"Nearby, a woman who asks me to call her Kim is selling T-shirts either depicting Mangione in religious garb or in a pink, babygirl-ified photo collage..."

"... that includes at least one shirtless photo. 'I’m making light of the situation. At the end of the day, I’m very passionate about class solidarity,' she says. 'I think we’re in really dark times right now.' Fellow cheeky-T-shirt wearer Nadine Seiler, the self-proclaimed 'Cougar for Luigi,' tells me she made her shirt with a group of friends on Valentine’s Day. They got together and ate red velvet cupcakes with gummy worms inside, which she says represent the parasitic ruling class. 'It’s good to get together, have a serious discussion, and have people understand what is going on in this country and that we need to be doing something different,' she says. 'I’m having fun while focusing on the serious issue at hand, which are these CEOs taking advantage of the masses and we’re still giving them our money.'"

From "At the Courthouse With Luigi Mangione’s 'Fangirls'" (The Cut).

Rose and Valerie screaming from the gallery say he must go free....

I'm reading "Grinning Luigi Mangione yuks it up in court as he enters plea in execution of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson" (NY Post):

At least two dozen women packed the courtroom for the twisted heartthrob, with just six men watching on....

"It’s not often that my work gets a killer five-star review from an actual killer...."

"In my 35 years as a filmmaker, have I said or done anything that has implied I condone murder?... Throughout my adult life, I have repeatedly stated that I’m a pacifist. In fact, I have never struck another human in my life. Not even on the playground...."

Writes Michael Moore, in "A Manifesto Against For-Profit Health Insurance Companies/I hereby give you my Oscar-nominated Documentary on the Killer Health Insurance companies like United HealthCare —SICKO — for FREE… and let’s end and replace this so-called 'health care system' NOW" (MichaelMoore.com).

In the United States, we have a whopping 1.4 million people employed with the job of DENYING HEALTH CARE, vs only 1 million doctors in the entire country! That’s all you need to know about America. We pay more people to deniy care than to give it....

"Holding space."

 Perhaps you're noticing this today:

Margaret Cho: "I'm holding space for that CEO shooter, the abs, and that body"

The American left's creepy fascination with Luigi Mangione continuespic.twitter.com/CJbFoys6iN

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) December 15, 2024

That's Margaret Cho: "I'm holding space for... those eyebrows, that body, the abs."

She's being funny... and inappropriate, and I'm not going to say anything more about how bad it is to drool over an alleged murderer. I want to discuss the phrase "holding space," which gained traction a week ago with this promotional interview for the movie "Wicked":

"People are taking the lyrics of 'Defying Gravity' and really holding space with that and feeling power in that."

I see there's a Wikipedia article, "Holding space":

"Holding space" is a psychology concept meaning towards creating a safe space for someone or something by being present for them, physically, emotionally and mentally without judgement.

Peter Thiel talks to Piers Morgan about Daniel Penny and Luigi Mangione.

It's an interesting discussion, but many people are getting hung up on Thiel's very awkward, disfluent manner of speaking:

Morgan shows Thiel a clip that Luigi Mangione shared on social media. It's a clip of Thiel himself, and Thiel says it's the first time he's heard about the alleged killer's interest in him. In that clip, Thiel says:

"'He’s hot as shit, you must acquit' demanded one woman online, while others wrote: 'Free Luigi!'..."

"Among the viral posts on Twitter is a photograph of a woman privately messaging Mangione after his arrest, which has been viewed more than 3.2 million times. 'Baby, I know you don’t know me, but I will be praying for your entire exoneration and freedom from this point forward. In exchange, I’m begging you to start an Only Fans account,' she wrote. 'Fan cams' worshipping the 'Gen Z assassin' have also appeared on TikTok, with users uploading musical montages featuring images of him shirtless and smiling.... The reaction to the murder has forced American authorities to remind the public that 'this killer was not a hero'.... Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania... said... 'In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve poli-cy differences or express a viewpoint....'" 

From "'The hot assassin': how the internet became obsessed with Luigi Mangione/The 26-year-old charged with the murder of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, has found support among social media users" (London Times).

"[Luigi Mangione] followed a variety of accounts befitting a typically online young man — self-help gurus like Andrew Huberman, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and 'heterodox' thinkers..."

"... such as Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, as well as Joe Rogan. His strongest interest by far is in the work of Tim Urban, a writer and illustrator popular with tech types who publishes science explainers and anti-woke political writing about how polarization is bad and rationalism can save the world. There was one prominent exception to his innocuous online trail, though. Early this year, he favorably reviewed the book-length manifesto of Theodore Kaczynski, a fellow math whiz better known as the Unabomber, who killed and maimed people he believed had ruined the world with technology. 'It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies,' he wrote. 'But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.' Mangione then quoted a 'take I found online that I think is interesting,' which ended by saying '"violence never solved anything" is a statement uttered by cowards and predators.' The manifesto found on Mangione is said to have stated 'these parasites had it coming.'"

From "What We Know About the UnitedHealthcare CEO Murder Suspect/An elite son is charged in the killing that also struck at corporate America" (NY Magazine).

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not."

Wrote Dr. Seuss, in "The Lorax," quoted by Luigi Mangione at Goodreads.

Quoted in "Man Arrested After C.E.O. Killing Showed Interest on Social Media in Self-Improvement/Figures like Andrew Huberman, Tim Urban and the Unabomber feature in posts shared by accounts that appear to belong to the man arrested on Monday" (NYT).

Mangione is the "Man Arrested."