“I will no longer be complicit in genocide [in Gaza]. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” the man apparently said before setting himself alight and repeatedly shouting “Free Palestine!”
For those wondering, he is alive but in critical condition.
It’s now being reported he died
So sad. Nobody in any position to do anything will even blink an eye at his sacrifice.
Correct. This is pointless.
God damn, this is brutal. I watched it and it gave me absolute chills. The world won’t forget this man’s bravery and sacrifice, even if the media doesn’t cover it.
It’s nowhere in the news cycles here in Europe. Sadly, maybe we won’t forget but the world is already neglecting it. I wish he hadn’t done it, we’ve seen enough death already.
Wanna bet?
We won’t forget.
Lie
kindly shut the fuck up now
Oh the country will forget. By Friday there will be something else.
There’s going to be some big presidential debate drama. Bidens going to forget to wear socks or Trumps going to go tanning again… The important stuff.
I’m waiting with baited breath
“law enforcement drew guns at the burning man” 💀
I guess this part of the reactions to this video illustrates the confusion that people have about how it feels to be in that situation. I’m confused that people are unable to imagine it how chaotic the situation might be. We have the benefit of knowing how it unfolded, but what the police officers knew is what they were briefed on that morning (most probably threats against the embassy) and the exact situation they are in.
idk about you but I wouldn’t point a gun at someone who’s on fire in any situation
Seems like a case of reverting to training in a stressful situation.
then this just tells me their training is “point gun at what you don’t understand”
It sure does.
That’ll be in the history books.
This is so sadly America it’s not funny.
Mirror?
Do a Google search and you can probably find it. I saw more photos on mastadon and reddit.
Aaron Bushnell, the greatest American since John Brown
Dumbass.
Why be like this?
Self immolation as a form of protest. For anyone unaware of it there was a Buddhist monk who immolated themself to protest the oppression of Buddhists by the Catholic PM of Vietnam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thích_Quảng_Đức
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_Against_the_Machine_(album)
https://time.com/3791176/malcolm-browne-the-story-behind-the-burning-monk/
For anyone unaware - it happened at least 160 times since 2009 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_protests_by_Tibetans_in_China
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_self-immolations
What really shocked me about this list is that Aaron was apparently already the 23rd person to do so SINCE THE START OF 2020, meaning there’s roughly been one person setting themselves on fire every other month or so, and I don’t think I’ve even HEARD of any of the other ones.
And not all of them happened in foreign countries either. In fact, apparently someone did the very same thing in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta a mere 3 months ago and I don’t even remember hearing about it.
Yes, I didn’t even know it happened in my own country of Poland. I would blame news and TV but I don’t even watch TV, and so much article titles sounds like clickbait I usually refuse to even check them. So I guess I can blame the news for the insulting clickbait tactics.
“Arab Spring” started with a immolation.
Rest in power
I don’t see this changing anything israel does.
I hope it changes what we do. If he is this brave, we can be a little braver in organizing a movement to stop our governments from supporting Israel, at any cost.
The lib compulsion to deny the power of protest while championing the
as the only appropriate instrument for change…
While this man is brave and all (I wouldn’t have burnt myself), what does this achieve? I doubt authorities care a lot. And it’s not like visibility over this situation isn’t there.
I think think it is so that the rest of us have more bravery in our protest against these terrible war crimes and stop them at any cost.
Whoever keeps throwing in the shit about law enforcement in these stories, which I think was actually a security officer for the embassy, drawing a gun, is doing a pretty good job of distracting from the main issue of what this guy lit himself on fire and died for. Doing a much better job than all the whinging about how he was mentally ill, and how this won’t change anything, and how there’s no clear cause, that mainstream news outlets are doing when they cover this type of stuff, if they cover it at all.
I would also like to kind of point out here, that “this won’t change anything, this guy was mentally ill, he killed himself for nothing”, is really only true if you decide it to be true. We get to decide whether or not this motivates us to do something or not. We get to decide whether or not we let this affect us. Whether or not we do something, to make sure this doesn’t happen again, you know? And that’s mostly, in my mind, the purpose of this kind of protest.
Maybe it makes the institutions think about what they’re doing, probably not, since, if they were gonna think that, they should’ve probably thought that about the 20,000 or so palestinians that have been killed. This protest is mostly engineered to get you mad, and sad, and to make you, the viewer, think about why this is happening, and think about what you can do to stop it. Not just deflecting immediately to whether or not it was effective, because by doing so, you let it not be as effective.
Brings to mind the discourse against, really any form of protest that I’ve seen. You could take the george floyd protests, for example. So, sure, the government throws in agent provocateurs, in order to turn what would otherwise be peaceful protests, which would shut down any traffic into and out of the city, and would choke off any economic activity (puts pressure on businesses, utilities, puts pressure on local government, which needs to please these people who don’t really care about the protest but want things to go back to normal).
But by doing so, right, by causing those passive forms of damage, but also by causing active forms of damage, say, burning a big box store down, right, the public showcases that, if a certain legal decision to, say, let derek chauvin off, occurs, then there will be potentially more protests and more destruction, which provides great incentive against that decision occurring.
Now, in this case, there’s not as clear of a process, because there’s not as clear of repercussions if they decide to do nothing. About the only thing that might happen is that this might happen again, which, might, by some process of media coverage, put enough pressure on politicians to cause this to stop, if it becomes a political issue. The same thing is happening with mass shootings, which aren’t a greatly impacting issue, by the numbers, right, they’re much less than that of road deaths, heart disease, other forms of gun violence.
But they are so horrifying to the american public and to really anyone of moral conscience, that they should serve as a clear marker that something is wrong, and something needs to change. Serial killers create a similar effect. It’s almost like a kind of terrorism, using that word without judgement, here. That’s the power of these protests. We’ve already seen it spread across a bunch of news media, even though it’s being reported about as poorly as you’d expect.
I’m not particularly sure that repeat incidents would do any good, and I think I’d generally be opposed to that, as should anyone, but, an instance of self-immolation is what caused the arab spring. This sort of thing isn’t ineffective, I think it does a disservice to aaron bushnell to say otherwise.
If you want to stop this sort of thing from occurring in the first place, you should really try to understand why it was happening, instead of brushing it aside.
It’s a bit of a beleaguered point, but it’s very telling that this will assuredly get almost no coverage on big news networks like abc, cbs, fox, etc. and virtually no coverage in the larger papers like the NYT, sure the press agencies like Reuters and the AP will cover it and then redistributors like your source will publish this, but little thought among the media class/commentariet will be given to the man who decided there was so little hope of being able to do anything through legal/electoral means to stop a genocide that he could no longer stand idley by and had to do something to protest the sheer inhumanity of what’s going on. Barely anyone probably still remembers the person who did the same thing and died in 2022 on earth day protesting inaction on climate change/destruction, that story was absolutely buried. I don’t support any kind of self harm, but doing something as drastic as this requries a pretty comelling reason, most people remember Tibetan monks doing the same thing, but the same importance was not extended to that person in 2022 and will almost definitely not be extended to this person now.
most people remember Tibetan monks doing the same thing
Out of political selfimmolations there were 7 Tibetan cases, but dozens of others including many Americans. I wonder why “everyone” remember particularly those. Would it be that US media wasn’t fair to report not only this one here?
It was on a cover of a rage against the machine album.
Lmao that’s what i was talking about, the one on this album cover wasn’t even Tibetan, he was Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese buddhist monk, selfimmolating in Saigon in 1963 as protest against US-backed South Vietnam government persecuting buddhists.
So why people like you think he was Tibetan if not for media misleading you? This was literally the most famous of public selfimmolation and the one that started it all for in XX century.
Honestly, the megacorps will only allow this on main TV when pushing regulation against protesting.
Like, "think of how many innocent
moneyslives we would save if we shoot protesters’.A person I know wrote a song about Winn Bruce, got lots of play on SoundCloud. He definitely wasn’t forgotten
doing something as drastic as this requires a pretty compelling reason
I’ve already had a couple people immediately retort “wow mental health is scary”, then say “nobody will remember his name”.
These people will shamelessly undermine any action then act disappointed that these actions are quickly ignored.
Few people will remember him, but if any are spurred into action by his act, then it won’t be a completely wasteful loss of life.
Yeah, I’ve seen some discourse that things like this when done by an individual as opposed to a group effort like the Tibetan monks are primarily to take their own life and the message is secondary/additional, but I would like to think that on some level something positive will come out of someone doing something as drastic and sad as this. Dying or taking your own life is not something positive or to be glorified, but when someone feels so hopeless to the point that they turn to this, I hope it’s a least a wake up call for some people to take this seriously and not just ignore one of the biggest genocides in recent history.
I get so tired of this talking point. New York times, Washington Post, and even Fox news each have an article (or multiple) on this event.
OMG THEY HAVE AN ARTICLE OMG THAT WAS TOTALLY MY POINT, I QUITE LITERALLY TALKED ABOUT REDISTRUBITING THINGS FROM PRESS AGENCIES JFC, HOW CAN YOU READ WHAT I WROTE AND GET TO THIS, IS THERE ANYTHING BETWEEN YOUR EARS ???
This post smells like mad.
God, an unironic “you mad bro” go back to reddit lmao
I was listening to BBC World Report this morning. They made quick mention of it along with some other things happening in the conflict, then went on to introduce their “expert” who would illuminate the situation.
Their so called expert was an employee of some Israeli institute of security or whatever, and he talked on for ages with minimal push-back about how the israeli army is doing everything by the book and how “Gaza is safe for civilians, and if it’s not it’s the fault of Hamas”.
That was all the coverage they did.
What a fucking joke.
If anyone would like a bit of an overview about the conflict I found Shaun’s Palestine video interesting (and infuriating). I also liked Shattered Dreams of Peace by Frontline informative on the history
(putting it here because the parent is about misinformation and lies)
Yes, my first thought was, “Crikey! Has anyone in the united states self -immolated, before?!”
It’s a horrific way to call attention to a cause. I’m sure after his best possible recovery, his military unit will rally to prosecute to add to his anguish.
I’m sure after his best possible recovery
I don’t think he’ll recover. (In fact, apparently it is already being reported that he died. But even if he hasn’t yet he will.) He was taking deep lungfuls of flame and smoke to continue his chant. He’ll have destroyed his lungs. He knew going in that he wouldn’t come out of this alive.
What a brave man.
This is the first case. We’ve witnessed something that’s never been done before.
The first case of an active duty serviceman self immolating in the US. Alice Herz was the first one in the US, but there have been a dozen or two since then.
From the wikipedia page: Self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell
This event marks the first time that a member of the United States military on active duty has immolated themself.
Right, which I confirmed. The person you replied to asked if it had ever happened in the US before, without specifying the military service. That’s why I clarified that this is not close to the first US self immolation generally (not even the first in response to the same thing), only for active service members.
@Maeve i
He died. It’s actually not as uncommon as you’d think.Quite a few US Americans in this list of political self immolations.
:-(
Winn Bruce last year
but it’s very telling that this will assuredly get almost no coverage on big news networks like abc, cbs, fox, etc.
ABC News - Active-duty airman sets himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy, Air Force confirms
Fox News - US service member sets himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy in DC
and virtually no coverage in the larger papers like the NYT
you managed so thoroughly to miss the point I was making, I’m impressed
You made an objective point, then a subjective one.
The objective one: “it’s very telling that this will assuredly get almost no coverage on big news networks like abc, cbs, fox, etc.” They addressed the objective one with their links.
The subjective one cannot be addressed yet, as it’s so soon after the event. You will probably end up correct that this event will not visibly persist, but you can’t know for sure, time will tell.
fact check! deboonked!
“There’s no global warming stuuuuupid, lookit all the snow!”
What fucking show? It’s almost March and it has snowed like four times.
that was the joke
I was rolling with you
“gee why did he set himself on fire? must just be something people do”
it’s laughable how US media attributes self-immolation in Tibet to what must be CPC oppression, but self-immolation in the US must just be a cute little coincidence due to poor mental health
Don’t confuse people whose whole narrative is build on some conspiracy of media suppression with facts.
I guess skipping the term “Lügenpresse” to avoid the obvious link was deemed enough progress to keep that same 100 years old tactic alive…
They said almost no and virtually no coverege. It’s not anti-semitic to point out that western media is heavily skewed towards Israel. You’re completely delusional if you think that’s not the case.
Obviously there were going to be articles about the man who set himself on fire just as there was for the person who did it in 2022 due to the climate crisis. The point is the attention the media places on WHY it happens that is being ignored or heavily downplayed.
The ABC article felt like satire in how much it avoided context or referencing what was said in the video
They didn’t even share his name, either it is something middle eastern sounding or they just want everyone to forget about him.
From what I recall on Twitter it’s a white dude, but they didn’t want to share his name.
He’s definitely white from the video but they probably want to scrub his social media history before they release his name.
I saw he was an anarchist? Not much info that I saw but yeah I could see him having a hard time in the military. I was an anarchist when I was younger too.
From lower down in this post, his name is Aaron Bushnell.
There’s already a Wikipedia article about the incident.
Removed by mod
I got a notification for it from Washington Post. Reuters and nbc has it on the front page.
Free Palestinians from Hamas
Free yourself from propaganda
I’m free. That’s why I am able to see that Hamas are terrorists.
claims to be a free thinker
Parrots the most common opinion in western society
claims others are brainwashed instead
Interesting
Hamas is not Palestine as Israel is not all Jews.
Hamas is a cancer that must go for peace to have a chance
The only people fighting to defend Palestinians from their imminent ethnic cleansing are a “cancer”, but the same is not said for the occupying nation committing the cleansing.
Interesting!
hamas are NOT defending the palestinian people
Removed by mod
Y’all say shit like this but when I say Israel is a cancer that must go for peace to have a chance y’all get mad.
because saying it like that is not saying the current Israel government must go, you are implying the state of Israel must go.
that’s genocide
That’s definitely not what genocide means. Destroying the Israeli group is genocide. Destroying the Israeli state is not.
🤡
Hamas and Israel are two sides of the same coin. Hamas knew exactly what the demented Israeli government would do, and they knew it would bring sympathy to their cause. Israel walked into the trap because they are also consumed with ethnic hatred. There is plenty of evidence that Israel even supported Hamas just to get them an excuse for a genocide.
The Netanyahu government, yes.
Unfortunately, it’s not just the government. There are mobs preventing aid from getting in, and almost half the country supports what’s happening in Gaza.
True. And it’s also true that some Palestinians are allied with the Hamas terrorists. Also unfortunate. The victims are Israeli and Palestinian civilians.
Law enforcement also drew a gun on the burning man during the incident, according to a report by Task and Purpose.
When you’re a hammer…
You can not make this shit up. Jesus fucking Christ what a world.
Maybe they thought he had a pocket full of acorns.
good point, it’s possible we just didn’t see who he was actually aiming at
Acab
I read that and was like “of fucking course they did.” Honestly the next paragraph makes it even worse, IMO.
Authorities were heard asking the man – “May I help you, sir?” – at first but as soon as he was engulfed in flames they started yelling at him to get down on the ground. They even drew their guns on the burning man before someone pushed them to get fire extinguishers to extinguish the fire.
Threats of physical violence are the only tool they have in their toolbox. THE ONLY tool.
Threats of physical violence are the only tool they have in their toolbox. THE ONLY tool.
And actual gun violence. They’re the sniwflakiest and wimpiest of the all, bringing an AK-47 to a civilised discussion and feeling “threatened”.
Get on the ground! GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND, NOW!!!
Okay, now roll! ROLL OVER!!! Good, now the other way!! KEEP ROLLING WHERE I CAN SEE YOU!!!
“Officer Johnson’s quick actions saved the man’s life today,” said the Commissioner. “We have extensive firearm training for our officers and Johnson was able to apply what he learned to a firebody incident.”
firebody, one word apparently
Let’s escalate everything to death
casually j-walks across a non busy street
casually j-walks across a non busy street
Sheriff’s deputies from Orange County fatally shot the man, 42-year-old Kurt Reinhold, amid an altercation in September in San Clemente, California.
The video, released on Thursday last week, shows two sheriff’s deputies considering whether or not to charge Reinhold with jaywalking, before tackling him to the floor.
Reports say the sheriff’s deputies were on patrol and were assigned to the homeless outreach team, when the shooting took place.
One of the deputies says in the video, “Watch this, he’s going to jaywalk,” before asking Reinhold: "Are you going to stop or are we going to have to make you stop?
"Jaywalking here? That’s ridiculous,” Reinhold adds.
I dunno spreading the war to Yemin, Lebanon, heck even Iran sounds pretty smart. Think of all the jobs or something for Average Americans et cetera
This would be hilarious if it was satire, but this ain’t the onion.
No, but I’m sure you can get shot by police if you have an onion - that’s basically a biological weapon to assault delicate cop eyes.
Sigma balls light himself on fire, beta feel threatened at the realization of their cowardice and powerlessness.
