this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
408 points (98.3% liked)
Political Memes
5672 readers
2485 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I upvoted, but these kinds of posts make me uncomfortable. Luigi was a wealthy crypto bro working though a mental crisis. Luigi is not lefty batman.
I am very happy about the discussions his actions are creating and the overreaction from the upper class, but I am not sure it is a good idea to glorify Luigi.
If you’re waiting for perfect, you’ll be waiting for ever.
I mean if people are gonna have guns and people with mental crises who go and murder other people, then let's choose the lesser evil:
a) Sandy Hook style shooting up a school, killing many kids and teachers
b) New Orleans style driving a car into a public event, killing many partygoers
c) Luigi style murdering a single person who is arguably themselves guilty of causing the legal death and suffering of thousands
Now what would be the lesser evil in this scenario?
Obviously, I prefer no dead people, which would require regulating guns and providing mental healthcare and a social safety net to people, but alas, that option seems to be impossible.
unfortunately it is also a bad showing of the left because this guy ends up taking more action.
"the point of theory is to change the world" -Marx. If the left does nothing then the left has failed us. Luigi isn't perfect, but he is a real person who was willing to sacrifice everything, to walk away from a life of comfort and privilege, just to take a stand against evil and to show the entire world that even a god king can bleed (300 reference)
Crypto bro working through a mental crisis... not lefty batman...
Batman was a rich bro with severe mental trauma. Any modern reboot would have no problem making Wayne a crypto bro.
That sounds a lot like Batman.
Lefty Batman is inherently contradictory too. Because a real leftist Batman would use his money to fix the systemic problems of Gotham, and are you still really Batman if you're not out beating the shit out of poor mentally ill people?
Or you could make the argument that Batman solves his problems with violence, in which case Luigi is fucking literally Lefty Batman for targeting a person far closer to the problem than Batman ever normally would.
The last Batman movie makes explicit this contradiction in Batman. Batman acts in a vigilante manner to save individuals. Yet, the fund Bruce Wayne is custodian of is the source of the cancer at the core of Gotham.
That's why I use Saint Luigi. It's a ignore all the things that don't line up with the ideal, and only focus on those that do kind of thing. Just like the churches do with thier saints. Lol
Explain how Batman was not a wealthy crypto bro working though a mental crisis ?
lmaooo
tangentially I feel like Batman could never jive with leftist ideology anyhow. His whole thing is beating and scaring the crime out of people, which is in contrast to the leftist idea that crime happens because the needs of individuals (physical, psychological, and social) are not met by their material conditions.
Like, why do people always jump to thinking there can only be one correct option out of multiple choices?
I am sure there are many people committing crimes because they can't fulfill their basic needs any other way.
But do you think Trump is lacking in material conditions? People are diverse and they commit crimes for diverse reasons.
Nah, you're right, it definitely isn't as simple as all due to the material conditions, although I do tend to think the majority of crime is due to them. At the same time, I'm not sure I'm using material conditions in the correct technical sense, and was thinking about including a , "someone feel free to correct my usage" note in my comment. I also wasnt really itching for a super in-depth conversation about it, even though your question
is a really interesting one that I'd need to think and talk about a lot. I think if we had appropriate non coercive controls against accumulation of property, while also living in a society that met the physical, psychological, and social needs of its people, Trump perhaps would not be a criminal.
This comes from my tendency to think people are more inherently good than evil, and that much of the evil comes from the patriarchal culture of accumulation
Good point ☝️
Also batman didn't change the systemic issues with Gotham.
When has Batman been lefty?
His generally agreed upon biography is a wealthy billionaire trust fund baby who suffered great emotional loss and broke, who now spends the rest of his life and fortune fighting injustice
I didn't intend to imply that Batman was lefty.
That's the point though- people tried playing by the rules, the system shat in their faces. Now you have people snapping and going vigilante with guns and that's called consequence.
You break the socialist contract, bad things start getting lauded
I appreciate you trying to shift the narrative and demonize our modern day folk hero, but it’s probably not going to work.
Demonize? What have I said that was incorrect?
It's not glorifying Luigi. He's a vigilante. The health insurance companies are criminals in the eye of the majority, and the majority can't get it changed through legal peaceful means. The vigilante sees an injustice and takes it upon themselves to enact justice extrajudicially.
As we have seen, the majority appears to to support his actions. His background is unimportant. Humans are very grey. That's one of the things that democracy can account for.
Think of it this way: if he was willing to risk all that he had to enact justice once does that not make him better than many of us? How many of us have smaller amounts of excess, are directly impacted by the health insurance companies, yet have done nothing but take steps that have not helped anyone else? That's the definition of sacrifice rather than compromise.
I don't think he's a hero, but his actions are the inevitable outcome of our system.
When justice can no longer be achieved through peaceful demonstration or the legal system, people will increasingly turn to violence as their only option.
While I won't celebrate violence, I do prefer targeted violence upon those causing the damage to mass murders of innocents.
If you're going to murder someone - don't. But if that doesn't stop you, I'd rather the victim be someone who damages the world instead of schoolchildren and churchgoers.
There will never be the perfect Robin Hood. Engels was wealthy, Bernie is a millionaire.
Really the point is that Luigi is (allegedly) right, and represents a justifiable sentiment of disdain for the system and class solidarity.
Honestly, I feel about the same. Meme is funny, and I thoroughly enjoy the discussion, which is why I posted it, but I want actual leftist leaders in charge, not actual Luigi.
The point though is: Bernie was the working class trying to better the system from the inside. If the system keeps fucking us over, the system CAN be overthrown through different means.
The political class better realise that it's in their favour to have us change the system non violently.
It's a symbol. People are attracted to the idea that someone could coolly shoot an evil guy and (for a couple days) get away with it.
If he had hurt innocents or fumbled the execution (pun intended) he wouldn't be so popular.
Also consider how our institutions are failing us. People feel, often rightly so, that the systems aren't working for them. The supreme Court is openly corrupt and makes wildly unpopular decisions. Health care is a shit show. The police somewhat routinely kill innocent people and their dogs. Plus a bunch of stuff that's not true but people believe. It feels like there's no path forward, and then some smooth guy just shoots one of the perpetrators dead? Amazing.
He was not wealthy if he couldn't afford the health care...