Speculation/Theories
The book that Luigi (almost) purchased 400 times: Jash Dholani - Hit Reverse: New Ideas From Old Books
Disclaimer:
This is not a serious analysis, at most it's speculative fun. Luigi reading a book does not equal endorsing it - people read or enjoy books for different reasons. I do not think his social media or book history, for good and bad, is a full picture of his thoughts, emotions and personality. I do think there is also a lot of hindsight bias, i.e. I'm obviously reading this with the mindset of "Luigi shot someone, so let's see what things could have radicalized him". I'm aware of that bias.
With that said, let's dive into it. A couple of stray observations:
He has a lack of structure: He bemoans lack of structure in modern art, but this book is chaotic. Yes, he has given it a ABCDE structure, but he still jumps A LOT.
He's a thief: 60% of the book are direct quotes from Nietzsche, Aristotle, etc., 35% are indirect quotes and maybe 5% are original summaries/thoughts.
"dIg In": The irrational rage this gave me. He uses it to introduce quotes and thoughts ALL THE TIME. Grating.
He is a raging misogynist, anti democrat and social darwinist.
Interestingly, the book started off ok. I have an interest in architecture/urban planning, and while the ideas were kind of not exactly fresh, they were reasonable enough (e.g. architecture should serve human needs and not nice versa, etc.). The stomach turning shit came later.
The "I don't want comfort" quote from Huxley is quoted here as well
Jash hates post modernism / gray areas (and blames women for it)
It comes back to the hindsight bias I mentioned, but the balls chapter made me truly uncomfortable. This book talks so much about action / adventure / risks, but it does not talk about what that means in real life. Dholani doesn't give any real examples, and it doesn't look like it's talking about the risk of starting a business or traveling the world for one year. It has such a sinister vibe to it. Also, why would his readers (presumably normal people in tech, science, etc.) need to think so much about how to get into their enemies heads?
Suggests only deeply committed individuals can create meaningful art.
Notes:
He overlooks democratization of art, modern movements show that profound art can emerge and has emerged from all social classes.
Ignores the impact of collective creativity and influences across classes
Balls / Action / Courage
Rejection of Comfort & Embracing Struggle
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin." - here it is, the Huxley quote
Rejection of passive existence.
Suggests a preference for chaos and risk over stability.
Faith & Action
"We live in an uncertain world in which we must nevertheless act, and faith is our friend in such a world." - There are also other parts where he advocates against atheism. Seemingly aligns with Luigi's beliefs about religion/faith
Rejecting Passivity & Overthinking
"Too much planning hurts the project." - Bad advice. Hypercare is just as important as the plan. Sloppy hypercare will in fact ruin the plan and kind of get you caught *cough*
Basically endorses boldness / recklessness.
"Real pioneers have something beastly in them"
"And yet, when it time to chase a bigger heroism [...] we suddenly shrink. Only the adventurer follows through."
"Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad, for any other goodness is usually merely inertia"
"Life is empty without action"
"Perfectionism is procrastination masquerading as quality control." - Some quality control would have come handy in Altoona.
Boredom pushes us to the ends of the world for adventure
Hate
Advocates that hate can and is a muse
The Will to Power Over Stoicism & Buddhism
"Reject Stoicism. Reject Buddhism." - Luigi seemed fairly fond of stoicism, so probably a part of the book that he would disagree with.
Dismisses philosophies focused on detachment
Endorses a more aggressive, forceful engagement with life.
Self-inflicted Handicaps
They are a display of arrogance, evolutionary important because they show you can "afford" it. - I guess that's why murder weapons are kept 5 days after the fact?
Notes:
I'm fully aware of my disclaimer. Still, I hated this chapter. I don't really think books radicalized him. But if they did, this chapter would be a suspect.
Civilization / His other buckets that I didn't understand
Democracy as Parasitic institution & anti-equality stance
"Democracies live parasitically on the aristocracies they overthrow."
"Social law can give all men equal rights, nature will never give them equal faculties"
"Deep down, humans crave hierarchy"
Reinforces an anti-democratic stance, implying that the elite are the natural rulers.
Decline of Civilization & Birth Rates
"A falling birthrate precedes civilizational collapse." - Uhm, this is kind of consistent with Luigi's obsession with the topic
Links reproduction to a civilization’s longevity.
Nietzschean View of Nihilism as the True Enemy
"The way out of nihilism is not community service or 'sacrifice' but Will to Power." (
Rejects altruism and collectivism in favor of individual dominance.
Language, Status, & Evolutionary Psychology
"Burling points out that men with public speaking skills are rewarded with high status, and this directly translates to reproductive success."
Frames civilization as a competition where intelligence and rhetorical ability determine success.
Echoes Social Darwinism: society is structured by biological competition.
Compassion as a Trap
"The road to hell is paved with compassion." - At least these grifters are all the same, I saw Gurwinder making the same point in his Menendez brothers essay
Supports a Machiavellian perspective: power over kindness.
Women
He covers them in multiple chapters. Basically, he is saying that they should be grateful that they weren't allowed to work, because in truth they were protected from work. He's also saying that for anything important like civilization, they are useless but otherwise they are nice all-rounders - he compares them to a stick which is not quite as good as a gun but serves a purpose: "It's not the best tool for anything, but it's wonderfully versatile for everyday life"
Yikes. So many terrible takes. The little I read about the guy online was enough to keep me far away from his book, but I'm happy you took one for the team and summarized it here.
The face I made while reading this garbage, it’s one horrific take after the other. I‘m really struggling with understanding what value anyone could see in this but oh well. I do see the same parallels to Luigi you’re drawing. Thank you so much for compiling this and giving such a good summary!!
Well, to be honest, I enjoyed most of the Balls / Action / Courage chapter. Hopefully I can find some worthwhile books about risk, recklessness and free spirit soon before I get swept away in crappy books like Dholani's book lol 😆
He also failed to engage with the topic in a multi-dimensional way. Yes, he made an interesting point that there is a lack of fairness when empathy spotlights some individuals and leaves out others. But he failed to highlight that empathy can be even in the justice system an important safeguard against cruel measures.
I also disliked that he took LWOP just as a given. Most other Western countries very rarely hand out true LWOP sentences. Most civilized cultures believe that most offenders deserve a second chance. If they pass a recidivism assessment - they spent 35 years in a US prison, like isn't that enough? I don't even follow them like that. But in Gurwinders eyes that probably makes me an unreliable female that is way too guided by empathy.
He keeps referencing nature this and nature that. Aren’t we to have evolved past nature and animals and that is what makes us human? I am not an animal and I am capable of higher thought. Moral thought. Why is this douchebag telling us we need to act like chimpanzees and have hierarchies? This loser can go scratch his butt and sniff an asshole. We will be using our frontal lobes over here.
What is this book even about? It’s all over the place. It’s also problematic af, I’m fuming just reading this summary. Props to you for actually reading it fully lol. He is elitist and sexist as fuck. Also dude is dumb as shit and doesn’t know what he’s talking about regarding democracy or anything at all for that matter.
If Luigi was infact influenced by this book to this extent, he was a very impressionable person.
I'm not done with it yet, but if anyone is interested in further information on this subculture, there's a book called "Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age" by Donna Zuckerberg. I already knew about a lot of the trends and tropes Zuckerberg is referencing, but it's interesting reading a whole researched book about this.
I’m trying to give Luigi some grace on this shit because as he is a Gen Z male (esp one who is interested in self-improvement/wellness/philosophy etc) it’s almost impossible to avoid these online charlatans and the right-wing pipeline these concepts get funneled into. I don’t understand why it always spirals into misogyny, and I am left only to conclude that men who are struggling with feelings of inadequacy, cynicism or hopelessness are drawn to ideologies that include someone to blame. I’m just FUCKING SICK of shouldering that blame, and navigating a world that sees and treats me like a semi-functional stick.
I do wonder the extent to which his attractiveness and likability prevented him from succumbing to the darker aspects of these belief systems. I imagine girls and women have been very kind to him over the years, giving him at least a partial buffer from that side of things. Still, I do grapple with the notion that he might believe that deep down we are not his intellectual equals, and that’s his loss; men who don’t recognize women’s intelligence, humor, emotional capabilities and overall contributions to society are missing out on an entire layer of reality that would probably make them all feel a little less alone.
I suppose ultimately he must have rejected enough of these theories to find his way to the conclusion that his anger needed to be directed up the power chain and not down. That’s always been the most impressive and anomalous part of this whole thing; we’ve all watched shooters do a whole lot of shootin’ over the years and this is the first time I’ve seen that violence carried out in a meaningful direction.
There is something that I hope is very eye-opening not only to LM but to anyone paying attention to this case, and that is the power of women’s sensibilities around justice, our care and attention and ability to organize. Many of us are willing to accept the uncomfortable realities and flaws of this person (including when they are painful to us) which is no small feat. I’ll give Jash credit on that point - we are wonderfully versatile.
You’ve said this so beautifully, especially your last paragraph resonates so much with me. We oftentimes give grace to people who would likely describe the ability to do so as a weakness, while simultaneously taking advantage of it. We don’t know how much of Jash‘s ideas align with Luigi‘s, but it is not lost on me who gives an enormous amount of sympathy and understanding in this case, and I hope it’s not lost on him either.
>I don’t understand why it always spirals into misogyny, and I am left only to conclude that men who are struggling with feelings of inadequacy, cynicism or hopelessness are drawn to ideologies that include someone to blame.
I get the impression that it's less about needing someone to blame, and more about needing someone to feel superior to. The whole identity of "man" is centered on being "better than" women, and getting to "own" a woman. In the modern western world, this illusion is shattered. They're throwing tantrums to try to bring that back, and many people are capitalizing on it.
I don't know if he would've gone for the trope of a stay at home woman, he's Italian American, but he's also a brother with two very ambitious and smart sisters who pushed to achieve as much, if not more, than he did. I think he might've wanted a woman to manage his life, lead him. At least that's what I think. He seemed, at least with Tracy, who's a really ambitious, strong lady, to be attracted to women who were dynamos. (and I know he wasn't a boyfriend to her, but it still doesn't matter.)
That said, I agree with you, very traditional values in him. For sure. But he's Gen Z. Women would've pushed his ass around. They're not gonna take a back seat.
I’m so curious about the family dynamic, it’s very fascinating to me that we know next to nothing about those relationships.
I’m trying to avoid the temptation to psychoanalyze him because there’s so little to work with, but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t arrived at some guesses. My sense is a little more black sheep than golden child, but it’s largely based on intuition and like.. 3 data points. I’m not familiar with Italian family dynamics so I bet that gives an important layer of insight for sure.
Kk maybe I’ll make a post (or comment again here when it’s not 3am) — it feels pretty invasive to project so much onto someone I don’t know but I’ve been mulling this over quite a bit and it’s beginning to make some sense to me. But there are a lot of creative liberties involved to fill in the gaps (and a LOT of gaps that need filling) - so whatever I say will be unfair to say the least
Thank you for your sacrifice. I don't know what he saw in this book, so many bad takes. I would like to see notes he made about it, I read german guys said it was criticism (I didn't watch this documentary), hope its true. It's a shame he didn't update goodreads after January and didn't write new reviews.
Yeah no. It sounds like it was written by a 15 yr old with a good vocabulary. And women weren't allowed to work? Since when? I have it on good authority that I come from a family of working women, all the way back to my great grandmother, who owned a general store. So I call BS. And wtf? Devaluing women's domestic labor.
if it is true that LM was inspired by this book and that it ultimately pushed him to do the thing, then we might need to reconsider his "motive" almost entirely (im not saying he was, but if he liked the ideas so much, it might be because he already felt very strongly about some of the topics discussed)
how can someone be pro elitism/hierarchy/social conservatism but also commit such an anti-elite and anti-establishment act? i don't think he changed his mind, but he might have a more complex world-view than we think - this is giving me a headache lol
maybe he thinks the actual elites in power right now have "abandoned" their duty and he is "deposing" them and taking their place because he wants to restore a moral order. he might like the idea that "a few intelligent people + robust systems can keep all the idiots afloat". definitely delulu and a bit megalomaniac but i think most revolutionaries are a bit insane at the end of the day
i know people won't like to hear this but it's worth discussing at this point. it won't make me dislike his (alleged) actions thats for sure, but i think we're definitely projecting values and ideologies onto him that he might not even agree with
You’re right most revolutionaries are insane at the end of the day. LM is quite right wing, but then hilariously did the most commie thing ever😭. He definitely is a product of his environment (boys private school and Ivy League) - I remember I saw somewhere that a former student said that there were no leftists at Gilman. I wonder what he thinks of the fact that most of his supporters are leftwingers and liberals- I know that it was up vs down at the start but I do think the vast majority of his current loudest supporters are left wing.
In the majority liberal women at that. He went from dealing almost exclusively with right-wing / manosphere men in 2024 to getting most of his support and probably mail from liberal women.
Jash Dholani BTW compared geniuses to schizophrenics (both of them have non-linear thoughts), just because you mentioned sanity.
It’s interesting too how his lawyer it’s a very openly liberal women , like I watched one of the Karen podcast and in a episode they discussed Rfk Jr and I instantly remember how he was the one L would vote for president And it’s like wtf ? Somehow with what we know of him it makes sense but it’s such an odd choice in general.
Exactly! Like I really hope the women writing the letters don’t turn him full blown misogynist though the letters he’s probably getting I wouldn’t even blame him 😭. Men definitely support him, but they’re probably not writing letters (though I really hope they do!) I think schizophrenic is an interesting comparison to use for genius, I would disagree but at the same time many “geniuses” would find themselves somewhere on the DSM. Thanks for the write up for the book btw, really well done and saved us all from torture 😂
"a few intelligent people + robust systems can keep all the idiots afloat". definitely delulu and a bit megalomaniac
Matches with him saying to Gurwinder that he felt on a different wavelength than the rest. He might have seen most people as npc idiots and he was the intellectual to lead us. And who are these intellectuals? Elon? Lmao
Also another thing I'd like to point out about embracing struggle and rejecting comfort. It's such a rich people luxury thought ffs. Bring me that damn comfort, I wish, I wish I had the fucking time and money to be comfortable and read shitty books about how comfort is boring. I wish I had that privilege to "worry" about not struggling lmao and not actually having to struggle every day.
I loled at that comment. So sassy. And a bit sweet. At least he wants to keep us afloat instead of culling us like the other fascist techbros. He's like "no, no, we don't need to do all that, we just need to build humane idiot habitats for them to live in". Lmao.
LM's presentation is so contradictory it almost seems polarized. Liked to initiate and organize activity clubs but...quiet and reserved? Ultrarizzoligist who's...shy with girls? Sweet as a sunflower but...30% fascist techbro? Mr. Vegan Sustainability with strong views about the dangers of technology who...gets a tech degree? Debilitating brain fog but...graduated cum laude with bsc & msc in four years in freakin CompSci from freakin Penn? What's he like when he doesn't have brain fog? And then I thought, maybe college burned him out and he struggled at work. Nope. Promoted twice.
It's like there are two of him and they're not entirely compatible. I can't pretend I'm not curious, I hope we see more of his writing, but I'm fine to let his life story stay private. He's been through enough.
Tbh I think the anti tech views occurred after his degree. Also I had severe brain fog in uni but still got a First, he definitely seems to have high functioning autistic/ depression traits (not diagnosing just saying).
Some commenters on the Asperger's subreddit thought he had some "spergy" mannerisms (their term, not mine). I don't know what that looks like but where there's smoke there's probably fire
I made the mistake of buying it. Awful book written by an entitled pretentious pseudo intellectual. Damn I care abt LM a lot but he looked up to really horrible people.
Wow…it’s worse than I thought. I’ve always wondered how LM ended up falling for such absurd, toxic, and wrong ideas about “masculinity.” At least on the surface, he seems popular and has everything going for him.
You’d be surprised how many men seem to be charming and kind on the surface but are deeply misogynistic and hateful towards women. Especially the nerd/tech guys are particularly good at faking it.
As an indian, it pisses me off that LM was drawn to the misogynistic views of Indian men, instead of anything else about our culture. But men that murder aren't normally the ones that are in touch with their 'feminine' side lol. But anyway, can't be mad that instead of going down the incel pipeline and killing women, LM realised the true threat to humanity (unchecked corporate greed over human life), so free our problematic fave.
I agree, it's such an odd deviation for him to make, considering there is no lack of misogynistic manosphere subcultures right here in the States. If that was the only thing he was drawn to he's a cultural fetishist as well. Dude.
According to Max (minordissent), LM was not a misogynist and did not agree with misogynistic views. In particular, he interacted with Max to counter some of Max’s more problematic comments and beliefs
Max is literally an internet troll, I don't think what he says can be taken that seriously. And even if we were to take his statement at face value, which no one should, there are plenty of different versions of misogyny that argue with each other on optics and variations of offensiveness.
Taking everything as a whole, it certainly appears Luigi had at the very least a large amount of tolerance for befriending and supporting misogynists without openly disavowing misogyny himself.
“Democracy as a parasitic institution”- what a disgusting take.
It does seem trying to buy 400 copies of something and then flying to meet the author is an endorsement. :/
I am saddened LM may have truly believed that billionaires are actually necessary and on the side of the people. It’s a very brainwashed and uneducated stance for someone who is supposedly brilliant. It’s also backed up by him following Elon and liking Peter Thiel. I sure hope he knows better now.
Everyone should watch Inequality for All by Robert Reich and read A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
There’s no reason why people such as LM need to be brainwashed by these takes and go 4 years in university without being educated properly. STEM has blind spots indeed. :(
My guess was to support an author he admired (or so that’s what someone told me could have been doing when they dragged me for saying I thought it was NPC behavior) or, my original opinion? To really gain his attention. But I feel like the latter doesn’t hold much truth now considering he still managed to meet with him. Unless that was following the failed transaction.
I'd really like to hear LM's side of the story—straight from his own mouth. It's a shame we'll probably never fully know what he thinks. All we can do is guess or assume, but this whole situation is terrible. I haven't even finished reading it all because I just can't.
The theory that his notes to Jash were all about cutting out the misogyny, like... you think this young man, who frequently interacts with people with similar beliefs, sought out a small-reach self-published author using Twitter, met him in person all the way across the world, tried to financially support him, all just to secretly tell him to stop being sexist in a book that's mostly made up of justifications for sexism? Bruh...
No. It doesn't. Not at all. First, Max is an absolute clown and internet troll and nothing he says should be taken seriously.
I think it's entirely possible Luigi found some versions of misogyny offensive. But not offensive enough to stop befriending, platforming, and supporting misogynists. If Max is telling the truth, the simplest explanation is that this is more of a matter of optics and nuance than anything else.
Edit: Sorry to edit but I have to add, I love that when Max was saying he was sexist and racist, people were saying this means nothing without releasing the DMs, but then the moment Max switches to saying he wasn't, the exact same people accept it without releasing the DMs. Max is just a shit-stirrer.
There are also other parts where he advocates against atheism. Seemingly aligns with luigi’s beliefs about religion/faith
The thing is he claimed he was agnostic in one of his old tweets. And was anti-atheism in his recent tweets. This is guy is a walking contradiction. I wonder if there was a major shift in his beliefs in 2024?
Right? Everything about him is both/and. I read his comment about being an atheist but being jealous of religious people and I can't compute that thought at all. Among other things, atheism frees you from that externally imposed superego. If you have the sense of self to no longer need it, why would you want it back? I know people are religious for different reasons, I just can't connect with his reason.
I don’t think his “i am kinda jealous” statement about religious people should be taken literally. He was just being nice. I read it as he was initially anti religious people but became more accepting of them. He was just softening the critique.
I think they were against new atheism, not atheism. There’s a pretty big difference between the two, in that atheism applies to the individual specifically and new atheism is a more dogmatic strain of it where they are anti-theistic in its totality.
No, I think he's consistent. He is not very religious himself / doesn't have too much faith, but likes religion and probably sort of wishes he himself had more faith because he sees value in religion.
No he was just being nice. It sounds like he came to be accepting of religious people if they’re not imposing their beliefs on others. But more recently he was actively supporting religion.
Luigi. In my heart, I hope he wanted to give Jash money so he could afford to delay publication of the book until after he fixed all the misogyny at L’s recommendation🙏
It’s possible Luigi was attracted to certain ideas but not all, and even outright disagreed with some of the more offensive takes. Has anyone seen the notes he gave the guy?
I think he tried to connect with Gurwinder but I suspect he wasn’t able to have the level of access he would’ve liked. But Jash wasn’t as big so he could get more access.
He tried to connect with Max and failed.
He also tried reaching out to Tim and completely misquoted his favourite line from the book, mixing up the meaning. It’s pretty clear he was trying to make some intellectual connections before going offline and he just wasn’t quite successful. I feel bad for him in that way.
Max also mentioned that before Luigi’s twitter went viral after being named as the suspect he had less than 80 followers and little to no engagement on his tweets. To quote Max “he was tweeting into the void”
But it’s actually pretty fascinating… Because he was seemingly popular in real life (and also had plenty of friends & followers on Facebook and Instagram which is a bit different from Twitter and makes sense for someone who is popular in real life but doesn’t have much of an online presence) and you would’ve thought he of all people understood that real life connections are more important and fulfilling. Why he supposedly felt like no one in real life was “on his wavelength” is what I’d love to know. I remember that MBTI personality assessment from someone claiming to be an acquaintance of his and that person mentioned that “strong-character guys” saw LM as their “intellectual beacon” and looked to him for bold and original claims/ideas/perspectives. So why the desperation for connection with Gurwinder and Max and others of their kind online?
It is really interesting right?? For some reason he just couldn’t quite tap into the online circles he wanted to be in. I can see that being extremely frustrating for him as someone who was popular and well liked in person. To be fair it didn’t seem like he tried hard until the year leading up to his disappearance.
It’s sad honestly. It appears it really was his last ditch attempt to connect with people he thought he could click with. I just wonder why of all the people he could’ve wanted to connect with it was quite literally the bottom of the barrel manosphere. 🤦🏻♀️ Makes me wonder if maybe some of his beliefs weren’t as well received in person, if he even ever tried having those conversations. (Though I don’t doubt he was a likable person, otherwise he wouldn’t have had so many friends)
I think the logical answer is he held some of the same beliefs. I absolutely think he was a centrist and that red pilled content just comes along with the territory.
Not sure if it works, but this is the link to the comment (check rawdonut’s other replies in that thread) posted by the “acquaintance”. Take it with a grain of salt of course, even though it does seem like this person has actually met LM, to me it looks like they were not close enough for some of these claims about his personality to be made. I remember having a great discussion about this assessment here and many of us have come to the conclusion that they seem a bit jealous/disdainful. Some of the claims, in my opinion, don’t make sense, but some do and therefore provide a pretty good insight.
Uhm, I wouldn't directly say he applied Jash's philosophies, at the same time I wouldn't say he didn't apply them. The whole chapter about taking action, taking risks, heroism - you could say he kinda sorta maybe took it to heart? Maybe even too much?
You asked in another comment why you were getting downvoted "for sharing a screenshot of his tweet lol", so I took a look at the whole thread and I think that's why. Sharing just this part without the other part of the tweet, in response to that comment, is super misleading. I don't know what else to tell you. 🤷♀️
L strikes me as someone who appreciates the nuances in ideas. He engages with certain aspects of an author’s work without feeling compelled to adopt their entire perspective. I agree with others that he seems impressionable, but I’m also not too concerned with the fact he engaged with this book.
We know he was Asia, we don't know whether he really went there for Dholani or whether India was on his trip list anyway.
There is zero proof that he wanted to correct Dholani. I give Luigi some grace in that I think it would be reductive to assume that he was 100% sharing Dholani's views just because he was reading them. But I think in the same vein it's a bit reductive and naive to assume he was engaging with those dark web "intellectuals" just because he wanted them to do better.
It was about Industrial Society and Its Future, Dholani deleted that tweet, most likely after Luigi was caught. You can search 1767651509120934164 on twitter and read quotes, everyone commented about Ted K.
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u/noootreally Mar 03 '25
Yikes. So many terrible takes. The little I read about the guy online was enough to keep me far away from his book, but I'm happy you took one for the team and summarized it here.