The left wing is having a moment this week.
In June 1970, writer Tom Wolfe coined the term “radical chic” in a New York Magazine cover story about conductor Leonard Bernstein and fellow travelers of the upper crust hosting the Black Panthers for a dinner party. These tony elites were not truly interested in radical politics for the sake of revolutionary change, Wolfe observed, but rather for social clout. Courting extremists like the Black Panthers made Bernstein and his actress wife, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein, feel transgressive, hip and cool — it made them feel more sophisticated and worldly than their peers. Never mind the well-being of normal black people in the city: hobnobbing with their elite pals and a few token radicals was enough.
Wolfe’s story is worth revisiting in light of two developments this week: the arrest of Luigi Mangione, the suspected killer of UnitedHealth’s CEO, and the breakdown of the left-wing journalist who seems to be one of his biggest cheerleaders.
In an ironic twist, Mangione was nabbed by police at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after authorities said he managed to escape one of the most surveilled cities in the world. Following the identification and arrest, details of his former life didn’t trickle out so much as flood the internet. The 26-year-old was born into a wealthy family, graduated valedictorian from an elite prep school in Maryland, and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He interned at a video game studio and later worked at a car company.
His motive for allegedly committing murder is still unclear. However, given that a manifesto was found in his backpack, according to police, it’s safe to say that Mangione was radicalized somewhere along the line. An otherwise smart and ambitious person apparently drowned in ideological poison. And despite his privileged background, he was nihilistic enough to allegedly act on his beliefs.
You would hope everyone on the left and right would just be normal for once and outright condemn political violence, domestic terrorism, and the execution of a CEO in broad daylight. You would hope. Yes, many Americans think the healthcare system is corrupt and in desperate need of reform, but that doesn’t mean someone should pay for it in blood.
Well, not everyone thinks this way. Weirdo degenerates who should not have access to the internet celebrated Mangione as a folk hero, a modern-day Robin Hood, and even a jacket with similar features to the one he allegedly wore flew off the shelves, a radical chic detail Tom Wolfe would have relished. The most famous among them, left-wing journalist Taylor Lorenz, tweeted and then deleted, “And people wonder why we want these executives dead,” in response to Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s now-retracted policy to deny claims for certain anesthesia procedures. She later defended her celebratory posture on Piers Morgan’s show, where she was properly cooked by the British host for going too far.
“I think that it is a good thing that this murder has led to America, really the media elites and politicians in this country paying attention to this issue for the first time,” Lorenz told the panel. “You mentioned you couldn’t understand why somebody would feel this reaction when they watched a CEO die. It’s because you have not dealt, it sounds like, with the American health care system in the way that millions of other Americans have.”
“We should not necessarily go around shooting people in the street. While I am joyful that this issue has been brought to attention … it doesn’t solve the systemic problem. UnitedHealthcare will just appoint a new ghoulish CEO. The point is that we need to fix these systems so that, again, people like Brian or whoever is in charge of these companies stop murdering tens of thousands of innocent Americans,” she went on to say.
Once an employee of The New York Times, The Washington Post and, most recently, Vox Media, Lorenz is now totally free to spew her unhinged political views. Although it should not come as a surprise that Lorenz would glorify the suspected assassin, the cheapness of her posturing, the nihilism of it and the corrosiveness are still galling. Deep down, does she actually believe Brian Thompson deserved bullets in the back? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps she does not believe he deserved to die. Rather, she believes his death, allegedly at the hands of Mangione, is a perfect opportunity to boost her brand now that she is independent from an employer. It’s a perfect moment to draw in all the other dirt-bag, online leftists who celebrated the CEO’s death. It’s a perfect moment for radical chic.
If there’s one thing in common between Lorenz and Mangione, it is that they both came from privileged backgrounds. But one of them allegedly decided to take radical action while the other kicked back and played communist cheerleader from the sidelines for online clout.
DCNF
