Archive for December 13, 2024

…who said this about executing deserters in a letter to Ernastus Corning:

“Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wiley agitator who induces him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and there working upon his feeling, till he is persuaded to write the soldier boy, that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptable government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I think that in such a case, to silence the agitator, and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but, withal, a great mercy.”

If Luigi Mangione died tomorrow I would not want to be him facing St. Peter, but if the choice was between being him before St. Peter tomorrow and being the professors at his college who radicalized him on the day of judgement I’d take my chances as Luigi.

Update: I should point out that both Mangione and the professors in question are like all others, one sincere confession away from avoiding the fire.