On Tuesday, Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of Brian Thompson, appeared in a Manhattan courtroom for another hearing. This time, the judge tossed out the terrorism charges for Mangione’s alleged crimes. Outside the courthouse, a crowd of Mangione supporters gathered with “Free Luigi” written on T-shirts or signs, joyfully reacting to the news.
Elsewhere around the country, Americans have gathered to show support for another young man. On Wednesday, Sept. 10, the country and even the world watched in horror as Charlie Kirk was gunned down while holding an event at a college in Orem, Utah. Since then, the memorials for Kirk have been numerous and painful. The political assassination rocked the country and created even deeper ideological divisions.
LUIGI MANGIONE’S DROPPED CHARGES: A BAD SIGN FOR STOPPING POLITICAL VIOLENCE
The contrast between the two young men is stark. The climax of both their stories was marked by violence. In Mangione’s case, his hatred and anger allegedly spurred him to shoot Brian Thompson in the back on a New York City sidewalk one cold morning in early December. Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was targeted for his job. He was an innocent man who didn’t deserve a violent, premature end. Charlie Kirk’s life had an untimely end at only 31 years old because another human being chose violence as a reaction to offense. Kirk was also an innocent man who did not deserve the harm that came to him.
The support for Luigi Mangione and memorials for Charlie Kirk are a reminder of one thing: the prevalence of political, specifically leftist, violence. To be sure, it is a rejection of reality to act as if every Democrat is out to get any Republican. But it is fair to say the Left has a problem with political violence. Charlie Kirk’s murder is just the latest example. Just last year, President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt by miraculously moving his head at the precise moment. And just like Kirk, Trump was targeted because another human being believed their hate was a license to kill.
There is nothing but delusion and hubris behind these incidents of political violence. A delusion that says one’s anger gives permission to commit the most heinous act against another human being. And the hubris to believe that by doing so, you’re either righting a wrong, can’t or shouldn’t be held accountable, or are making a change. Those aspects define Luigi Mangione’s alleged killing of Brian Thompson and Tyler Robinson’s alleged killing of Charlie Kirk.
It is alarming to witness the continued support for Luigi Mangione in general, especially as the nation reels from another act of violence. Any show of support for Mangione or Kirk’s killer is announcing that feelings are all that matter and human beings are a separate, much less important consideration. This is not a good trajectory for society. It is established and exacerbated by the internet, both the intent to kill and the celebrations of those killings.
The fact that the assassination attempts on Trump, Brian Thompson’s murder, Melissa Hortman’s assassination, and Charlie Kirk’s assassination happened so close together should give all of us a considerable and uncomfortable pause. Just this week, Fox News called it “assassination culture.” This is scarily accurate. In each one of these cases, it was hate that drove another person to try to or successfully take a human life. Feelings over anything else are the impetus behind all of it. Every single time.
AI IS POISED TO MAKE OUR CULTURE OF VIOLENCE WORSE
Luigi Mangione ultimately allowed hate and rage to fuel him and his actions. On the other hand, Kirk was motivated by seeing differences of opinion and choosing to persuade through discussion.
Both Luigi Mangione and Charlie Kirk, young men with their lives ahead of them, made a change. Mangione, a coward, selected violence as his route to infamy. Meanwhile, Kirk chose politics and dialogue. As his footprint grew larger, it became about having respectful conversations with other human beings about difficult subjects in a public setting. For all the criticism launched his way, Charlie Kirk did what Luigi Mangione could not: acknowledge the unique worth of other human beings.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a contributing freelance columnist at the Freemen News-Letter. She is a mother of two and lives in the southern United States.