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Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 14, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I don't really understand why joker-types on the left profess love for Luigi Mangione the health care CEO assassin but are trying to dodge any association with Tyler Robinson the Charlie Kirk assassin?

I'm not really trying to adjudicate what Tyler's beliefs are (or Luigi's for that matter, he was a trad conservative in some ways), just... they both did political assassinations that leftist joker-types are in favor of. Why the selective embracing/rebuking?

Is it because Luigi's cute and has six pack abs? Is it because Luigi killed at the end of Biden's term while Tyler killed after Trump demonstrated a more fierce commitment to law and order?

Many believed that United had such regulatory capture and lobbying capacity that they were above the law, and so the victims of their injustices couldn’t plausibly seek justice against the company. Many believed that there were hundreds or thousands of victims of United and that their victimhood was especially heinous because (to simplify) they had purchased medicine but were withheld the medicine they purchased and were promised while they actively dying. Doctors, patients, academics, and those in the industry came forward after the event to talk about this. Something outside the law is treated according to the traditional norms regarding outlaws, as that’s just what means. None of this applies to Kirk, who was firmly within the law.

Why the selective embracing/rebuking?

Cost/benefit. You can sell that healthcare CEO is a supervillain that deserves death, and some normies could buy it, because US healthcare system sucks, and a lot of people hate it. Selling that the guy whose only thing was to debate anybody who would talk to him was a supervillain is much harder.

But here shouldn't the ire also be directed at those who make and enforce the laws? It seems we have a legislature and those who enforce the laws who allow Insurance CEOs to behave to the detriment of society. If we had better laws or enforcement I could imagine people not being as mad at their health insurance. Anger at CEOs maximizing profits seems akin to anger at dogs barking.

There's a wide gap between "illegal" and "detrimental to the society", and it is not closeable in any reasonably organized society that allows any freedoms to its members. You have conflicting interests here - the consumers of healthcare want to have maximum care for minimum cost, the providers have limited resources which will never be enough to provide it, and the middlemen want to extract profits. There's not really an optimal arrangement that you could legislate. Even if you make a totalitarian dictatorship fully dedicated to regulating and distributing healthcare, you still will have people who think they don't get enough care, and some of them will blame the providers for it. Sure, you could legislate against some of the toxic behaviors, but you'd get a set of others in response, and another set of people being mad about it. US is not in a great spot here, for various reasons, but there will always be something to complain about.

Is it because Luigi's cute and has six pack abs?

I'd guess this is 99% of it. Whatever difference between how the killers are lauded probably has little to do with the specifics of the killings, because the joker-types are lauding the killings about equally, by my reckoning. But being seen fawning over someone who looks like Luigi is much better for your status than fawning over someone who looks like Tyler.