On Monday, some social media influencers said some incendiary things about Luigi Mangione and the healthcare CEO he allegedly murdered, in front of a tabloid news reporter, while they were standing outside a state courthouse and wearing City-issued press passes around their necks.
These facts have now snowballed into the stupidest controversy in New York City, and many people—some eminently reasonable, others literally paid to be the opposite on a daily basis—have absolutely lost their minds about it.
It's tempting to turn these events into a multilayered conversation about the First Amendment, and the Mamdani administration, and the question of who is a "real" journalist.
But before you do, allow us to point out that every player in this controversy cannot be entirely trusted. They are all fatally compromised, and extremely annoying.
First, you certainly cannot trust the three self-proclaimed "Mangionistas," because their entire brand is based on supporting a guy they believe is a political prisoner. Getting outraged when they say things like "Fuck Brian Thompson" and "His children are better off without him," is like pressing a button on a Big Mouth Billy Bass and then getting angry when it starts to sing. This is their editorial position, and while it's not as mainstream an editorial position as say, RFK Jr. Is Good, Actually, or Stop Whining, Muslims: Islamophobia Isn't Real, or Watch Us Support an AI High School While Doing Casual Racism in a Headline, this is still America, and they're allowed to have their point of view.