This Proletariat Revolution Sure Is Taking Its Sweet-Ass Time
Ever think about why?
I would summarize Lenin’s contributions to communist theory as: “Fuck this — let’s just do it ourselves.” Marx believed in a historical process in which agricultural laborers would move to cities and became the proletariat, and proletariat anger would overthrow capitalism. Lenin noticed that the Russian underclass weren’t storming out of their factories and overthrowing the Czar; they were mostly harvesting wheat by hand and going to church. So, he decided to give history a li’l boost, with “li’l boost” being the cutest euphemism that you’ll ever hear for a bloody revolution.
Deep befuddlement at the proletariat revolution's stubborn refusal to arrive seems to be the default state of leftist thought. And I’ve been thinking about that state of mind this week, as leftists seized on the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as possible evidence that THIS — FINALLY!!! — was the moment when popular anger had begun to boil over. But now a suspect is in custody, and he’s not a downtrodden laborer appalled by the depravities of capitalism: He’s an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family. How wealthy? Well, students at Loyola University Maryland might be familiar with thee Mangione Aquatic Center, named for the alleged shooter’s grandparents. And that pool might be due for a rebrand now that that name sounds a little bit like “Manson Field House” or “The Bin Laden Baseball/Softball Complex”.
The alleged killer doesn’t even appear to be particularly left-wing. From the online breadcrumbs he left behind, his views seem to be a mishmash of “rationalist” tech bro stuff and vague anti-establishment sentiment. He (like me!) really likes Tim Urban, and reading Tim Urban and concluding “I must commit murder” seems like reading Beatrix Potter and concluding “I must join Boko Haram.” And I have no fucking idea what this is:
Though we don’t know the shooter’s motives, it appears that we can’t rule out, um…anger over the availability of celebrity-endorsed “pocket pussies”. And I’d hate to meet the person who had that as their pre-existing political hobby horse. My point is simply that this shooting may not be the start of a popular uprising against capitalist excess that some people assumed it to be.