You’d think they arrested Robin Hood.
Luigi Mangione is simply this: A guy in a hood with a 3D-printed weapon with silencer intent on ending the life of an unsuspecting father and husband as the latter walked to work in the early morning hours of New York City last week.
Is it only in America where a guy like this gets to be a folk hero? Probably not, but as in all things, America does it bigger and louder, so here we are, some of us, finding humour at the assassination of a fifty year-old insurance executive, Brian Thompson. And making little Luigi the poster boy for the righteous fight against corporate greed.
I’m not a big fan of corporate greed myself. I’ll be right there at the start of the line when it comes to criticizing the actions of places like banks and insurance companies. If they even knew about me and my commentary, they would consider me to be a hostile. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to kill me. And it doesn’t mean I’m going to kill them.
I’ve been extremely critical of grocery stores ever since the pandemic. It doesn’t necessarily have to result in me, or anyone else, laying in wait for Galen Weston to happen by on his morning run. However I may feel about those I criticize, I don’t wish them harm. They’re people, with families and friends, loved by their God as much as mine loves me, maybe even the same God.
Ideas, principles, policies, viewpoints, tactics, strategies and all the rest of it are worth fighting for and fighting over, but not fighting over in the literal, physical sense of the word. What happened to that man last week was an abhorrent, cold-blooded murder. There’s nothing about it that can be considered worthy of celebration.
What makes Luigi Mangione the 2024 version of the notorious D.B.Cooper, that American folk hero of the early 1970’s who “stuck it to the Man” before parachuting his way into the folklore of America?
First, maybe his first name, Luigi, just like the plumber in the Mushroom Kingdom video games you might have grown up with. If there’s a person that’s not familiar with Luigi and his more famous brother Mario, you’d have to go to some really dark corner of life to find them.
Second, maybe his last name, Mangione, just like Chuck the famous musician, no doubt having to deal with sleaze ball-reporters camped out on his front lawn looking for some kind of familial connection between the two.
Even better, Luigi Mangione comes from a well-off family, the Mangiones being a big deal in Baltimore, Maryland and elsewhere. A murderer from a good family can’t be all that bad, can they? I mean the guy had money and came from an affluent family, yet decided to man-up and piss it all away for the greater good, which I guess for him needed a dead father to make that work.
Was it because he was super-cool enough to etch insurance claim denial words like “delay, deny, and defend” on the bullets that would end a man’s life?
He went to an Ivy League school. He was the Class Valedictorian for heaven’s sake, not that that was ever a sure-fire indicator of the most noble traits in a human.
He went to Starbucks before the murder. He was wearing a really cool hoodie. He smiled. He escaped on an electric bike. What’s not to like? What’s not to celebrate? How can you not get behind a man who takes the time to have a Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino before he guns down a guy from behind? A man of the people? That freaking drink alone is way out of financial reach for most folks, yet some of us give him love because of it.
A rich guy fighting for the poor guy. A big man fighting for the little man.
A dead man lying in the street.
I’m a big fan of American media personality Jon Stewart. I have been ever since I saw him dismantle Tucker Carlson on the TV show Crossfire back in the early 2000’s. Stewart is a funny guy, but there’s lots of funny guys, and girls too. But he was a funny guy with a social conscience, and that’s what got me on board. A guy who can poke fun at the elites, corporate, political, or otherwise, and yet still have the kind of gravitas to appear before congress on behalf on forgotten first-responders from the 911 tragedy. That’s the kind of person I can look up to.
I watched a clip from his show yesterday, and of course, it made me laugh. But within the show was a segment where Luigi Mangione was highlighted in a humorous way, that I knew at the time to be inappropriate, but I went ahead and laughed anyway. But then that bloody tendency I have to reflect got in the way, and I went back over the material in my mind. And it reminded me that somewhere out there is a woman missing her husband, children missing their dad, and perhaps parents and siblings missing a family member, who have to witness America laughing at the murder of someone they loved.
When Stewart mentioned that Mangione had been arrested at a McDonalds somewhere in Pennsylvania, a good chunk of the audience booed. And Stewart did his regular face-making shrug of shoulders schtick, complete with his pen and notes, as it was all taking place. And that’s because he engineered that. That was his doing. And he did it for a cheap laugh. Yes he’s clever. Witness the “snitches get stitches” line, provided that snitches have insurance coverage.
But out the window went my respect, clever or not. And maybe a bit of my own self-respect as well.
And that McDonalds where the guy was arrested? It’s getting a raft of negative reviews online, the regular low-hanging fruit accusation of there being rats all over the place bullshit. Because in America, they don’t want their heroes taken down.
Al Capone. John Dillinger. The Unabomber. Jesse James. Bonnie and Clyde. Every one of them a mass murderer. Every one of them an American folk hero.
I had other things to write about today.
This was more important.
COVER PHOTO: Image by Sammy-Sander from Pixabay
NEWSMAGRENFREW 