Don't Lose Focus Now, The Revolution Is About To Begin
In a very unusual twist of events this year, shortly after a dangerously divided election, the slaying of a CEO of the largest healthcare company seems to be… uniting us?
‘Us’ as in the common man I mean. The majority of this country. The one’s who have been so deeply divided left and right for so long.
With the CEO’s assassination and an interesting man with coded messages left behind with he ordeal, the internet is not only entertained, they’re feeling hungry and riled up… for change.
This event is something Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, or Dead Kennedys fans have been waiting for, for decades.
This was only a ticking time bomb (no pun intended). But there’s a sense of awakening happening amongst American citizens. Many are tuning in and becoming class conscious—realizing our divide isn’t a left and right issue, but rather and up and down issue, so to speak.
As someone who has been actively watching, studying, and writing research articles about the wealth gap for 10 years now, I’ve been waiting for this kind of mass realization. I know what the real enemy is, but it takes the remaining 99% of citizens to realize it too for something to be done.
And furthermore, a history buff like me knows how capable people are succeeding overthrowing dictatorships, monarchies, and unfair governments. But the enemy—ahem—I mean our government and billionaires know this too. But they miscalculated in keeping us complacent. They’re so far out of touch, they didn’t realize how far they’ve deprived us.
Now that the spark has been ignited, news outlets are trying to put out the blaze that’s already taking hold. They’re dismissing us, trying to convince us we are a danger to each other, and illiterate for support (or even curiosity about) of Luigi Mangione.
Hear me out, as journalist myself, I know what game is being played here. And as a journalist, I know the art and science of true, unbiased, journalism has lost its credibility to greed and entertainment.
I have degrees in learning how to persuade people into believing evidence by swaying the narrative to my publisher’s motives. You think the most people check sources? You think a majority of people read anything past the headlines anymore? Not really. So when I saw a majority of the headlines on this case, I knew I had to say something about it before it’s too late.
While mainstream media has had the power to sway and inform the public of whatever narrative they want us to believe, we might have reached a point where they have lost their power over us. Because remember, this is not inherently about informing, it’s about persuading us to feel and think a certain way about a situation. And moreover, to keep us going at each other and stay distracted from the real threats.
I’ve read a quite a few articles on this situation now, and maybe you have too. Since Mangione’s arrest and identity reveal, a majority of the news content isn’t even about him, it’s about the people on the internet and how they’re reacting to him. It’s written in a belittling tone, mocking the people on the internet and dangerously depicting people as “cruel, insensitive, deranged, and delusional.”
The people online are not praising him simply for his looks. The edits and admiration of Mangione are in mockery of our “justice” system. If you’re chronically online as much as I am, then you know we’re getting a kick out of CEO’s, the mega-wealthy, and news outlets fuming over the posts about Mangione. It angers them so easily to see the ones who were hating each other online only a week ago, now unified, and agreeing on one thing.
On the same day of Mangione’s arrest, Daniel Penny was acquitted in the murder of a homeless man on the subway and was celebrating with many at a local New York City bar. And on the topic of irony and hypocrisy, tons of media outlets have published the praise of Kyle Rittenhouse , a teenager who senselessly shot 3 people from a racist motive, killing 2 of them, with little ridicule.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not condoning murder.
Which is why I think all the health insurance CEO’s (for starters) and billionaires should pay in some form or another for their inhumane acts, and senseless killings of hundreds of thousands innocent Americans.
We mustn’t let them distract us. They’re afraid.
On a side note this made me think about having the utmost privilege of speaking with Mohammad Rasoulof, the writer and director of The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a few weeks ago. Rasoulof risked his life and liberty to make this film in his way to expose the current Iranian regime and support the revolution (especially the women’s freedom fight). As a film reporter at the screening of the film, I had to ask questions about TSOTSF, but as a person and an admirer, I needing up straying off asking personal things he had witnessed and experienced, his beliefs on revolutions, and what he thinks will happen.
In his calm, composed nature, he answered so eloquently and without the slightest hesitation. In context, we were discussing women’s power and overcoming patriarchy since it is the topic of his film and something I explained I’ve been involved in lately for women’s rights protests, and feeling pushed to a more radical feminist movement. He explained the history of women throughout Iran rebelling against men and how women always win. As he put it, history shows women or a suppressed class can only be controlled for so long before they rebel. Because humans are ingrained to survive. No matter how much history can be erased to prevent us from learning that, women will prevail. On top of that, control, torture, deprivation of natural resources, basic needs, and freedom of expression is always defeated. We just have to be willing to stand up against it and fight.
Rasoulof said he believes patriarchy is so ingrained in us at this point, people are often unaware of their internalized beliefs. In his own storytelling, he is trying to challenge the simplistic notion that patriarchal figures must also be outwardly violent, arguing instead that loyalty to power and ideology—"submission to power"—is what fuels violence.
So, similarly with media, just because powerful people in big chairs with the financial power to control the narrative on our TV’s and decide whether we can have basic healthcare or not, are not outwardly shooting us down with gun, but depriving are killing us and the ones we love slowly and softly, labeling it just as “business.”
I would die for my family. I’d risk mine to save theirs if the situation arises. I’d rather die than be raped too. I’d die fighting for myself and women all over the world if put in the fight of war for it. It’s not senseless. It’s not being commanded in what to do with my body either. I understand it now.
As Rasoulof stood in front of me, shoulders relaxed, and everything coming out of his mouth so gracefully, one thing he said has stuck with me and is still looming over my head every day since. “I believe that to die for your beliefs is still something big and desirable for many today,” he said.
I simply could not reply to that. We just looked at each other for a bit and bowed my head and thanked him for his time.
I am not saying that we are all going out wanting to kill others and ask to be killed, nor do I think that is what he is saying either. I think the absolute farthest someone can go is risking our most basic thing we have, our own lives. And simply having that realization that you are capable of going that far is a lot, and all that needs to be said.
When someone is pushed to the limit and has their freedom and livelihood taken away, there is no life to live. The rich have greatly misjudged the poor. They will never understand the starving man’s hunger and what they’d do to overcome it. People will give up their life on earth fighting for freedom because they have nothing left to lose when so many have already lost it.
I don’t mean me in particular, because I am in a place of privilege with a roof over my head, and enough food in my stomach to get by amongst many, many other privileges. But my family and I know what it’s like to drown in $$$ of healthcare debt. I have seen people bleed out on ER floors. I have seen bodies of homeless people, stiff and frozen on the sidewalk, with people walking around their corpse on their way to work. I have seen mother’s begging for food for their babies to eat. I have seen people with missing limbs and infected wounds laying in sewer. I have seen native people of this land pushed off and deprived of resources until they are silenced. I have known people (including myself) to be abused with no system to protect them. And I have known women and minorities who were murdered with no justice.
Just because I’m aware that I am in some place of privilege of living, doesn’t mean that I don’t see the inhumane reality of many all around. It is incomprehensible how we (the people) continue to allow this.
How much more of a wake up call do we need? The rich does not care about anyone but themselves. The media only seems to care about the rich as well. That is clear.
The change is in our hands. There is no better time than now to take back our liberty.
Writing this article made me think about when Aristotle said, "Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime." We know this— we’ve seen this throughout history and it is inevitable.
We do not have to suffer and watch our loved ones, our friends, and our neighbors suffer from not having the most basic needs met.
Historically, empires only last around 250 years. I’d say we’re overdue for some change.
