I like to contextualize this in a modern form. I like to say, “there are no billionaires in Heaven. In the end, every last one of them burns.” When I see Musk, Bezos, or Trump, I see men who are literally and inevitably headed for the very literal fires of Hell. Let them have their vanity here. In the end, they’re all gonna fry.

I don’t know what qualifies as “rich.” But I don’t think a modest 401k to support yourself in retirement is going to damn anyone. I don’t know where the line is, but by the time you get the obscene level of a billionaire, you have been consumed by greed.

I like to imagine wealth and as an anchor. Would you die, your soul tries to ascend upward. But those with great wealth find themselves chained to a great golden weight, a spiritual manifestation of their wealth and greed on Earth. And as they try to fly upward, they instead are pulled down, down, and down. They see the surface of the Earth rise up above them like a diver descending beneath the ocean’s surface. And they do not stop falling until they reach the Pit.

What lecturer are you referring to, have a link?

I’m not! I WANT to blow up the Sun, and I’ll be helping Rita!

MWHAHAHAA!!

The miracles are relatively easy in his case, considering his connection to healthcare. Get enough people with terminal diagnoses praying for his intercession, and some will happen to make a statistically unlikely spontaneous recovery.

They already is happening. You don’t need to be an officially recognized saint for someone to sell a candle of you.

Ea-nāṣir shops at Safeway.

It’s not that sainthood can’t proceed rapidly. The issue is that Luigi’s case is fundamentally different than someone like Kobe. Luigi is a much more complex figure, more akin to a John Brown than Kobe. What Luigi did was heroic, but he still shot a man in the back. Absolution or not, his act was not the unambiguous act of noble sacrifice of Kobe. Kobe gave up his life, Luigi took one.

Under very particular circumstances, Luigi could get actual sainthood. But it would be so controversial that it would likely only happen after the lifetime of anyone currently alive. In the grand view of history, maybe history will find him worthy of actual official sainthood. But there’s zero chance the Catholic Church would endorse a murder like that while anyone alive now still lives.

Why not? Sainthood is an inherently political process. No person becomes a saint without intense lobbying and political pressure. You think Joan of Arc got her sainthood without politics involved?

And while the Catholic Church likes to claim a monopoly on sainthood, it really has no right to that claim. Most early saints were simply individuals that people in a community loved, respected, and later revered. A lot of these early saints were simply canonized officially by the church after they had already been venerated as saints by their communities for generations. There’s one saint that is likely just a misremembering of the Buddha. So people could absolutely start venerating him as a saint unofficially whenever they want.

And in the long term, Luigi could even end up an official saint of the Church if the circumstances are right. After conviction and sentencing, he could meet with a priest and confess his crimes in full and formally ask for absolution. And in the doctrine of the Church, that would result in him being fully forgiven for his crime. It’s the same way the Church recognizes the sanctity of warrior-saints who spent their whole lives killing. As long as they confessed their sins and asked for forgiveness from God, all is forgiven.

So let’s imagine Luigi did that. Suddenly his sins are washed away. Now we just have a man who is effectively a martyr for the thousands of victims of Brian Thompson. If that doesn’t a saint make, what does? Sainthood is meant for people who give their lives in the service of others, and that’s exactly what Luigi ultimately did. If it weren’t for the whole murder part, everyone would consider him a hero. And in the eyes of the church, confession washes away the sin of killing. Now he’s an absolved martyr dying for the service others.

Now, for official recognition from the Church, there would need to be some miracles attributed to him after his (likely) execution. But that doesn’t seem that hard to get. Tens of thousands of cancer patients praying for the ascended Luigi’s intercession? Some of them are going to make a statistically unlikely complete recovery. Won’t be hard to get the requisite number of miracles.

I don’t imagine the Church would officially recognize Luigi’s canonization within our lifetimes. But the Church thinks in centuries. If he decided to make a religious turn and really lean into Catholicism, he absolutely could end up saint, maybe in the 2100s sometime.

The state of New York is about to get a firsthand lesson in the Streisand Effect. They should have just charged him the same charge any normal killer would get - Second Degree Murder, which is the normal charge for premeditated murder in NY. First degree requires rare special circumstances, and the prosecutor chose to use a dubious “terrorism” modifier to up the charge to Murder 1. They just couldn’t help themselves, and they shot themselves in the foot.

The advantage to the prosecution to a simple Murder 2 charge is that motive really doesn’t matter much. They just have to prove that Luigi pulled the trigger. But with the terrorism modifier, the trial will no devolve into lengthy discussions about his motives and message. Not only have they now given him the world’s largest soapbox, but this will also give the defense an opportunity to make him much more sympathetic to the jury. With only a Murder 2 charge, the defense lawyer would have had to fight hard to sneak subtle hints into trial about Luigi’s motives. Now his motives will be a core part of the prosecution’s case.

With a simple Murder 2 trial, even jurors who thought Thompson got what he deserved could vote to convict based simply on the letter of the law. Luigi killed an evil man, but he still has to face the consequences like any other criminal. Now the jury will clearly see that the system isn’t treating him like any other criminal. The prosecutors, through their own actions, are making Luigi’s case for him - the justice system is completely rigged in favor of the rich and powerful, and the only way they can ever be held accountable is through violence.

All it takes is one juror of twelve to look around at the situation and say, “this is bullshit. I’m not going to convict.” Sure, they can try him again with a new jury if he’s not found unanimously not-guilty, but that jury will have an even greater risk of jury nullification. The longer this goes on, the more likely the prosecutor just has to offer him some sweetheart plea deal just to get him convicted of something. And each trial just elevates Mangione that much closer to literal Sainthood in the popular imagination.

The feds also indicted him. There’s zero chance a Trump AG isn’t going to be pushing for the death penalty. What they cannot seem to understand is that this will only make him a martyr. They should have just given him the standard NY Murder II conviction any other killer would get, but they just couldn’t help themselves. They had to really send a message to the proles.

All they will succeed in doing is elevating him to outright sainthood.

Then we need to make him a saint.

St. Luigi of Baltimore, forgive us our debts, deliver us from the greed of the wicked…

Want to know how Luigi found what hotel Brian Thompson stayed at? It’s right in his “manifesto.” He used social engineering.

Social engineering is when you just take advantage of people’s natural predilictions to give you info or access that you shouldn’t have. For example, if he were to just call up UHC and ask them where the CEO was staying, they would likely just have called the police. Instead, he had to think of some plausible reason that someone might need that info through unofficial channels. I have no idea how he actually did it, but for example, Thompson was a famous womanizer who cheated on his wife. He was your standard sleazy executive scumbag. That can be exploited.

*Hi, CEO’s office? I’m John Doe, an underling over at the CFO’s office. My boss wants to give Brian a special surprise at this year’s company meeting. We’re thinking of hiring a few girls to come over and keep him company one evening. I need to know where to have them sent. I would send an email or look up the info in our records system, but, as you can understand, it’s best if there’s no paper trail. Can you let me know what hotel he’s staying at?"

These social engineering methods are the same tools scammers use, but they work just as well for assassins.

If you’re on your deathbed, and looking back, you haven’t been on at least one watch list, will you be able to say you have truly lived at all?

You’re right. The governor of NY should give him a pardon, and the mayor of NYC should throw him a parade!

Saint Luigi of Baltimore, forgive us our debts, deliver us from the greed of the wicked…

Inheritance is weird. My partner and I stand to inherit a good bit when the parents on either side pass. Both sides of the family had successful middle class careers saved and invested well. Even considering the siblings on both sides, we could inherit an amount around $1M from either side.

But it’s weird in two ways. First, it’s not something that can be counted on. On either side it could be completely eaten up by nursing home care and medical costs for our parents. So we’re not planning our own retirement assuming a windfall from inheritance. Second, on either side, unless they’re unlucky, at least one of the parents is likely to live into their late 80s or 90s. So we’ll already be in our 60s or 70s.

In other words, while we stand to likely inherit a good chunk of change, it will come so late in life that we won’t really need it. Unless our parents die younger than expected, we will already be well into a fully funded retirement by the time they pass.

I feel inheritance made a lot more sense in the past. A farmer or a craftsman would will their farm or business to their children. And that child would take over that business while the parent was still alive, but too old to work it anymore. The child got the business or farm, but in turn had to support the parent in their later years.

But now? You’re basically just inheriting your parent’s house and whatever is left over of their retirement accounts. And you’re doing so at an age where it really doesn’t necessarily help you. Sure, if you yourself are unable to retire, then that windfall will be a godsend. But considering how wealth reproduces through generations, if you’re in a position to inherit substantial funds from your parents, odds are you probably have a pretty big nest egg yourself built up by then. The people who could really use an inheritance to fund their retirement are unlikely to have parents wealthy enough to give them one.

But yeah, this is why I support strong inheritance taxes. For most people who inherit anything substantial, by the time you actually inherit something, you don’t really need it anymore.

St. Luigi of Baltimore, forgive us our sins. Deliver us from the greed of the wicked…

St. Luigi of Baltimore, forgive us our sins, deliver us from the greed of the wicked…

Yeah there would be a lot of opportunity for interpretation. Realistically you would raise funds and accept proposals from artists. But I do love the over the top classical imagery.

You know what? If they want to turn him into a martyr, I want to turn him into a saint. St. Luigi of Baltimore. In fact, I want to erect a big statue of him, something deliberately over the top and in bad taste. Like how Dante wrote his political enemies into Hell.

Think of the classical paintings and statues of St. Michael casting Satan into Hell.

I want to crowd fund a big bronze statue like this. Except Luigi is St. Michael and Thompson is Satan. Thompson can be holding a scroll that reads “delay deny depose.”

I say we put a gaudy statue like this somewhere near United Healthcare’s headquarters in Minnesota. Just this classical bronze of their former CEO as the Devil himself, being thrown into literal Hell by St. Luigi of Baltimore. Make them drive past the damn thing every day on the way to the office.

The dedication on the plinth can read “In Memory of St. Luigi of Baltimore. Tear down this monument when Americans no longer die from lack of healthcare.”

The bastards want to make him a martyr? I say we make him a SAINT.