Progressives pick and choose their heroes and the hated
A political culture that weaponizes strategic acts of violence and lionizes a morally confused perpetrator has disastrous downstream events.
By Dr. Sheila Nazarian
JNS
Dec 23, 2024
There were two major news stories last week that illustrated a vital truth about the current political climate in America.
Daniel Penny, a 26-year-old former U.S. Marine, was found not guilty by a New York jury in the death of Jordan Neely, 30, a mentally ill homeless man who was menacing passengers on the New York City subway, and who he put in a chokehold until Neely was no longer a threat. Penny’s acquittal drew the rabid ire of the left, where common parlance held that he was a white supremacist who took the life of an innocent, promising young man.
The same day, just a few hours later, police arrested another 26-year-old, Luigi Mangione, for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan. Mangione shot Thompson at point-blank range and was arrested days later at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania with a 3D-printed gun and a rambling manifesto about the American health-care industry. Within seconds of his arrest, Mangione ascended to the status of left-wing cult hero, with legions of internet leftists and socialists praising the shooting as a brave act of resistance against an oppressive industry and calling Thompson the real criminal.
The stark divergence in these reactions illustrates something fundamental and troubling about the contemporary American left, who condemn the smallest harms against members of preferred groups yet celebrate extreme violence against their enemies. People are arbitrarily classed into sets based on their proximity to categories of oppression, like race, ethnicity or declared gender. These sets are used to determine not only their merit and worth in a variety of elite-controlled spaces but also much more meaningful things like the apparent value of their lives.
Take the left’s reaction to the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. To them, the hundreds of Israelis murdered in the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, didn’t matter; their tragic fates were justified and even excused by the actions of their government. Meanwhile, Palestinians are given a free pass to rape, murder and pillage with even their most barbarous actions written off as “resistance” or praised as “freedom fighting.”
The Penny-Mangione split is just the latest example of this flawed moral calculus.
It should concern people that wide segments of the left are heaping blame on a courageous man who sprang to the defense of his fellow New Yorkers, including a mother and child who testified that they were scared by Neely’s temperament. Penny was unwilling to hang back in silence and undeterred by the very real risk that Neely might have a weapon. His bravery exemplifies what it means to be a courageous and engaged American citizen. The left’s insistence on villainizing and vilifying his behavior will dissuade others from practicing the same civic engagement and protecting their fellow citizens in a time of need, perpetuating our society’s crisis of mistrust.
It should concern people even more that the same left-wing supporters who called Penny a callous murderer celebrate an actual murderer—one with a handwritten manifesto—and dismiss the death of an innocent man with young children as a justified means to an end. Mangione is no hero; he is a killer directing his ire at a self-made businessman who worked his way up from humble roots and didn’t deserve to be executed in cold blood. Any twisted moral and political framework that confuses these simple truths should be rejected.
Instead, perhaps most chillingly, vast sections of the American left have attached themselves to this morally bankrupt line of thinking. Rather than denouncing him in swift and strong terms, progressive politicians hemmed and hawed about Mangione’s crimes, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) writing on X that the response should be a “warning” and that “violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also left similar moral ambiguity in his statement, criticizing the killing before immediately pivoting to his own criticisms of the American health-care system.
Giving even the slightest bit of credence to this warped line of thinking, in which heartless killings can be explained away by moral justifications, only opens the door for copycats and continued violence. Further, a political culture that weaponizes strategic acts of violence and lionizes a morally confused perpetrator has disastrous downstream events.
The handwringing over Penny’s acquittal and celebrations over Mangione’s murderous act shows us that a sizable portion of America has decided, with healthy progressive encouragement, that violence is occasionally the answer. Bloodlust has become an acceptable response to politics that those on the far left don’t like—a dangerous development in any society but especially one like America that rests on civic norms and higher ideals of democracy and coexistence. We should consider ourselves fortunate to have an incoming administration that will work to stamp out these disgusting tendencies, which, if left unchecked and uncriticized, pose a true danger to the fabric of our society.
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