a place that still understands decency.
I've been at the end of all decency standing on no decency at all and wonder - should I be decent towards those who afford me no decency?
The answer must be yes, of course! We who are on the side of decency will be decent towards all, even if they've provided none towards their enemies.
But then, at the end of all decency what must you do to defend yourself? Is it possible that we must do some indecent things to protect ourselves? Or must we always faint and forgive those who HAVE NO DECENCY AT ALL? And die like useless worms before their indecency?
Just wondering.
I'm going to add - decency is a privilege. I'm sorry, but it just is. I'm happy for all the people who get to be decent.
Some necessary corollaries to Popper's Paradox of Tolerance.
I think there is one other point to this story. NYC has tons of unsolved murders. Yet the murder of a prominent white man brought the power of the local, state and national law enforcement agencies together and solved the crime in just a couple of days. It underlines the idea that the justice system doesn't work equally well for the rich and for the poor.
yep...
I agree. We can’t lose our humanity. There are peaceful ways to protest injustices.
Be creative. I am sure there are creative ways in the modern age for nonviolent protests and civil disobedience.
Cancer survivor still fighting insurance here. Did he deserve to be prosecuted for any crimes he committed? Yes. Was he immorally profiting in an immoral medical insurance system? Of course. But no, one random guy deciding to kill him should not be celebrated.
Did Data refer to the Irish Reunification of 2024?!
The CEO's murder is tough for me, I won't lie. You are absolutely right, Stephen, but I am struggling feeling any compassion for him and other health insurance CEOs. Their families, yes, I do feel compassion for them. The response from corporate media and the health insurance CEOs isn't to examine the evil of denying people health care that they have paid for, it's to only protect themselves.
lets just say that my OFFICIAL stance on this is different than my PERSONAL me-time feeling about it and leave it at that
Thanks, Stephen, for this especially thoughtful post. Beautifully done, as always.
Thanks also for this SNL clip. Maybe it shouldn’t, but it always cracks me up. Oh for the days of Dana Carvey and Jan Hooks.
Yes, that SNL clip is from the period where I watched the show regularly in high school. I recall my mother and I dying laughing over this sketch. It’s also been 35 years since the SNL “Christmas special” that had included all the best Christmas sketches from the run to that point, and this obviously made the cut.
"Yes, that SNL clip is from the period where I watched the show regularly in high school. "
you mean when it was good?
(:
The Wilholt quote is completely out of place here. It has zero to do with the rest of the article. And, as I have said elsewhere, I hope they prosecute the guilty party, but our "war" on the wealthy will not be won in the courtrooms but there will be real class warfare. Oligarchs are trying to make the majority of us into serfs. Serfs dying young is not a problem as there are so many.
yup...we tried EVERYTHING else for DECADES and nada...This murder is simply what happens when all other paths of peaceful redress have been thoroughly exhausted...And when the institutions and elected officials tasked with protecting us from monsters like Thomson (and he WAS a monster) UTTERLY failed us...Marching and protesting didn't fix it, voting didn't fix it, pleading and begging didn't fix it. So neither condoning NOR condemning it matters. its a moot point...It is a collective stress response from YEARS of neglect and abuse...Like I said above my OFFICIAL stance and my personal stance aren't entirely synced up so to speak...but I only let my guard down in safe spaces like here...
I hear ya, tho dunno about "safe" in the context of President Musk, Don Thiel, a Trumpified NSA, etc.
sorry, that should've been "MAGAfied NSA", presuming 47 fades into impotence/irrelevance at the convenience of the rest.
This is like an intellectual sermon- and I mean this in a really good way. Thank you.
right on...good take!
And this encapsulates my discomfort because, well, it's kinda like the justifications for lynching innit?
I do get the (often misplaced IMO) feeling of justice some online people feel. However everything you point out is exactly why a lot of online people need to get hip with Murc's Law. Because the accountability will thus flow only to Democrats, given how the narratives about crime in Democratic cities are weaponized against us. It may be fun to join the online zeitgeist (and I will admit I replied with some jokes early on), but I even had to take a step back and say, "well this isn't going to help at all, and I bet the people responsible for bad things are going to find ways to make it worse for those who need help in response." And our responses could well be a justification.
I only caught a few early jokes via a few Substacks that shared them, but the only one I appreciated came live from a coworker, who (before Mangione was identified) proposed adding "D.B. Copay" to the folk hero lexicon.
"people need to get hip with Murc's Law. Because the accountability will thus flow only to Democrats"
bingo and SPOT ON
Its that there IS a difference between punching up and punching down...Do we condemn Nate Turner for turning on his oppressors in the same breath as we condemn a lynching? I just can't see how that works...
Lets just say that I AM genuinely conflicted here. For me PERSONALLY it feels empty and performative to outright 'condemn' this act ( I still sincerely don't CONDONE it JTBC) ...But in the end I simply see it as "this is what happens when you keep poking the bear month after month, year after year, decade after decade and NO ONE comes to help the bear...People NEED a 'hero' now more than ever, and they will manufacture one out of whole cloth given the SMALLEST excuse/opportunity to do so...even if its a complete fiction...In many ways this act of murder is separate from the REACTION to it. The reaction is to injustices in the HC system, Thomson is just a proxy to that narrative...I feel literally nothing for him one way or the other...OTOH I feel VERY strongly about our abusive exploitative HC system...
I'll be glad when this is out of the news cycle...Its really conflicting for me...I don't like thinking the way that I am
I wouldn’t compare slavery to the worst aspects of capitalism, where people are still free to make a choice, even horrible ones.
And a world without health insurance is one where people have to pay for treatment up front and still go bankrupt or die.
And with socialized medicine there will still be supply and demand issues. Will we execute someone who makes those choices?
The political effects of course will be purely negative--"even a rich guy can get murdered in broad daylight in woke NYC!" followed by "liberals cheer murder!" Never mind that right wingers cheered on Rittenhouse and Penny--not saying "this was a tragic situation but these guys did not commit murder" but rather "these are the heroes we need!"
What isn't going to come out of this is some reckoning with the problems of our health care system. And right now we just have to hope even the Obamacare protections are not gutted or scaled back over the next four years.
Like Seth Triggs noted above, we're seeing Murc's law in action
While the violent death of anyone is nothing to cheer about, the widespread reactions of celebration ARE revelatory of the simmering rage that exists amongst the populace toward the soulless, faceless corporate/“billionaire” class. This is a totally understandable response with regard to industry automatons whose actions result in grief, death, and staggering debt for many, many members of that populace.
IMO, we’ve reached the point in our political culture where the great divide is not left vs. right, but class vs. class. Is it “bring on the guillotines” time yet? Or will the peasants (that’s us) have to reach the point of starving in the streets first?
yes. thank you...you got at what I was trying to get at...this^^^^^. Its kinda in the category of "two things can be true" at the same time
I agree there is a class distinction, but the working class in America mostly identifies with the wealthy. They find that aspirational. It’s often the trust fund cosplay socialists (like the man who murdered Thompson) who fantasize about revolution and likely would fold like tissue paper when the chips were down.
"trust fund cosplay socialists"
touche!
Not to mention a popular culture that lionizes guns and vigilantism from video games to books to movies.
Good point. Robin Hood didn't fold like tissue paper, but he was fictional.
The dirty little "secret" is that a lot of Americans are perfectly fine with the millionaires and billionaires. The guillotines will actually be for the vulnerable minorities they blame for all their problems.
bingo
They're not just fine with them. Americans love billionaires, they just elected one for president, and they look forward to being one themselves one day. Any theory of modern american politics needs to incorporate this fact.
Steinbeck's 'temporarily embarrassed millionaires' comment has entered the chat
Adjusted for inflation...
You’re not understanding what I’m saying. The historic guillotine moment was between the haves and the have-nots, the latter of which includes all of the vulnerable amongst us.
I'm sorry. Reason why I said that is that when the chips are down I think a lot of the people will side with the 'haves.'
See, I think they’ll be sitting on the sidelines, furiously knitting.