Siren Song of the Assassin: Jokers to the Right

The world is getting more surreal by the day, and this Luigi Mangione case is only the visible tip of a very deep and very weird iceberg.

If you haven't yet, read Part One and Part Two of this series before proceeding. 

I don't want anyone getting lost, because this is all getting a little too insane...

OK, people have comparing Luigi to the Joker ever since he allegedly gunned down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan. And his notoriety only continues to grow.

As do the Joker parallels. 

Luigi seemed far too jolly when being arraigned on Monday, and this particular photo op was straight out of the first Joker movie. All that's missing is the greasepaint.

And note the air fresheners dangling from the rear view...

... because there's some more Joker-adjacent iconography at work here.

I hope this is all being staged somehow, because the alternative - that the reality simulation is going haywire - is far more unsettling than it sounds.

The pessimist in me fears it may be the alternative scenario, truth be told.

SPEAKING OF CLOWNY CLOWN-CLOWNS

Let's rewind things a bit to that alleged McDonald's bust and that other Brian Thompson ...

 

Because as Brother Brandon - AKA the Ninja of Twinja - reminded me, Brian Thompson appeared in the X-Files episode "Talitha Cumi," which opens in... wait for it...

... a fast-food restaurant. Not a McDonalds, alas, but an A&W redressed as a Brothers K...

It may not be a Mickey D's, but it's got a lone gunman fixin' to plant some stiffs after getting fired from his job all the same. 

As it happens, a police sharpshooter takes the guy out, but not before he guns down a few innocent lunch-havers. Luckily for all and sundry, alien hybrid/miracle healer Jeremiah Smith is on the scene to administer some real quality health care.

But in the vein of the mirrored dream logic that is plastered all over this latest Shimmerly eruption, one of the shooting victims is this guy, who looks very much not unlike a Hollywood recasting of...

... Saint Luigi.

And now check out the most recent credit on the iMDb profile of the X-Files Luigi-a-like. 

What are the odds?

LUIGI HARVEY OSWALD

This is what I posted on Sunday...

A Twitter follower sent me this video, which is a stunningly eerie foreshadowing of the Luigi insta-icon. It's a single from the 1997 album Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space by the band Spiritualized, who couldn't possibly be more Secret Sunnish.

Watch the whole thing for the full effect. 

And what's the significance of this old video now, aside from the uncanny foreshadowing of Luigi's perpwalk?

Let's rewind...

Like I said, Spiritualized couldn't possibly be more Sunnish.  

How's that, you ask? 

 

This is how - the Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space lineup of Spiritualized is her band now. 

 

And then there's the climax of the video...

The Spiritualized video concludes with a take on the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. What that all portends in the mind of the video's makers, I can't say.

 

Maybe I can say now.

Maybe it portended what happened on Monday... 

Pretty much everyone picked up on the Luigi-Oswald parallel here. Not exactly subtle.

What is really going on with this case? This is getting a little too surreal and theatrical for my comfort.

THE BURNING GIRL

This skin-suited demoness has impeccable timing, touting the safety of the dystopian NYC subways after some illegal alien was said to have set a woman on fire.

33 years old, shat straight out of Guatemala...

...all the while back down in Guatemala, some sicko Haredi sect was busted for child abuse and sex trafficking.

And apparently Guatemala is famous for its Mermaid Fountains. 

Who knew?

And who knew that the subway station the hideous incineration went down was at the end of Mermaid Avenue?

Now, remember I've been saying for several years now that the Joker and the Siren are the dominant archetypes of our time?

You do? So you understand all of this then.

A rumor went viral today that the victim of the immolation was this "queer beach professional," which inspired the insufferable wokestress (Amelia Carter) in question to pull herself away from her Bluesky safe-space long enough to deny the rumors and dump on the chuds on X.

But you know how you're sick beyond death of me telling you that the Cocteau Twins and The X-Files are the most potent synchronicity generators in the history of humanity?

Well, I really am very truly sorry, but you're just going to have to get used to it. 

We all are. Sometimes I wish it were otherwise, but you play the cards you're dealt.

Finally, this calls for a mind with Wisdom.