On this episode of the podcast, we talk about our favorite movie, Batman: The Dark Knight, and why it's so relatable and relatable. We also talk about the Luigi Mangione story and why he's a hero to many.
00:03:27.820Like, what were you noticing that caused people to go rally for this guy?
00:03:31.080Well, I mean, if the manifesto was legitimate, the one that was leaked, that was published by an independent reporter named Ken Klippenstein, if that's real, it seemed like Luigi Mangione had a lot of grievances against the health insurance claim denial system, particularly how United Healthcare had implemented AI to automatically deny people's health care claims.
00:03:49.060So people needed treatment, they were paying customers, and there was a machine that had one of the highest insurance claim denial rates of any other major health insurance company.
00:04:01.480People were trying to appeal the robot's decision, and it was almost impossible.
00:04:05.300You were stuck with someone on the phone for days.
00:04:08.000And a lot of times during that window where people were waiting to get care, they would pass away.
00:04:11.460So I'm not sure if he had someone in his family who was affected by the health care policies, but I felt like a lot of people in my generation are kind of fed up with things not changing.
00:04:20.960You know, the cost of living being ridiculously high, the wages being really low, and they felt like Luigi Mangione was something like a martyr who spoke for the rage of the collective public who feels like nothing is changing.
00:04:31.840So how should, what do you think is the level to go to?
00:04:38.340Because some people, what's the one girl lately that's been talking about Luigi Mangione in a very complimentary way?
00:04:50.780Whenever we lost all gas during a contractual dispute, she leaked all the information, which kind of like segued millions of fans to Channel 5.
00:04:58.560I'm not sure what she was saying about Luigi.
00:05:00.300But I think that basically probably what I'm assuming she was saying is that many people felt like he represented the call for direct action.
00:05:08.920And there's a generational shift to the idea that awareness culture and raising awareness doesn't actually create change.
00:05:15.540There's kind of an idea that has persisted over the course of the past couple years, especially with the progressive left in the U.S., that raising awareness doesn't do much to actually create change.
00:05:23.900And so for someone to break out of the mold of like making people aware and actually take things a step further made people feel some type of revolutionary spirit.
00:05:44.060So to you, to somebody that is going through this and you're touching and you're talking to people and you're hearing the arguments at the protest, walking away, what argument got for you to say, it's a little too much?
00:05:57.440And what argument was like, you know what?
00:05:59.840These guys may have a point in this area.
00:06:02.480Well, I mean, the reality is that regardless of like how I felt about the opinions, killing a bunch of CEOs is not going to change any of that infrastructure in the health insurance industry.
00:07:01.500It's hilarious to see these millionaire media pundits on TV clutching their pearls about someone standing a murderer when this is this is the United States of America.
00:07:11.700As if we don't lionize criminals, as if we don't have, you know, we don't stand murderers of all sorts.
00:07:20.620There's a huge disconnect between the narratives and angles that sort of mainstream media pushes and what the American public feels.
00:07:28.200And you see that in moments like this.
00:07:30.040And I can tell you, I saw the biggest audience growth that I've ever seen because people were like, oh, somebody, some journalist is actually speaking to the anger that we feel.
00:07:40.960The women who got her outside course in New York.
00:07:44.060So you're going to see women especially that feel like, oh, my God.
00:09:31.420And that's the thing about social media nowadays in particular is like people kind of become, it's a very fine line to walk when you exist online.
00:09:37.180It's doing things that you believe in and doing things that, you know, your fans will appreciate and kind of want you to do.
00:09:41.840Because once you pigeonhole yourself as a certain type of person, you know, your audience quite well.
00:09:45.520You know that if you say a certain thing to the audience you've built up that they disagree with, a lot of them are going to walk away.
00:09:50.640You know, for example, like there's a lot of people, both conservative and progressive, who might have opinions about different things like abortion, homelessness, drug, you know, gay marriage, Israel, Palestine, that they know that if they speak their opinion on it, they might lose a significant percentage of their audience.
00:10:04.080And so I think that keeps a lot of people going in line with what they see as like the majority consensus narrative, as opposed to finding a middle ground and having conversations.
00:10:11.460Because at the end of the day, everyone's trying to survive too.
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