When Envy Becomes Revolutionary: The Palisades Fire Arsonist
It has now been revealed that the devastating Palisades Fire in California was not due to careless campers or even to climate change (to the chagrin of propagandists). Rather, an arsonist has been charged. Headlines emphasize that he was mad at the world:
In fact, he was mad at a particular group: the rich.
So, this was another act of leftist aggression in an increasingly prolific line-up. Where we once heard about the far-right boogeyman and the threat of militias, we are seeing the rise of actual violent acts by far-left extremists. The litany of trans shooters, the assassination of Charlie Kirk, repeated assassination attempts against President Trump, and the doxxing of even vaguely conservative figures (such as Tim Pool) show an escalation of political violence and an abandonment of discourse.
Interestingly, the Palisades arson was also an act of friendly fire, because the “rich” who lost their homes (and some of whom lost their lives), were disproportionately Democrat voters. The upper tier of the upper class, or the “0.1 percent” as Bernie Sanders likes to pronounce, is not limited to a specific political party—the most wealthy Americans are increasingly leaning to the Left, especially in the age of Big Tech. Communist agitators like to imply otherwise so that they can more easily blame their political opponents, but they do so falsely.
The suspected arsonist in Los Angeles was inspired by Luigi Mangione, the far-left anti-hero who shot an insurance executive in the back before triggering a nationwide manhunt. Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, oversaw massive donations from his company to the Democratic Party and to the Kamala Harris campaign specifically. So, once again, those on the far Left are targeting their own, likely without the self-awareness to realize it.
The production of young radicals has always been a dangerous affair, as perhaps best exemplified by China’s Red Guard, but no less prevalent in the child soldiers of the Congo. The ideologues who teach in high schools and colleges are churning out young people who are much more willing to engage in violence than their mentors.
When the suspected arsonist in Los Angeles was interviewed by law enforcement, he was asked why someone might start such a fire, to which he said that they would do so out of resentment for the rich, elaborating, “We’re basically being enslaved by them.” It’s a jarring statement to make in a country with one of the highest rates of wealth mobility in the history of the world. Yet, the ideology of covetousness, which is more typically labeled Marxism, never leaves its adherents satiated as long as others have more than they do.
The Palisades Fire killed twelve people and destroyed roughly 5,000 homes, disrupting people’s lives and burning the sentimental items that connected them to fading memories. Thus, in so many ways, the crime was anti-human. It sought to target the successes of people, simply for being greater than those of the villain. It wasn’t just items that were burned, it was communities that had been tied together by at least familiarity. Many of those families had lived in the same homes for generations.
What does it mean to set fire to a community that has done nothing to hurt you, while comparing oneself positively to a person (Luigi) who shot someone in the back? Support for Luigi Mangione is widespread among the political Left—even the defense counsel for this suspected arsonist is using that fact to downplay how he is an extremist. If his viewpoints are widespread, then he cannot be that extreme, it is implied. But they are.
Violent Leftists are becoming more common in the United States, following a history throughout the 20th Century of communism and its variants leading to mass murder. Finally, the violence over the past two decades has reached such a peak that the new counterterrorism strategy of the United States contains references to the so-called anti-fascist movement.
What we need to remember is that what they really want to burn down is civilization, along with all of the people who are trying to live normal, healthy lives. When communist movements announce their desire for a “Year Zero” from which to begin again, their immediate intent is one of targeting the pillars of civilization, even if they delude themselves with dreams of a Utopia to follow the devastation.
So, to the extremists of our age, the problem was never some rich people in California with more stuff, it’s the system that allowed those people to accrue wealth at all, to reach for prosperity, or to pass on an inheritance to their children. Philosophies and economic theories that center on covetousness are so dangerous because they know no limit. There will always be somebody with more, unless you destroy the mechanisms for self-betterment.
"The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence:
Hate the man who is better off than you are.
-Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community.
-Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others.
-Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects--his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity."
-Henry Hazlitt
You write so well. You always have been very erudite and eloquent but especially with your recent articles I keep bookmarking them to show to other people. Best wishes from England.