Luigi Mangione was not the guest of Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Army-Navy football game on Saturday.
He was, of course, in a holding cell for the duration of the game. He murdered someone and is awaiting trial, and it’s looking like a conviction is likely. Those people tend not to attend football games.
However, Daniel Penny, the just-acquitted defendant on trial for choking out a mentally disturbed man, received a hero’s welcome at the Army-Navy game, the personal guest of none other than JD Vance and Donald Trump.
Despite this, the level of hysterics about “society falling apart” due to the amount of support Mangione is receiving is far less than the level of concern about an incoming president and vice president hosting someone who killed a person on a subway that he very likely did not need to kill. The amount of freakout was not just limited to the Fox News universe, where they excitedly celebrate the minority of time someone on the left is violent. This is because, of course, they can use one instance of a left person committing a shooting to what-about all the other times when either a right-winger does a shooting or, you know, a lot of them show up to a protest heavily armed like they are preparing to defend Kiev.
And Mangione isn’t even a lefty, given the fact he is a big fan of Tucker Carlson. But that doesn’t stop the labeling of him as a right-winger.
The freakout isn’t limited to the right-wing. Never count out The Atlantic and its ability to offer up some terrible opinions.
The warning about "decivilization" didn't come after any one of a number of school shootings. It didn't come after January 6. It was after a health insurance company CEO's shooting wasn't received with national mourning: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc…
— Lisa Schmeiser (@lschmeiser.bsky.social) 2024-12-11T21:44:09.178Z
I agree with the person’s reaction to it.
It goes without saying killing a health insurance CEO is not the answer to our many, many problems with healthcare. The two events happening on the same day, the arrest of Mangione and the acquittal of Penny, and the reaction to each among both the right and mainstream media makes it clear – it’s okay for some to kill.
In fact, congresscretin-elect Brandon Gill of Texas told a New York Young Republicans gala that “I don’t know about you all, but I think we need a lot more Daniel Penny’s in this country, because we have far too many Jordan Neely’s.” This drew a lot of applause and cheering.
“I think we need a lot more Daniel Penny’s in this country,” one speaker says. “Because we have too many Jordan Neelys.” Lots of applause and cheering
— Josh Kovensky (@joshkovensky.bsky.social) 2024-12-16T02:10:27.378Z
As Kovensky, an investigative reporter with Talking Points Memo noted further down in the Bluesky thread, the event was more or less a celebration of Penny. This is not surprising. The GOP loves killers. See also George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse, who also were lauded by the GOP.
In case you haven’t picked up on it, however you feel about the people applauding Mangione, this is coming from elected Democrats. They are not applauding the murder of a CEO. However, as has been the case, the gleeful reaction to people of color and progressives being murdered IS coming from elected Republicans.
Of course, there has been an attempt to tsk-tsk Democratic elected officials after Senator Elizabeth Warren said the following:
“The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the health care system. Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far. This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change. [They] lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the health care to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone.”
There were howls of shame aimed at Warren but of course, what she was saying was not endorsing murdering CEOs. Back during the Rodney King riots, I asked a Black minister friend of mine what he thought of the riots, and his reply was measured and careful: “I do not condone it, but I do understand it.”
This was basically Warren’s answer, which was also an honest assessment of the moment we are in. The hysterics about what she said, relative to the next to nothing coming from the Very Serious Minds of the Discourse about Trump, Vance, and other Republican elected officials not just celebrating Penny but calling for more of it, is incredibly disturbing. While CEOs can afford added security for this so-called epidemic of CEO murdering that the punditry is predicting, most people of color and/or progressive-minded folks do not. And Republican leaders are basically declaring open season on these groups, and that includes you, dear reader of this blog.
We saw very little hang-wringing about societal collapse when 20 first graders were slaughtered in their classroom in Connecticut or when 19 elementary school students were massacred while police waited outside. Not even when the reaction from the right and Fox News was to instantly cry about gun rights, letting the world know that a paranoid moron’s right to own 20 guns trumps a child’s right to attend school without worrying about being shot.
It is very hard not to look at this stuff and not come to the conclusion that certain people are allowed to murder. With an administration full of people infamous for violent rhetoric coming to power, that is deeply unsettling, and perhaps the publishers at outlets like The Atlantic should be paying a little more attention to that.
The last word goes to King’s X.