It’s presented at the bottom of the page.
Luigi Mangione is not an anarchist, but his assassination attack reminds me of the historic period of anarchist bombings and assassinations.
Propaganda of the Deed was an ideology promoted by Mikhail Bakunin, during the mid to late 19th century, when labor and social conflict was rising, and anarchists advocated for bombings and assassinations as a way to “wake the people” and foment revolution. In 1892, anarchist Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick, but failed.
Internal criticisms about PotD within anarchism included Kropotkin, who preferred education, various individualists who leaned pacifist, and even Johann Most who was an advocate of PofD in text, but not in body.
V. I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky criticized from a Marxist perspective. Why Marxists Oppose Individual Terrorism by Trotsky. V. I. Lenin’s struggle against anarchism by J. Pateman.
PotD ideas were revived in the late 1990s by “insurrectionary” anarchists who argued that vandalism during protests could “break the spell” of capitalist culture, which had a stranglehold on society. Unfortunately, society had neglected to read the zine where this was all explained, and capitalism continued.
From the mid to late 20th century, the peace wing of the anarchist movement redefined PotD to mean something other than bombing and assassination. They pushed the idea of individual direct action to reduce violence.
Thank you for reading so far into what is probably the driest take on the Luigi Mangione assassination of United Healthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson. The “manifesto” is below, copied from here.
Luigi Mangione’s note
“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
