Tracking Luigism Online - The murder of Wesley LePatner sparked a measurable increase in pro-violence posting.

Several weeks ago, an unknown 27-year-old named Shane Tamura walked into a skyscraper lobby in midtown Manhattan, took out an assault rifle he carried with him from Las Vegas, and opened fire. His killing spree resulted in the death of four individuals; it is the worst mass shooting in New York City for over two decades.

Within hours, social media was awash with memeified images reminiscent of those that circulated last December, when an otherwise reclusive 26-year-old named Luigi Mangione walked to the New York Hilton Midtown, pulled out a 3D-printed pistol, and fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Both shootings occurred within a few blocks of each other.

Tamura’s violence may have been aimed at the NFL offices in the building, motivated by a claimed head injury. However, on social media, an alternative narrative quickly emerged—one rooted in Marxist class struggle and bolstered by conspiracy theories. It claimed that Tamura was following in the footsteps of Mangione. In other words, many came to believe that the shooter had committed an act of revolutionary political violence on the streets of New York.

The main evidence cited for this narrative was that one of the killer’s principal victims, Wesley LePatner, was CEO of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust. Widespread chatter on X applauded her killing, falsely accusing her of helping orchestrate the firm’s post-2008 purchase of homes and of financially impoverishing millions of Americans with high rents. Many posts were content simply to cheer the death of a wealthy CEO. According to our analysis, mentions of “CEO Down” on X spiked to nearly ten times their average baseline between the start of July and the New York attack last week.

Many responses to coverage of LePatner’s murder embraced the familiar conspiratorial notion of a high-level coverup. In one version, commentators on X claimed that a coalition of media forces was working to hide the fact that she had been “Luigi’d”—Internet slang for being the victim of explicitly anti-capitalist violence. They dismissed as misdirection the claim that Tamura “accidentally” killed LePatner, as well as the idea that he had been targeting the NFL and simply got off the elevator on the wrong floor. All such explanations, they insisted, were whitewashing meant to keep people from “waking up” and seeing the truth.

Some commentators on X saw proof of complicity in mainstream media headlines. The Wall Street Journal’s coverage, originally titled “One of Blackstone’s Highest-Ranking Women Killed in Shooting,” was cited as evidence of a conspiracy. Why? Because LePatner was a CEO of Blackstone, not merely a senior executive; conspiracists claimed the paper was “downplaying” her role. Such narratives reflected the online belief that the purpose of this supposed coverup was to shield the ruling classes from the inevitable revolt that would follow successful acts of political violence against the corporate elite.

The prevalence of this chatter on social media reflects the unabated growth of what the Network Contagion Research Institute has termed “assassination culture.” Primarily found in left-leaning digital spaces, this online subculture glorifies the political violence epitomized by Mangione’s killing of Thompson last year. Indeed, those affiliated with such an ideology will commonly share memes of Nintendo’s Luigi to cloak the celebration of such violence.

We’ve previously identified how these actions appear to be associated with left-wing authoritarianism (defined as willingness to use coercion for ostensibly progressive objectives) and poor external locus of control (reflecting the degree of powerlessness that people feel in their own lives). People who feel more helpless in controlling their own future are more likely to cheer the murder of wealthy, high-status Americans as a solution to their troubles.

The consequences for American civic life are ominous. The slow but steady rise in justifications for political violence bodes ill for any democracy. Praise for Tamura’s actions—regardless of his true motive—points to a growing belief that electoral politics no longer work and that violent extremism is the only way to challenge a corrupted system.

I would like to give an example of what I’m saying, referring to experiences I and others have had in apartment rental.

Apartment hunting involves application fees. I’ve had conversations with people where I’ve told them everything up front in an effort to get an idea of what I’ll be approved for.

These applications are 40 to 120 dollars.

The rejections are immediate. The agents know very well I’ll be turned down, but their bosses require them to sell these applications so the company can cash in on these fees.

That’s evil but the agent isn’t really to blame. They are trying to protect their jobs by doing dirty, underhanded things because they fear being poor and desire like the people who show up looking for apartments.. many with only days to spare before facing homelessness.

Employees are paid just enough to prevent them from moving into another job, not enough to get education to move up, and so much that writing isn’t easy

I’ve said this about the police in these forums many times. Police are paid enough to survive, promised a pension, but not paid so much that they can seek out new skills and move up. Police pay locks them into control of the department. This is why do many cops willingly perform unscrupulous actions when they know they shouldn’t. The wage keeps them locked in very precisely.

Cowardice is key. Most Americans are at this fine balance of consumerism and wage slavery. They’ve grown fearful of raising their voices. But the balance is being thrown off - by government policy. Soon the people will be so weak that violence will once again be an option on the table.

I can elaborate if you wish.

You don’t need to elaborate, I get your drift. I maintain that in the end, you are the captain of your own soul. Many people do choose not to take that responsibility.

But some do.

The choice is always yours. Always. But as you say, many human beings, and that includes myself, are often cowards.

But as I get far closer to the end of my life than the beginning, and I am finding Christ, it is only confirmed to me the closer I get to God-the choice is mine.

I hope with all my soul that when I am called on to make a choice, I can have the courage to make that choice.

But who of us knows until that time arrives? Who really knows?

I wouldn’t say I think the disparity can’t be fixed. I say it WON’T be fixed. Because the people in charge of fixing it are the ones that benefit from it being broken. And they know that. The only fix is to shake the etch-a-sketch, get the benefiting from the system no longer in charge of the system.

You can’t discount the pay disparity. Because that’s part of the situation. What’s going on here is basically the beginnings of a revolution. And revolutions always start from the same thing: the masses see the people in charge as working against them, keeping them from even leading a quiet normal life.

I mentioned my recently fired CEO up thread. A few years ago he put in our corporate goals getting the average salaries of engineers in the company below $40,000 a year. 20 years before then I got HIRED here for more than that in raw non-inflation adjusted dollars. So basically he wanted to roll back our salaries 25 to 30 years. Meanwhile he gets paid millions. See, actively working against us.

And we’ve seen this chart over and over again. How real wages are declining in America vs inflation. While CEO salaries far outstrip inflation. They have made an us and them situation. They have created the ground for a revolution. With them being first against the wall.

I straight up said I don’t want the government declaring what CEO salaries should be. But the CEO’s should be aware enough of the world around them to recognize that saying they want to reduce the average salaries of their worker while getting raises that’s not right. They need to govern themselves. Once upon a time in this country CEOs used to boast about how well they treated their employees. Now they boast about how cheaply they run the company, while of course boosting their pay. Government control of peoples salaries is ONE road to serfdom. But CEOs that just don’t care about their employees is another.

And any serfdom eventually leads to a revolution.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.