phreeknoThe Life & Death of Aaron Bushnell: Friend Says Self-Immolation Was a Demand for Justice
Herbal GamerI mean, that’s kinda obvious ain’t it?
chuckleslordSome are trying to paint him as suicidal rather than this being the act of protest that it is.
Self-immolation is one of the absolute worst ways to end yourself. If he was in the army and just suicidal, he’d have way better options to do it.
Can it be both?
It’s definitely both. Lighting yourself on fire to make a point is a terrible idea. If your goal is to bring about change, killing yourself actively works against that.
SanctusSelf-immolation is a powerful form of protest. He sacrificed his life to draw attention and send a message.
Suicide as protest is the same act as silencing yourself. That’s not protest. It’s submission.
Well, we are talking about him now, and millions of people have hears his message in his own words. Or he could still be alive in a sea of picketers being ignored. I don’t approve of suicide either, bit he very effectively got a lot of people to listen to him, or at least to hear him. We all should be so silent.
I’m pretty sure the other commenter will continue to ignore this fairly obvious facet to his death.
Nobody should be silent
For 2 weeks. And then he won’t be part of conversation until the next person does it. Then we’ll all look back. Say remember when they did this too. And forget again.
Taking away your ability to bring about change isn’t effective protest.
I remember pictures and articles of such in textbooks growing up in Florida. That was 1963 in Siagom. 61 years, Half a world away and his sacrifice had an impact to this day. 2 weeks is a bit of an understatement.
Yet not only did the Vietnam war escalate, it went on another 10 years after.
So are you calling for another 10 years, or learning from mistakes? I’m not sure what you are arguing for here. Gaza won’t last that long
I’m refuting the general idea here that a person commiting suicide changed the world for the better. Especially when it was someone concerned about what was going on. Who might have gone on to actually help.
Regardless of the where/when. A concerned person choosing suicide as their means of protest only takes away their ability to bring about change.
I assume you have an issue with every Christian in the world as well. Is Jesus not said to have sacrificed himself for the good of the people. There are many things we hate on religion for, but that one never seems to be the topic of concern.
Some believe your life is worth a lot, others not as much. I would never have known that guy existed, just another member of the Air Force, now so many people know about him we are discussing his antics
You’d have an argument if he had shot himself, or ODed on pills, or slashed his wrists, or any number of other painless, or at least very quick, ways of offing himself.
He set himself on fucking fire. One of the worst ways imaginable to die that doesn’t require someone else’s active participation, and in fact resists someone else actively trying to stop him. It gets attention.
That’s not protest. It’s submission.
Yea sure, tell that to people still who celebrate the man that started the arab spring by committing self-immolation:
I guess you haven’t heard of the arab spring
www.britannica.com/biography/Mohamed-Bouazizi
Mohamed Bouazizi | Biography, History, Immolation, Death, & Arab Spring
Mohamed Bouazizi, Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation after being harassed by municipal officials catalyzed the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and helped inspire a wider pro-democracy protest movement in the Middle East and North Africa known as the Arab Spring.
Terrible idea, yes. Powerful form of protest? Also, yes.
Not protest. It’s giving up with style.
Yet here we are talking about it.
I guess you haven’t heard of the arab spring www.britannica.com/biography/Mohamed-Bouazizi
Mohamed Bouazizi | Biography, History, Immolation, Death, & Arab Spring
Mohamed Bouazizi, Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation after being harassed by municipal officials catalyzed the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and helped inspire a wider pro-democracy protest movement in the Middle East and North Africa known as the Arab Spring.
Yes I have. And you’re only thinking about that moment because another occurrence happened recently.
You’ll even recognize if you’re honest about this that the situation for most people did not change. In Yemen they even got dramatically worse.
The sad fact is that mentally stable people do not burn themselves to death in protest. He got too wrapped up in current events when he should have been spending time with family and friends (and probably doctors too).
You’d think, but there is already push back. I’ve seen a few attempts to slander him through his reddit account and socials. I actually expect more fud is coming. I wonder how swift boated he’ll end up being?
LinkerbaanThe pushback is right wing trolls posting screenshots about fictional leftist “infighting” from Twitter accounts that have zero likes or re-tweets. In reality those are either fake or just a few random people that nobody cares about.
Not if you’re NOT apparently.
Not as if he wasn’t screaming “Free Palestine!” for as long as he could or anything
Rest in power.
DaveFuckinMorganIt was for nothing.
Aaron Bushnell got CNN to say the word Genocide on live TV. Even when talking about marches with 1 million people CNN called it war.
I could make CNN say “babaabooey” if I put it in a manifesto prior to setting myself on fire.
They’ve said “genocide” before. This did nothing but sicken one voice.
WOW!!! CNN said “genocide”??? Holy fuck pack it up boys, the work is done.
And it will be right back out of the news cycle next week.
Yeah the Buddhist monk didn’t keep staying in the news for 20 years either. And we’re not reading about Palestinian marches either. The world moves on. They want new stuff every day.
Global attention for one person for (more than) a day achieved by a single person absolutely extraordinary.
Oh you mean the monk who set himself on fire in 1963? And totally stopped the Vietnam war by 1973.
That totally did something impactful to stop the war.
I mean it made you make a comment. Regardless of your opinion, it still did something.
joel_feilaHe asked, what would you do if you lived in a genocidal state?
My answer “always have been”.
you mean the US?
I’d say at least half of all modern nations, but yeah the US is one of the better examples
yup the US was an apartheid state from the start as well
【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】Ridiculous. It was a flawed democracy not comparable to apartheid, which literally is a system where a minority group rules the majority group without consent.
tell that to the natives. tell that to the slave population it held. tell that to the current incarcerated population.
Yeah bud it’s pretty much all bloodshed all the way back through human history. But right now with America as the only world superpower, it is better than has ever been for more people than ever before. If we take your approach, nobody has a right to anything, everyone is a colonizer and rapist. The world is always going to be half terrible, you are letting perfect be the enemy of good.
Yes, defend current atrocities now because “the past was worse”. Wait, people couldn’t own things before America? There have always been docile people as well so I think you may just be exaggerating on those points.
America isn’t the only superpower though. And why do you think they are such a superpower? Could it be because of all the free prison labor we have and all of the unpaid labor that went into US infrastructure both during and after slavery was abolished?
The world doesn’t have to half terrible and if the US is such a good powerful supernation, why doesn’t it fix the very problems that it causes? I think its because the US is an ultra-capitalist empire and requires all of the suffering it takes to maintain that empire.
wait the US is giving Hawaii back?
You sound like a flat earther.
did you know that the US is illegally occupying hawaii?
I was not aware there was presently an armed conflict in Hawaii and that the islands were under military control by the US. Do you mean that they were illegally annexed? Yeah I suppose I am aware that America sponsored a coup there.
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Mentally ill people burning themselves to death in protest is a lot more dramatic than angry facebookposting but fundamentally accomplishes about the same thing. Sorry we lost a good airman for nothing…seek help if you’re feeling suicidal folks.
What should he have done?
That’s the only real crime you can think of, really?
Hmmm.
I hope all supporters of Palestine take notes and emulate this man.
Very reasonable. Someone must be very proud of you!
So just… Why, exactly?
You don’t see the irony of a government comprised of people that had a genocide inflicted on them 80 or so years ago are now committing a genocide themselves? I’d think that someone didn’t learn a valuable lesson, but you just think that it’s cool or something?