U.S. Air Force member who set himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy in D.C. has died

The problem is, as far as I see it, that this doesn't change minds. Thousands of children are dead now. Unless you're totally ignorant of that, in which case you will be totally ignorant of why he killed himself in this manner, it's not going to make you suddenly care about Palestine when exponentially more dead children who didn't die by their own hand will not.

no speech louder than this

It's loud about the strength of this guy's conviction but it provides no actual argument or information. I don't think it's cause to change one's opinion about Biden's foreign policy one way or another. In fact, I'd go further and say that it probably should be ignored as much as possible in order to avoid motivating other people to do the same thing.

Self immolation started the Arab Spring.

We have no idea what still happen.

This was an active duty servicemember. I share your pessimism that anything will change, but I don't think Biden can NOT comment on this. That should at least drive awareness. I'm sorry I have nothing less hollow than that to offer.

"Imo, this is there should be no speech louder than this"

I really don't know what you were trying to say there, but you managed to fuck it up so badly it makes no sense.

This strategy presumes that the authorities are concerned with the protester’s well-being in the first place.

Actually, it presumes access to media outlets/social media who will help build pressure on authorities. It's a pressure campaign tactic whose success or failure relies on building outside, non-state civil society support. By failing to engage with why people resort to tactics like hunger striking or self-immolation and just making shit up, the piece fails to really make its case.

While I don't support self-immolation as a tactic, the mentality this critique relies on enables the abuses that lead people to self-immolate or go on hunger strike to start with.

BTW about 98% of everything CrimethInc publishes is exactly this off-base and unhelpful.

“This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
-- Aaron Bushnell

I think it is done to pressure the regular people to overthrow the government. Showing how important the issue is and how much he sacrificed himself just to motivate people, that everybody else can sacrifice far less by risking arrest overthrowing the government.

Yo where is that quote from? Like is that a tv show, movie, philosopher?

They meant it to be a disservice.

[...] in an apparent protest against the Israel-Hamas war [...]

The article is just blurring the act, censoring its force gained by sacrifice, and mis-attributing its target. One can easily say, after having been exposed to hundreds of similarly malicious wording in public accountings of acts usually consisting of protests not in line with the local authority, that this is very deliberate and made to utilize even the last thing a person does to raise awareness about a systemic unjust treatment.

Someone with zero context about the situation could easily understand this act with different intent.

It will be all for nothing if the people don't unite in demanding that US stops supporting genocide and if they have to, go to the streets and stop this war crime by force.

Comfort? Their loved one is dead. And for what? It would be hypocritical of me to disagree with monks doing it.

All these comments are so okay with it. Like oh well, it was for a good cause! No it fucking ain't? This is some fucked up glorification of martyrs when in reality, all we accomplished is more pain. His family won't recover from this, ever.

But hey! All Israel has to do is stop the offensive and all will be dandy! Oh? Ignore those daily non stop dumb fired missiles and if they attack again? Oh well. What's another 1000 people killed or raped?

I'm sick of people pretending this is an easy fix. As long as hamas exist, Israel won't stop. Cease fire fixes nothing. But no one here sees past the tip of their nose. Same people were chanting to allow immigrants in because we fucked them up decades ago, because the system can take it! And now will complain about the state of the country, the shortages of food... I have a friend advocating for supplying Africa with means to farm instead of investing into our own farming so we can buy the food from Africa since we can afford it!

I'm just so tired of stupid people. Absolutely zero foresight and jump at first upvoted comment like it's gospel.

What? The photograph of Thích Quảng Đức was hailed by JFK as one of the most influential photographs in history and a turning point in Vietnam.

Jan Palach self immolated in Prague to protest the invasion of Soviet forces at the end of the Prague Spring.. there are monuments to him around the city. It seems lighting youself on fire aint what it used to be

I've seen people on Reddit blaming "leftist circlejerk holes" for "radicalizing" him (apparently Aaron had a Reddit account)

I felt the urge to get off Reddit more than ever.

Sure made a hell of an impact on me.

This form of protest goes back a long way - famously by Buddhist monks during the Vietnam war.

It’s also very similar to hunger strikes, in my opinion. There was Bobby Sands and his comrades, of course. There were hunger strikes protesting the brutal conditions at Guantanamo Bay, resulting in force feeding techniques condemned as torture by the international community.

Do all of the people performing acts of self harm in protest to bring attention to a situation they consider intolerable suffer from mental health issues? Do people who join the Marines and put their lives at risk in the infantry because they think they’re “defending their country” have mental health issues? Do drone pilots, who in no way put themselves at risk of harm but who absolutely and knowingly end up killing arbitrary civilians have mental health issues?

If you ask me, I’d say yes to all of those. I’d say the same about politicians who pass laws to ban medical care to patients, and I’d say the same about the people who vote for them.

So people protesting via self-immolation, protesting via hunger strike, joining the military in a role that risks death are suicidal. People joining the military in a way that causes death, or who pass legislation that causes death, or who elect politicians who pass legislation that causes death are homicidal.

What should we do about all of that?

Self immolation started the Arab Spring.

No but I'm not sure where I would consume such content. Is that Facebook or something?

With all due respect, FUCK that. A man gave his life to send a message. I will honor him and his courage, and I will meditate on his message as a way of honoring him.

Self immolation protest should be reserved for deaf ears and as a very last resort. This guy did not need to do this as everyone knows this is a bloody genocide whether you're for it or not. The lines have already been set and his death won't invoke any change of mind.

So someone going out on their own terms is wise to you than a genocide. Gotcha.

No idea why your comment has been downvoted. I dare downvoters to self-immolate themselves if they think they have balls to protest like this.

It seems like the entire world is caught in this trap. On one side you've got actual fascists, and on the other you have feckless liberals who can't seem to get it through their heads that this isn't the 90s anymore.

DNC says no. We must be happy with the pseudo Republicans they put forward

I think most Americans have lost their empathy and this type of commentary right here highlights it.

Take down one israeli ? so, which one ?

Even if your comment is truthful, you come across as hysterical and insane.

EVERYONE STOP SYMPATHIZING WITH HIM, because of a few angry bullshit takes he had on the internet. Because doing that removes your eligibility for sympathy.

Him being an idiot doesn't mean he was a bad person. Does he have some record of doing something actually "VILE"?

Genocide is the destruction of a group of people, not just one. He didn't genocide himself.