I don’t think it’s as much empathy for being disabled, as much as it’s hero worship for doing a thing a lot of people wish they could’ve done themselves. The spinal condition gives the motive, and the memorable name is… well, memorable.
Now, if more disabled folks were to don a green shirt and blue overalls, and perform more courageous acts that benefit society as a whole, then I’d bet more people would hero worship them too.
There are plenty of people who do just that (minus the clothing) everyday without killing anybody, and they don’t get anywhere near that level of recognition. The reaction here actually reflects a dark side of us all in that we wish we had the guts to take out such definitive retribution upon the wealthy - the ones that put most of us through the meat grinder to extract whatever value they can from us, and then just toss us aside when they’ve taken all they can, leaving us broke & hopeless.
I don’t think it’s as much empathy for being disabled, as much as it’s hero worship for doing a thing a lot of people wish they could’ve done themselves. The spinal condition gives the motive, and the memorable name is… well, memorable.
Now, if more disabled folks were to don a green shirt and blue overalls, and perform more courageous acts that benefit society as a whole, then I’d bet more people would hero worship them too.
There are plenty of people who do just that (minus the clothing) everyday without killing anybody, and they don’t get anywhere near that level of recognition. The reaction here actually reflects a dark side of us all in that we wish we had the guts to take out such definitive retribution upon the wealthy - the ones that put most of us through the meat grinder to extract whatever value they can from us, and then just toss us aside when they’ve taken all they can, leaving us broke & hopeless.