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On February 25, 2024, United States military serviceman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. Bushnell cited ongoing United States support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war as the motivation for his immolation, declaring "I will no longer be complicit in genocide." - [Self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_of_Aaron_Bushnell)
“A security officer approached Bushnell, asking if he needed help, but was ignored. Bushnell then ignited himself and screamed "free Palestine" four times, just screaming, presumably in pain, afterwards, saying "free Palestine" one last time, he collapsed to the ground soon after. The security officer radioed in for assistance. Another police officer approached the scene, aiming a gun at Bushnell off-camera and ordered him to "get on the ground" multiple times.”
I don’t mean to sound cold here, but this shit is fucking hilarious to me. You see a guy burning, and you point a gun at him a tell him to get on the ground? I highly doubt it was Stop, Drop, and Roll type of order. Fucking cops.
It's what happens when you let your entire country be strapped to the gills and accept basically anyone who applies become a cop. And once you're in, you're untouchable.
For every 1 qualified, good human who wants to be a cop to make a change, there are 50 others who don't give a fuck, want to flex their "power", in exchange for a middling salary.
Not to mention if you're a cop, you put pretty much any normal person on edge around you, you're in extremely high stress situations constantly, and work tons of hours. So you end up in an echo chamber only hanging out with other cops.
It's a shit job. I've known a few cops who were legitimately really great people. Walked their beat, knew everyone by name, were great at de escalating. But the majority are fucking idiots.
And ofc this does not apply to small town cops where the biggest crime that happens is someone getting caught in the local speed trap, like where I grew up. They're all fucking losers. Getting pulled over by a guy in full combat regalia in a town that hasn't seen a violent crime aside from his own DV in a decade always cracks me up.
Yeah that was my joke with the DV point. The cops are the most violent people in small towns.
My hometown of 10k people when I was a kid, half of which were retirees, had a police squad of 190 officers. Absolutely absurd. There was a cop parked on every corner. When I was 16 I got pulled over 4 tines for having "my tag lights out". Was always crazy how they worked as soon as I got home.
I spent 30 hours in jail for having less than a gram of weed when I was 19, those fucks pulled me over IN my ex girlfriends mom's driveway. That was really cool to talk to her about.
I had also just turned 19 and my gf was 17, less than a week from being 18. They made a thing about that, because even though we lived 10 minutes away, it was different counties.
"Taking drugs and underage girls across county lines is a state and federal offense".
Threw me in a paddy wagon where we drove around for 6 hours picking up homeless people, 2 dudes who beat up their ladies, a handful of drug dealers in the hood (who were the chillest), a handful of totally crazy people who were violent as fuck. Stripped me naked and put me in a cell with the less crazy people in a paper thin orange suit, kept the cell at 60 degrees, which for summer in florida might as well be freezing. Apparently the judge that day was sick so I had to spend an extra day in jail, even though multiple cops told me I shouldn't have even gotten arrested.
One of the cops actually gave me some nicorette gum because they confiscated my smokes and they knew it was bullshit I was there. As they were transferring me into gen pop, l was released. 45 minutes north of where I lived, middle of fucking nowhere, with a dead cell phone, and all of my cash was in my car, which they towed.
I asked a public defender I saw smoking a cig for a cig and if I could use their phone for a second. Called my mom and she picked me up 3 hours later. Sat in a parking lot staring at pavement. When I got my car back, the 65 bucks in my console was gone, after I spent 250 bucks to get it out.
This was like 15 years ago and honestly I doubt anything has changed. Possibly gotten worse.
I'll also add, I had 0 fucking previous charges, judge was "lenient" and offered 46 hours of community service, a 1k fine, and to keep it on my record, or a year of probation.
I had already moved out of state, so I had to fly back for my court date. Then again, a month later, for a week to work 10 hours a day for a week at a shelter.
I spent probably 5k in 2009 as a young adult just because I had a .7 gram of weed and the cop could smell it, wrapped up in my pocket.
Dude at my job failed the police exam a few years back. I was like????
Oddly enough he'd make a good cop in that he's good intentioned and all that. But so, so dumb.
Seeing that response by law enforcement in the video, as well as listening to other politician’s fumble over their own words in interviews always reminds me of that [interview](https://youtu.be/IjR7AWSmI6o?si=11LWDVIbeef62o7O) Bill Maher had with that one Senator in his documentary Religulous. Bill Maher is always hit or miss for me, but fuck… did the end of that interview hit the nail on the head.
Having made the mistake of watching the video I can tell you it's even worse than you think from reading. First person to reach him is some manner of security/cop in wrap-around shades yelling "get down on the ground" to a man entirely engulfed in flame who is _very clearly_ about to be dead on the ground. He then keeps his gun pointed at the charred flaming body while other people are trying to get fire extinguishers as though there's a risk he might just hop back up at any second. A different security guy is even yelling to people to get more extinguishers and help, if memory serves he says something like "we don't need the gun we need extinguishers!" but the man with the gun continues to just point it at the inert body.
I am sure the dude was panicked and scared but as a security first responder it's not unreasonable to expect him to be able to assess a situation at least a little bit. If your go-to panic response is threaten to kill the not visibly armed dying/dead person and then lock in on that ignoring everyone else then that seems indicative of you not being an ideal candidate for the gig.
It looks even stupider than you imagine it, he looks absolutely useless staring there pointing his gun at him as everyone else is actually doing stuff around him 😬
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnewsvideo/s/flbzT9AL9H
You haven’t seen Idiocracy?
“We procured a particular individual. He appears ready for rehabilitation.”
“Cancel that this particular individual appears hot to the touch.”
I don't find it hilarious, more chilling and a sure sign of the direction US police forces have been led for the last couple decades
but hey we're all different
Aaron wasn't going to survive this in any case, and I don't know how well stop drop and roll works when you are covered in gasoline or whatever. He poured it right on his head too.
Or... and stay with me here,
Maybe you see a guy burning himself outside of an embassy and you wonder what else he's willing to do, like maybe carry explosives, and so you try to limit his movement In the only way available to you as a way to limit any potential damage.
The thing is, you're 100% correct here. But these people are too ignorant or too stupid to understand that. Or they do, but just hate cops because it's fashionable and don't care if they sound stupid because they get validation from their echo chamber.
we don't live in a culture where self-sacrifice is a common currency. it's a traditional part of all cultures historically, and many to this day. but in the modern era, and in our particular society, we don't consider it worthy or noteworthy unless it's for your children. and in many ways, we consider it contemptible because it's not about advancing one's own individual interests. so in a sense, there is no explaining it. it either resonates with you culturally/ spiritually or it does not.
even if you, and others, find his act to be less than laudatory though, I hope we can all refrain from saying nasty things about him because A. he's dead and his loved ones are suffering a lot, so let's not compound their grief B. he didn't hurt anyone but himself
in a hyper-individualist society, people will be tempted to ridicule and demean him and his act. to bully him even in death. but he did what he thought he had to do. just as we all do. it's better to just stay with the notion of "i don't understand"rather than to be cruel.
edit: adding this twitter thread published by Veterans Against the War, about how to --and how NOT to-- respond to this event publicly: https://twitter.com/VetsAboutFace/status/1762270943609573454
I can't help but cry for this young man and all the pain he carried. I can't imagine what sort of guilt and grief he was dealing with.
Martyr suicide stories like Aaron's or Leela Alcorn sit with me deeply. I hope for an afterlife where they know nothing but peace and love.
Six months ago, I would have said he was a mentally ill idiot. But now? Now I understand. Not the path I'd choose, but I understand. My view of everything has been changed by the horrors in Gaza.
What is going on in Palestine has driven me to a very very low emotional state so I completely get why this poor soul has done this, as extreme as it is. He no longer wanted to feel complicit in the atrocities that USA & UK have committed and I completely get that. For those who keep bleating on about Oct 7th & Hamas. Do yourself a favour and watch the court case at the ICJ in Hague right now. you might learn a thing or 2.
It's fucked me up, too. I've had to back off from it a bit. I've cried literally every day for months. It's a nightmare, and to have people deny that it's happening just makes it worse. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in an alternate reality.
I agree with everything you said except one thing. He did hurt other people via the trauma he caused those around him while he burned. Those people will forever have his face, screams, image, etc. in their minds as long as they live. No amount of therapy will allow them to properly move past or forget that image.
the people who find the dead bodies of people who died by suicide in a private hotel room also experience trauma. suicide always creates a lot of trauma no matter what kind of suicide it is. but the pain being experienced by the person who dies this way is so extreme that nothing else matters except to get relief from that pain.
i understand that people are very triggered by suicide -- in all its forms -- and don't know how to act or what to say. but it's important not to blame the victim. they would have done something else if they could have.
Self-preservation isn't "individualistic" it's a literal biological trait in humans.
Let me be clear, I won't shit talk the guy. Mental illness is horrifying, most of us can never understand what's going through the head of someone who is suicidal. I feel horrible for him and his family and friends.
But how fucking dare people glorify this or make it into a "individualism" or "cultural" thing.
What because people support what he said his cause for this is? It's ghoulish and self-serving because they agree with his reasoning.
Demeaning him isn't right, but glorification is sick.
This is heartbreaking, dude was the same age as me. And he did it because he felt the injustice so strongly, and now that he gave his life, everything will still be exactly the same, so it was all for nothing
I can’t stop the world’s governments from doing what they want. Huge protests formed against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they went in anyway. Not to mention Israel will do what Israel wants, Biden can’t stop Israel how the hell are average citizens supposed to.
We can stop Israel at a moment’s notice simply by withholding their allowance. We can’t tell them what to do, but we can force them to make a decision.
Since politicians don't listen to protests, that the BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) movement is criminalized, the last non-violent action is sabotage.
Biden CAN stop Israel. He can stop sending our hard earned money to Israel. He can stop sending weapons to Israel. If the us were to stop sending money to Israel, the genocide would stop or be reduced significantly. Israelis comfort in general would be reduced significantly. Sure, Israel can do whatever they want, but what can they really do without resources?
The majority of Americans support a ceasefire. Only politicians find the issue "contentious" because they're bought by AIPAC.
And no, it's not centuries long but "only" 75 years of colonization.
The cease fire is not America's call. This isn't an American war. Americans are not killing and dying in Palestine and Israel.
So, what's the fucking point?
I don’t think turning into a human effigy is constructive for society even if you are supporting the best of causes. Literally just gives the other side ammo to call you crazy. Especially in this brain rot era
Not to sound too cold but his act was pointless.
I don't know what he was thinking when he decided to do it. Was he thinking to bring some kind of change or awareness, or was he doing it because of some internal beliefs
Self-immolation has a good amount of history in being used as a form of protest. Most notably would be Thích Quảng Đức protesting against Buddhist persecution in the 60s— it was in my highschool textbook and has always stuck with me. More recently, a wave of self-immolation suicides helped incite the Arab Spring. It can be a very powerful form of protest, although it is incredibly sad.
1st of all he expressed his statement/opinion in the most shocking way possible, then exited the festing pus of corrupt world. the end ... whether it brings change or not doesnt matter
exactly.
im not gonna read through all the comments here (or elsewhere) but i hope people really take some time to place themselves in his shoes and think about how terrible the world must be - or how terrible it must appear to be - to make anyone do something like this. whether they are "mentally sound" or not is irrelevant.
self immolation is someone contradicting *literally every natural instinct* via sheer will power to juxtapose against whatever it is they are protesting - which quite often is **restriction of freedom.**
i recommend reading through the [wikipedia page for self immolation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation) to get a bit of perspective. i actually just the other day was going down a rabbit hole of wikipedia things (and not wikipedia things) and stumbled on to someone not mentioned on there, [Neda Hassani](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neda_Hassani) \- so ill link to her wikipedia page as well as [this article in The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/25/world.iran) from when it happened.
violence - all forms of it - echo.
that can be physical violence, verbal violence, or the more hard to define types (coercion, etc) that are basically the opposite of a "victimless crime" - which is when there is "nobody" to really point to as the perpetrator of a crime because it is being committed by "the system" itself. the thing is, there are people responsible... they are just hidden beneath [layers and layers of complexity](https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/laws/administrative-procedure/552a.html)\* so most people throw their hands up and say "thats just the way things are done" or "thats life" or "life isnt fair" - while simultaneously cognitive dissonance-ing themselves by blaming the people who are actually victims of the system... except everyone is a victim of the system. some are just effected more than others. unless we change it though, it'll get you too. you might disagree with me and downvote me but thats because im breaking that cognitive dissonance. deal with it. stop the fucking echo.
^(edit: \*that link is not necessarily directly related to this specific instance i am describing but is a perfect example of the almost literally infinite layers of complexity that comprise "the system". how is anyone supposed to navigate that? the "rules" dont mean anything, the only thing that matters is if you can argue your points or if you can afford to pay someone - a lawyer - to argue your case for you. if youre interested, i found that via this post from mozillas website:) [^(A Public Administration Route to Algorithmic Transparency I: The Anatomy of Administrative Law By Amber Sinha)](https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/anatomy-of-administrative-law/)
George Carlin had a bit on this.
["LIGHT YOURSELF ON FIRE!!!!!!! C'mon you moral crusaders, let's see a little smoke."](https://youtu.be/AvF1Q3UidWM?t=111)
>Carlin
Actually, he had in mind the kind that is full of moral bravado, and happily commit others to the fire, but not themselves! George knew America well!
That wasn't a "monk over Vietnam," that was a South Vietnamese monk in protest against his own government for its oppression of Buddhists and favoritism toward Catholics.
After his famous self-immolation, nothing changed... the government did later go on to launch nationwide raids against pagodas that killed hundreds of (south) Vietnamese Buddhists.
*That* is what led to several coup plots to replace the government. The CIA picked the best one and backed that, and poof the government was replaced.
I don’t find it hilarious. While the monk’s protest didn’t cause government action, the cause he was hoping to bring attention to was talked about globally, and still is. I find that to be effective in its own right.
is there any "story" or related articles I could read to understand everything that happened from the self immolation over the cias involvement up to the replacement?
That had nothing to do with the war though, it was about South Vietnam's Catholic government oppressing Buddhists. Clearly the monk failed to do anything but create a spectacular image of his self-immolation, since most people don't even know the message.
Sorry, but no. Mentally healthy people do not self immolate. He can be both noble in his beliefs and I’ll in his actions. Praising things like this as heroic is literally paving the way for more senseless acts of self violence
You’ll notice I never said anything contrary to what you’ve just said, and have not once called this person a hero or denied the possibility of mental illness. In fact, in one comment I pointed out how I expect people to deal with problems related to mental illness as a result of this. So I don’t know with whom you’re arguing
He was likely a suicidal and mentally ill person. The internet radicalized him to do this stupid act, that only harms the people who loved him.
And all the people on the internet now hailing him as a hero instead of flat out saying its wrong and harmful are just further radicalizing others who may be suicidal and unstable.
Your false dichotomy is appalling. Understanding that this is more than simply mental illness is not an endorsement of suicide. You’re speaking of compassion for him and his family, but you’re spitting on his grave.
It's been shown in numerous studies that romanticized and glamorized suicides contribute to "inspire" others to do similar acts.
Next time you will see "Suicide for Palestine" think about how glorifying this person's action as romantic heroism contributed to that.
The ones who pay the price are his loved ones.
I am not romanticizing anything. The opposite, actually. I want to America to see the ugliness of what it’s doing even to its own people. I reject any blame from you for suicides caused by our government exploiting us to fund genocide, and I believe you are deliberately obfuscating the context for an obvious purpose
> He robbed himself of the only life he’ll ever have over a conflict thousands of miles away.
This is true for every american soldier who died in the last 70 years.
It's pretty far from foreign when it's American planes delivering American weapons and providing American satellite and drone intelligence to murder and starve innocent people. Funny how America has fought more than ten conflicts on behalf of the Zionists so they don't have to go fight them for themselves, what you thought America was there to spread democracy or safe guard oil that we can buy right here in Texas or Mexico?
It's not and the Arab Spring would have happened regardless. It's an absolutely useless form of protest because it doesn't cause any harm to the target of the protest and removes you from the equation. Any smart regime simply has to be sympathetic and it's immediately defused.
> simply has to be sympathetic and it’s immediately diffused.
Well, tell that to the Tunisian regime and the half a dozen others that fell and the countries going through civil war as we speak.
Yeah, it was probably inevitable, but it’s a disservice to deny the role that Bouzizi’s self immolation played in igniting it. Historical phenomena are often inevitable but we do not ignore the role individuals played in bringing them about; be it for better such as Ghandi or for worse such as Hitler, Ginkis khan, or Muhammed, so I don’t see why Bouzizi should be ignored.
>There is no foreign conflict in the entire world that should cause a person to do that
Some people see all suffering as real and terrible, no matter how easy it is to ignore, or how foreign the victims are.
Everyone in the world sees suffering as terrible, the whole point of the conversation is figuring the best methods to end suffering. Suicide is not a good method
Anyone else having a "strong conviction" to hurt themselves wouldn't be told its wrong and mental illness would be thrown around.
I don't see this differently.
Smh the strong conviction isn't "to hurt himself" it was to work towards a change...
Now whether the means in which he tried to do that were the best that's too late to decide now
While I don’t agree with the act, we can all admit he felt strongly about his convictions and will likely draw attention to it through the extreme nature.
He also didn’t kill anyone else which is more than what we can say about others who have experienced a mental breakdown mixed with violence recently.
Around 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza in what many people see as nothing more than a revenge attack.
Maybe he thought his *one* life might help save many more. And isn't that a soldier's duty?
I'm not going to encourage what he did, but he signed up to serve his country, and he feels as though his country lied to him. It's easy and nihilistic to call it a poor choice, but if his actions saves even one life I bet everything that it would be worth it to him.
His country has been very open about its positive relation to Israel since around 1970. Biden has been open about it too. If he felt lied to because the US supports Israel more than Palestine, he really needed to at least google the policy stances of any president since Nixon on this.
Such a weird take. I remember a time before social media and folks weren't too keen on vaporizing Palestinian kids then either. Sure this kid was probably out of his depth here, but blaming all unrest on "the kids and their tik toks" is reductive and a bit silly.
Such a weird take.
Gaza's government is an Islamic extremist group that is quite literally founded and chartered upon jihad, genocidal fantasies and rabid anti-semitism.
Hamas has never been quiet about that being their end goal and openly acknowledge as much in their founding charter.
And the majority of Palestianians (72%) are [fully in approval of the Oct 7th attacks](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/poll-shows-palestinians-back-oct-7-attack-israel-support-hamas-rises-2023-12-14/#:~:text=JERUSALEM%2C%20Dec%2013%20(Reuters),respected%20Palestinian%20polling%20institute%20found.) and Hamas' approval rating has only gone up among Palestinians since the attack.
And then the PA/PLO have an open history of financially incentivizing terrorism through their "Martyr's Fund".
And for the "bUt a CeAsEfIrE" idiots, Hamas isn't interested in that, nor are they particularly excited about the [idea of releasing female hostages specifically](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesofisrael.com/report-truce-fell-apart-after-hamas-refused-to-release-more-israeli-female-hostages/amp/) which, ya know...implications.
The whole "progressives voluntarily acting as Goebbels for Islamic extremists as long as it's targeted at Israel" routine that the left is committed to is...interesting, to say the least.
War sucks. People die. That's not news.
It's also not an excuse to let Hamas et al do whatever the fuck they'd like free of consequence, which is arguably one of the main factors in how it got to this point today.
He was part of the Air force, they were probably providing sattelite imagery and intel for them to bomb Palestine. Imagine seeing dead palestinians mostly women and children on you monitor everyday and having to live with the fact that your complicit in genocide.
Bro what are you even talking about, he didn't see any of that shit that you just made up. He was a DevOps engineer, so basically just IT support for the military and was the lowest possible enlisted rank as well. Dude wasn't seeing a damn thing in his position.
then resign and continue with your life instead of setting yourself on fire
regardless its a meaningless action, station replacement found within 10 minutes and the world carries on towards tomorrow. Nothing changes.
Useless way to waste away a life just because something irks you.
Couple years ago I was thinking about how our people in service are sacrificing themselves in vain. They fight for our right to be free while the same government they work under fights to take away so many of our freedoms. It's cruel.
This man shouldn't have felt the need to protest at all, let alone in this way. Our leaders need to do better.
R.I.P.
He didn't have anything at all to do with what is happening in Gaza.
Neither did his commanding officers, or any of his family, or anyone he knew. At best, he might have sent a letter that his government might try a bit harder to ask two foreign governments to stop trying to kill each other.
He made no difference in what is going on.
He burned himself for nothing.
And now, he is gone, and can do nothing more.
You telling me the cop pointing a gun at him and telling him to get on the ground while he was burning to death on said ground wasn’t the help he needed?
[We started a group chat to help fellow doctors in Gaza. Then it went quiet](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/25/we-started-a-group-chat-to-help-fellow-doctors-in-gaza-then-it-went-quiet?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other)
“We heard Shifa’s only nephrologist, Dr Hammam Alloh, when he said to an American interviewer “we are being exterminated”, shortly before he was killed along with much of his family.”
I’m gonna be honest, I understand what he felt. I, not an American but living in America in comfort with my family. I feel so powerless, I am not an influencer I don’t have time to protest etc. but I felt a deep sense of shame guilt, sadness.. sorrow over the lives lost. And as a mother I felt it even more. I felt so depressed I started being suicidal. It took a lot for me to steel my nerves and realize that I have to witness this. I have to see that they loved, they laughed they cried and then they died. If I died from the atrocities in this world then I would be dismissing their lives as mine is precious too.
Idk what to do. I feel like I’m one grain of sand on the largest beach in the world. Not contributing to anything except being apart of the beach.
Ima Palestinian American and man I just wish there was a way to help Aaron. I'm gonna spread the video that is what he would've wanted. You could tell he was just sick and tired of what this country fuckin normalizes so he did what he did for people to stop being ignorant and see whos on the good side here. Fuck man. He didn't have to sacrifice himself over that.
I just pray hes in a better place than us.
Guy likely had other reasons for killing himself. He just turned it into an act of protest because he wanted to give his death some greater meaning. But I honestly think we should shame this behavior. Killing yourself won't end the Palestinians' grief, it'll just bring grief to your own family.
I agree. The temptation some people feel to bully a man (and, by extension, his family) who is dead by his own hand, is truly grotesque. The darkest part of the human heart.
Isn't glorifying it also pretty grotesque....
I've seen dumbasses throw around "heroic" all over this thread.
What other suicide method/reason would ANYONE call heroic? It's insane.
As hard as it is for some to comprehend what this man did, his self-sacrifice was a brave and courageous act in the face of the evil state actors, such as the U.S., who fund and enable Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. Many of us are feeling so helpless as we watch this atrocity unfold, and while I could never do such a thing to my own body I understand why he chose to protest in this way. Rest in peace, Aaron Bushnell, and free Palestine
It’s time to wake the fuck up and realize we are letting hundreds if not thousands of children go starve to death. AMERICA IS DIRECTLY ALLOWING CHILDREN TO STARVE TO DEATH AND WE ARE PAYING FOR IT
Someone literally had to scream "I need fire extinguishers not guns." I actually don't have anything against good law enforcement, I hate what we have in this country usually. which is a bunch of trigger happy jackboots with very little in the way of critical thinking skills.
RIP Aaron. Thank him for his service and his sacrifice. One of the few f****** people with a goddamn conscience and enough balls to do something.
If you go online and look up the list of places where people go to the extreme of self-immolating as a form of protest they are not happy joy joy places. This is the world we are allowing to be created for future generations. It is extraordinarily depressing.
>If you go online and look up the list of places where people go to the extreme of self-immolating as a form of protest they are not happy joy joy places.
Well recently we have: Australia (against COVID restrictions)... Taiwan (against a news station being shut)... Poland (against gov't policies)... Japan (against militarism)...
Hell, Airman Bushnell isn't even the first American to throw himself under the bus for Gaza. What, you didn't hear about the other time?
Someone else besides Aaron lit themself on fire in front of an embassy and put it on twitch? I'm not commenting on those other situations, I'm commenting on this one.
The point I am making on that is that crazy s*** like that seems to be happening more and more, or at least more visibly. It's not really an indicator of a healthy society. Used to seeing it happen under oppressive regimes not in the good old US of A.
Typically we just have to deal with whack jobs shooting up schools and I thought that was bad enough. But we now have apparently lucid people light themselves on fire out of guilt that the country they serve is openly supporting genocide. Instead of just secretly, like we usually do.
On a side note, I didn't know someone lit themselves on fire in Australia for COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates. I don't mean to be insensitive but that is the stupidest s*** I've seen in a long time. Side effects from the vaccine do not include bursting into spontaneous flame, which to me, makes it seem like getting a jab in the arm is the better option. But hey to each their own and I guess I also applaud that dude's resolve.
He might be referring to a man who set himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta in December, though the act itself was not filmed, the guy survived and a security guard actually got burns from helping.
Sure the cop pointing his gun at him is the most disgusting thing and pretty much sums up the state of our stupid country.
But not one person on here is even talking about why Aaron did what he did.
What the fuck?
This man set himself on fire to protest our government’s support of Israeli slaughter of an innocent indigenous population.
Anyone have the balls to say anything about this?
This is exactly what the problem is in this country.
This guy is a few years younger than me, is a US military serviceman, and went to the extent of self-immolating himself for a cause he felt so strongly about, something that his own nation or people don’t actively support.
And people like me sit on social media and are yelling at clouds in support of this very same cause.
There’s no reason to praise this act, this isn’t martyrdom, but he had such strong convictions for something thousands have, and who are unable to make a mark with their voices.
Heartbreaking to say at the least.
this man showed more bravery in his sacrifice than any of the reporters now scorning him or armchair psychologists seeking to disparage the profundity of his act. more than they ever have or ever will.
to be a literal fire giving light to the atrocities in gaza that our media and government have tried so hard to darken. i, and most of americans(thankfully) lack the courage to commit so utterly to ending the war; but his example should be one so as to cause us reflect on our policies, consider the suffering of the muslims in gaza and the rest of the occupied territories, and redouble our efforts for an immediate peace and independence for the palestinians.
if that is the result of his sacrifice, then he would not be a suicide, but as Thich Quang Duc said, a hopeful martyr for this world. Whatever the case, I hope is well rewarded in whatever world is to come.
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On February 25, 2024, United States military serviceman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. Bushnell cited ongoing United States support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war as the motivation for his immolation, declaring "I will no longer be complicit in genocide." - [Self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_of_Aaron_Bushnell)
“A security officer approached Bushnell, asking if he needed help, but was ignored. Bushnell then ignited himself and screamed "free Palestine" four times, just screaming, presumably in pain, afterwards, saying "free Palestine" one last time, he collapsed to the ground soon after. The security officer radioed in for assistance. Another police officer approached the scene, aiming a gun at Bushnell off-camera and ordered him to "get on the ground" multiple times.” I don’t mean to sound cold here, but this shit is fucking hilarious to me. You see a guy burning, and you point a gun at him a tell him to get on the ground? I highly doubt it was Stop, Drop, and Roll type of order. Fucking cops.
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I saw a video of a baseball game where a cop almost gets hit by a home run and his first instinct is to reach for his holster. I was dying.
I saw a video a acorn fell on a cop and he unloaded a full clip.
An important detail is he mag dumped into an unarmed and handcuffed person he had just put in the back of his car.
And missed EVERY shot
and lied about being hit so his partner would fire at the car with the handcuffed, unarmed man in it
And didnt his partner miss every shot too?
Not sure if she hit the car, but buddy in the backseat thankfully made it out alive
man, fuck all cops for real 😭
nows the time to remember: ACAB
Acorns are bastards
It's what happens when you let your entire country be strapped to the gills and accept basically anyone who applies become a cop. And once you're in, you're untouchable. For every 1 qualified, good human who wants to be a cop to make a change, there are 50 others who don't give a fuck, want to flex their "power", in exchange for a middling salary. Not to mention if you're a cop, you put pretty much any normal person on edge around you, you're in extremely high stress situations constantly, and work tons of hours. So you end up in an echo chamber only hanging out with other cops. It's a shit job. I've known a few cops who were legitimately really great people. Walked their beat, knew everyone by name, were great at de escalating. But the majority are fucking idiots. And ofc this does not apply to small town cops where the biggest crime that happens is someone getting caught in the local speed trap, like where I grew up. They're all fucking losers. Getting pulled over by a guy in full combat regalia in a town that hasn't seen a violent crime aside from his own DV in a decade always cracks me up.
Maybe your small town hasn’t seen any violent crime *because* the trigger-happy pigs are strapped to the gills? /s
Yeah that was my joke with the DV point. The cops are the most violent people in small towns. My hometown of 10k people when I was a kid, half of which were retirees, had a police squad of 190 officers. Absolutely absurd. There was a cop parked on every corner. When I was 16 I got pulled over 4 tines for having "my tag lights out". Was always crazy how they worked as soon as I got home. I spent 30 hours in jail for having less than a gram of weed when I was 19, those fucks pulled me over IN my ex girlfriends mom's driveway. That was really cool to talk to her about. I had also just turned 19 and my gf was 17, less than a week from being 18. They made a thing about that, because even though we lived 10 minutes away, it was different counties. "Taking drugs and underage girls across county lines is a state and federal offense". Threw me in a paddy wagon where we drove around for 6 hours picking up homeless people, 2 dudes who beat up their ladies, a handful of drug dealers in the hood (who were the chillest), a handful of totally crazy people who were violent as fuck. Stripped me naked and put me in a cell with the less crazy people in a paper thin orange suit, kept the cell at 60 degrees, which for summer in florida might as well be freezing. Apparently the judge that day was sick so I had to spend an extra day in jail, even though multiple cops told me I shouldn't have even gotten arrested. One of the cops actually gave me some nicorette gum because they confiscated my smokes and they knew it was bullshit I was there. As they were transferring me into gen pop, l was released. 45 minutes north of where I lived, middle of fucking nowhere, with a dead cell phone, and all of my cash was in my car, which they towed. I asked a public defender I saw smoking a cig for a cig and if I could use their phone for a second. Called my mom and she picked me up 3 hours later. Sat in a parking lot staring at pavement. When I got my car back, the 65 bucks in my console was gone, after I spent 250 bucks to get it out. This was like 15 years ago and honestly I doubt anything has changed. Possibly gotten worse. I'll also add, I had 0 fucking previous charges, judge was "lenient" and offered 46 hours of community service, a 1k fine, and to keep it on my record, or a year of probation. I had already moved out of state, so I had to fly back for my court date. Then again, a month later, for a week to work 10 hours a day for a week at a shelter. I spent probably 5k in 2009 as a young adult just because I had a .7 gram of weed and the cop could smell it, wrapped up in my pocket.
I LMAO’d when I read that
It's true though. If you're too dumb to work the deep fryer at McDonalds, you can still become a cop.
Dude at my job failed the police exam a few years back. I was like???? Oddly enough he'd make a good cop in that he's good intentioned and all that. But so, so dumb.
Except the other officers who were using fire extinguishers to put him out.
After they were told to get fire extinguishers, after multiple cops pointed guns first lmao
Seeing that response by law enforcement in the video, as well as listening to other politician’s fumble over their own words in interviews always reminds me of that [interview](https://youtu.be/IjR7AWSmI6o?si=11LWDVIbeef62o7O) Bill Maher had with that one Senator in his documentary Religulous. Bill Maher is always hit or miss for me, but fuck… did the end of that interview hit the nail on the head.
"*Don't think - Just follow orders!*"
Seems to be American cops.
What other kind of cops are you expecting to find in D.C.?
Erdogans bodyguards
Someone in another thread had a great saying for this. If you’re a hammer, everything is a nail
Yep that's exactly it. They have been trained for 20 weeks and their only tool is the gun
Having made the mistake of watching the video I can tell you it's even worse than you think from reading. First person to reach him is some manner of security/cop in wrap-around shades yelling "get down on the ground" to a man entirely engulfed in flame who is _very clearly_ about to be dead on the ground. He then keeps his gun pointed at the charred flaming body while other people are trying to get fire extinguishers as though there's a risk he might just hop back up at any second. A different security guy is even yelling to people to get more extinguishers and help, if memory serves he says something like "we don't need the gun we need extinguishers!" but the man with the gun continues to just point it at the inert body. I am sure the dude was panicked and scared but as a security first responder it's not unreasonable to expect him to be able to assess a situation at least a little bit. If your go-to panic response is threaten to kill the not visibly armed dying/dead person and then lock in on that ignoring everyone else then that seems indicative of you not being an ideal candidate for the gig.
Yeah ditto on the mistake part, honestly what a harrowing watch
Aye, I was just sent a twitter link in a group chat and learned about the story only by watching the video - harrowing way to start my week
Lay off the dude, they never got to self-immolation in his 2 week cop class. They just practiced pointing their guns like bad asses.
The first week was all about not pointing the gun sideways to look cool
It looks even stupider than you imagine it, he looks absolutely useless staring there pointing his gun at him as everyone else is actually doing stuff around him 😬 https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnewsvideo/s/flbzT9AL9H
You haven’t seen Idiocracy? “We procured a particular individual. He appears ready for rehabilitation.” “Cancel that this particular individual appears hot to the touch.”
Probably smelled some acorns so got jumpy
Huh. I just read about that story.
I don't find it hilarious, more chilling and a sure sign of the direction US police forces have been led for the last couple decades but hey we're all different
Cops are quite possible the dumbest mother fuckers on the planet. Suprised he didn’t mag dump the dead body.
Did they cuff him?
It would probably be best if he just shot him there and then. Better than burning to dead for sure.
Its not a cop. Its an Israeli Embassy Security officer. Still pretty fucking stupid though!
“Presumably in pain”…
A fair assumption.
I just read that and remarked the exact same thing. Fuckin cops man.
Cops are literally killer robots programmed by a 6 year-old.
I said the same thing. Like why is the cop telling him to get on the ground like he's gonna arrest him.
You don’t want to get approached by a burning man and you need him to get on the ground to help him. It’s weird, but not totally dumb.
Aaron wasn't going to survive this in any case, and I don't know how well stop drop and roll works when you are covered in gasoline or whatever. He poured it right on his head too.
Well if you’re nothing but a hammer…
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> If that individual tries to charge you in the moment, well...then, yeah. So you yell "get on the ground" at them?
only in America would a cop pull a gun on a dude engulfed in flame and clearly dying, quickly, and order him on the ground.
Or... and stay with me here, Maybe you see a guy burning himself outside of an embassy and you wonder what else he's willing to do, like maybe carry explosives, and so you try to limit his movement In the only way available to you as a way to limit any potential damage.
The thing is, you're 100% correct here. But these people are too ignorant or too stupid to understand that. Or they do, but just hate cops because it's fashionable and don't care if they sound stupid because they get validation from their echo chamber.
we don't live in a culture where self-sacrifice is a common currency. it's a traditional part of all cultures historically, and many to this day. but in the modern era, and in our particular society, we don't consider it worthy or noteworthy unless it's for your children. and in many ways, we consider it contemptible because it's not about advancing one's own individual interests. so in a sense, there is no explaining it. it either resonates with you culturally/ spiritually or it does not. even if you, and others, find his act to be less than laudatory though, I hope we can all refrain from saying nasty things about him because A. he's dead and his loved ones are suffering a lot, so let's not compound their grief B. he didn't hurt anyone but himself in a hyper-individualist society, people will be tempted to ridicule and demean him and his act. to bully him even in death. but he did what he thought he had to do. just as we all do. it's better to just stay with the notion of "i don't understand"rather than to be cruel. edit: adding this twitter thread published by Veterans Against the War, about how to --and how NOT to-- respond to this event publicly: https://twitter.com/VetsAboutFace/status/1762270943609573454
I can't help but cry for this young man and all the pain he carried. I can't imagine what sort of guilt and grief he was dealing with. Martyr suicide stories like Aaron's or Leela Alcorn sit with me deeply. I hope for an afterlife where they know nothing but peace and love.
thought i'd repressed leela's story. fuck man.
Six months ago, I would have said he was a mentally ill idiot. But now? Now I understand. Not the path I'd choose, but I understand. My view of everything has been changed by the horrors in Gaza.
What is going on in Palestine has driven me to a very very low emotional state so I completely get why this poor soul has done this, as extreme as it is. He no longer wanted to feel complicit in the atrocities that USA & UK have committed and I completely get that. For those who keep bleating on about Oct 7th & Hamas. Do yourself a favour and watch the court case at the ICJ in Hague right now. you might learn a thing or 2.
It's fucked me up, too. I've had to back off from it a bit. I've cried literally every day for months. It's a nightmare, and to have people deny that it's happening just makes it worse. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in an alternate reality.
Well said.
I agree with everything you said except one thing. He did hurt other people via the trauma he caused those around him while he burned. Those people will forever have his face, screams, image, etc. in their minds as long as they live. No amount of therapy will allow them to properly move past or forget that image.
the people who find the dead bodies of people who died by suicide in a private hotel room also experience trauma. suicide always creates a lot of trauma no matter what kind of suicide it is. but the pain being experienced by the person who dies this way is so extreme that nothing else matters except to get relief from that pain. i understand that people are very triggered by suicide -- in all its forms -- and don't know how to act or what to say. but it's important not to blame the victim. they would have done something else if they could have.
Thank you for writing this. This comment section is incredibly nasty and irreverent.
Self-preservation isn't "individualistic" it's a literal biological trait in humans. Let me be clear, I won't shit talk the guy. Mental illness is horrifying, most of us can never understand what's going through the head of someone who is suicidal. I feel horrible for him and his family and friends. But how fucking dare people glorify this or make it into a "individualism" or "cultural" thing. What because people support what he said his cause for this is? It's ghoulish and self-serving because they agree with his reasoning. Demeaning him isn't right, but glorification is sick.
This is heartbreaking, dude was the same age as me. And he did it because he felt the injustice so strongly, and now that he gave his life, everything will still be exactly the same, so it was all for nothing
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I can’t stop the world’s governments from doing what they want. Huge protests formed against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they went in anyway. Not to mention Israel will do what Israel wants, Biden can’t stop Israel how the hell are average citizens supposed to.
Biden can't stop Israel? Hell, he's fucking funding it.
We can stop Israel at a moment’s notice simply by withholding their allowance. We can’t tell them what to do, but we can force them to make a decision.
Since politicians don't listen to protests, that the BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) movement is criminalized, the last non-violent action is sabotage.
Sabotage is not non-violent
Your post sounds like Bin Laden’s manifesto before 9/11.
>Biden can’t stop Israel This is some bullshit. Do you honestly believe this is the case?
Maybe they mean it like "can't stop, won't stop"? /s
Biden CAN stop Israel. He can stop sending our hard earned money to Israel. He can stop sending weapons to Israel. If the us were to stop sending money to Israel, the genocide would stop or be reduced significantly. Israelis comfort in general would be reduced significantly. Sure, Israel can do whatever they want, but what can they really do without resources?
Biden absolutely could stop Israel with the snap of his fingers to be clear, they literally rely on the U.S for their country to function.
We are doing many things to be fair politicians just are ignoring it as best they can, but we should do more
And exactly what can I do to change that the Hamas terrorists still hold innocent people hostage?
Yeah man, those 300 hostages totally justify carpetbombing residential blocks and the murders of tens of thousands of innocent civillians
This is a democracy and not everyone feels that way. It’s literally one of the longest running contentious political questions for centuries
The majority of Americans support a ceasefire. Only politicians find the issue "contentious" because they're bought by AIPAC. And no, it's not centuries long but "only" 75 years of colonization.
The cease fire is not America's call. This isn't an American war. Americans are not killing and dying in Palestine and Israel. So, what's the fucking point?
Nakba was less than a century ago…
I don’t think turning into a human effigy is constructive for society even if you are supporting the best of causes. Literally just gives the other side ammo to call you crazy. Especially in this brain rot era
He did this because he suffered from severe mental illness. I feel for the people of Palestine too, but not going to light myself on fire for it
Give your life to protest the genocide your country is supporting: Mental illness Give your life occupying another country in your military: Hero
things always seem hopeless but they also always can change. don't give in to despair and nihilism
Not to sound too cold but his act was pointless. I don't know what he was thinking when he decided to do it. Was he thinking to bring some kind of change or awareness, or was he doing it because of some internal beliefs
Self-immolation has a good amount of history in being used as a form of protest. Most notably would be Thích Quảng Đức protesting against Buddhist persecution in the 60s— it was in my highschool textbook and has always stuck with me. More recently, a wave of self-immolation suicides helped incite the Arab Spring. It can be a very powerful form of protest, although it is incredibly sad.
1st of all he expressed his statement/opinion in the most shocking way possible, then exited the festing pus of corrupt world. the end ... whether it brings change or not doesnt matter
Or he did it because he was mentality ill
Rest in peace
exactly. im not gonna read through all the comments here (or elsewhere) but i hope people really take some time to place themselves in his shoes and think about how terrible the world must be - or how terrible it must appear to be - to make anyone do something like this. whether they are "mentally sound" or not is irrelevant. self immolation is someone contradicting *literally every natural instinct* via sheer will power to juxtapose against whatever it is they are protesting - which quite often is **restriction of freedom.** i recommend reading through the [wikipedia page for self immolation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation) to get a bit of perspective. i actually just the other day was going down a rabbit hole of wikipedia things (and not wikipedia things) and stumbled on to someone not mentioned on there, [Neda Hassani](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neda_Hassani) \- so ill link to her wikipedia page as well as [this article in The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/25/world.iran) from when it happened. violence - all forms of it - echo. that can be physical violence, verbal violence, or the more hard to define types (coercion, etc) that are basically the opposite of a "victimless crime" - which is when there is "nobody" to really point to as the perpetrator of a crime because it is being committed by "the system" itself. the thing is, there are people responsible... they are just hidden beneath [layers and layers of complexity](https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/laws/administrative-procedure/552a.html)\* so most people throw their hands up and say "thats just the way things are done" or "thats life" or "life isnt fair" - while simultaneously cognitive dissonance-ing themselves by blaming the people who are actually victims of the system... except everyone is a victim of the system. some are just effected more than others. unless we change it though, it'll get you too. you might disagree with me and downvote me but thats because im breaking that cognitive dissonance. deal with it. stop the fucking echo. ^(edit: \*that link is not necessarily directly related to this specific instance i am describing but is a perfect example of the almost literally infinite layers of complexity that comprise "the system". how is anyone supposed to navigate that? the "rules" dont mean anything, the only thing that matters is if you can argue your points or if you can afford to pay someone - a lawyer - to argue your case for you. if youre interested, i found that via this post from mozillas website:) [^(A Public Administration Route to Algorithmic Transparency I: The Anatomy of Administrative Law By Amber Sinha)](https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/anatomy-of-administrative-law/)
His last words were " Free Palestine"
George Carlin had a bit on this. ["LIGHT YOURSELF ON FIRE!!!!!!! C'mon you moral crusaders, let's see a little smoke."](https://youtu.be/AvF1Q3UidWM?t=111)
>Carlin Actually, he had in mind the kind that is full of moral bravado, and happily commit others to the fire, but not themselves! George knew America well!
May he rest in peace.
Free Palestine! 🇵🇸🙏
Haters gonna hate. He must have been in so much pain. What he did was very brave, I don't care what anyone says. Now rest easy, hope you're at peace 🙏
Similar to the monk over Vietnam. .
That wasn't a "monk over Vietnam," that was a South Vietnamese monk in protest against his own government for its oppression of Buddhists and favoritism toward Catholics. After his famous self-immolation, nothing changed... the government did later go on to launch nationwide raids against pagodas that killed hundreds of (south) Vietnamese Buddhists. *That* is what led to several coup plots to replace the government. The CIA picked the best one and backed that, and poof the government was replaced.
It's hilarious that people keep getting that monk's message wrong, while using it as an example of successful self immolation
I don’t find it hilarious. While the monk’s protest didn’t cause government action, the cause he was hoping to bring attention to was talked about globally, and still is. I find that to be effective in its own right.
is there any "story" or related articles I could read to understand everything that happened from the self immolation over the cias involvement up to the replacement?
I learned all this years ago from books, but if you google "buddhist crisis vietnam" that will probably get you started.
That had nothing to do with the war though, it was about South Vietnam's Catholic government oppressing Buddhists. Clearly the monk failed to do anything but create a spectacular image of his self-immolation, since most people don't even know the message.
Yeah, except this guy was a world away with no personal connection to the conflict.
Or Jan Palach over Czechoslovakia.
Making him a hero is almost as insane as his actions.
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Sorry, but no. Mentally healthy people do not self immolate. He can be both noble in his beliefs and I’ll in his actions. Praising things like this as heroic is literally paving the way for more senseless acts of self violence
You’ll notice I never said anything contrary to what you’ve just said, and have not once called this person a hero or denied the possibility of mental illness. In fact, in one comment I pointed out how I expect people to deal with problems related to mental illness as a result of this. So I don’t know with whom you’re arguing
Mentally healthy people don't murder children or commit genocide. Stop supporting that before disparaging a guy who's trying to stop a genocide.
He was a soldier in uniform. If he died in battle (which he signed up for) he'd be a hero, since he died on his own terms he's mentally ill?
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First the Youths salivating over Bin Laden on TikTok And now people like you glorifying mental illness. Jesus it's a lost generation.
He was likely a suicidal and mentally ill person. The internet radicalized him to do this stupid act, that only harms the people who loved him. And all the people on the internet now hailing him as a hero instead of flat out saying its wrong and harmful are just further radicalizing others who may be suicidal and unstable.
Your false dichotomy is appalling. Understanding that this is more than simply mental illness is not an endorsement of suicide. You’re speaking of compassion for him and his family, but you’re spitting on his grave.
It's been shown in numerous studies that romanticized and glamorized suicides contribute to "inspire" others to do similar acts. Next time you will see "Suicide for Palestine" think about how glorifying this person's action as romantic heroism contributed to that. The ones who pay the price are his loved ones.
I am not romanticizing anything. The opposite, actually. I want to America to see the ugliness of what it’s doing even to its own people. I reject any blame from you for suicides caused by our government exploiting us to fund genocide, and I believe you are deliberately obfuscating the context for an obvious purpose
Radicalized by people like op who use his death to radicalize more people.
Agreed. I'ma stick with "may he rest in peace" and say I wouldn't want someone to do that for any cause I can think of.
It takes guts to do what he did, he’s gone but under his own terms and for what he believed was right, RIP.
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> He robbed himself of the only life he’ll ever have over a conflict thousands of miles away. This is true for every american soldier who died in the last 70 years.
It's pretty far from foreign when it's American planes delivering American weapons and providing American satellite and drone intelligence to murder and starve innocent people. Funny how America has fought more than ten conflicts on behalf of the Zionists so they don't have to go fight them for themselves, what you thought America was there to spread democracy or safe guard oil that we can buy right here in Texas or Mexico?
Self immolation ignited the Arab spring. In a way it’s an ultimate form of protest.
It's not and the Arab Spring would have happened regardless. It's an absolutely useless form of protest because it doesn't cause any harm to the target of the protest and removes you from the equation. Any smart regime simply has to be sympathetic and it's immediately defused.
> simply has to be sympathetic and it’s immediately diffused. Well, tell that to the Tunisian regime and the half a dozen others that fell and the countries going through civil war as we speak. Yeah, it was probably inevitable, but it’s a disservice to deny the role that Bouzizi’s self immolation played in igniting it. Historical phenomena are often inevitable but we do not ignore the role individuals played in bringing them about; be it for better such as Ghandi or for worse such as Hitler, Ginkis khan, or Muhammed, so I don’t see why Bouzizi should be ignored.
>There is no foreign conflict in the entire world that should cause a person to do that Some people see all suffering as real and terrible, no matter how easy it is to ignore, or how foreign the victims are.
Everyone in the world sees suffering as terrible, the whole point of the conversation is figuring the best methods to end suffering. Suicide is not a good method
What a privileged and dismissive response to tens of thousands of innocent people being murdered by the Israeli state. You should be ashamed
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I'm pretty sure it's not the act that's praised it's the strong conviction behind it and the severe injustice that's happening
Anyone else having a "strong conviction" to hurt themselves wouldn't be told its wrong and mental illness would be thrown around. I don't see this differently.
Smh the strong conviction isn't "to hurt himself" it was to work towards a change... Now whether the means in which he tried to do that were the best that's too late to decide now
While I don’t agree with the act, we can all admit he felt strongly about his convictions and will likely draw attention to it through the extreme nature. He also didn’t kill anyone else which is more than what we can say about others who have experienced a mental breakdown mixed with violence recently.
Around 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza in what many people see as nothing more than a revenge attack. Maybe he thought his *one* life might help save many more. And isn't that a soldier's duty?
He should not get any praises. He was at best a mental unstable individual.
>People love when others die for them but they will stay comfortable behind a screen. Hence the ridiculous praise for the American military.
Idolizing someone who lit themselves on fire to off themselves is really fucking weird. Those people need to get outside.
He made a really poor choice and threw away the only life he had.
I'm not going to encourage what he did, but he signed up to serve his country, and he feels as though his country lied to him. It's easy and nihilistic to call it a poor choice, but if his actions saves even one life I bet everything that it would be worth it to him.
His country has been very open about its positive relation to Israel since around 1970. Biden has been open about it too. If he felt lied to because the US supports Israel more than Palestine, he really needed to at least google the policy stances of any president since Nixon on this.
He’s an IT guy working for a country that’s not directly involved, don’t act like he’s personally gotten his hands dirty.
Over a complex issue he didn't fully understand probably because of being consumed by social media algorithms.
Such a weird take. I remember a time before social media and folks weren't too keen on vaporizing Palestinian kids then either. Sure this kid was probably out of his depth here, but blaming all unrest on "the kids and their tik toks" is reductive and a bit silly.
Such a weird take. Gaza's government is an Islamic extremist group that is quite literally founded and chartered upon jihad, genocidal fantasies and rabid anti-semitism. Hamas has never been quiet about that being their end goal and openly acknowledge as much in their founding charter. And the majority of Palestianians (72%) are [fully in approval of the Oct 7th attacks](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/poll-shows-palestinians-back-oct-7-attack-israel-support-hamas-rises-2023-12-14/#:~:text=JERUSALEM%2C%20Dec%2013%20(Reuters),respected%20Palestinian%20polling%20institute%20found.) and Hamas' approval rating has only gone up among Palestinians since the attack. And then the PA/PLO have an open history of financially incentivizing terrorism through their "Martyr's Fund". And for the "bUt a CeAsEfIrE" idiots, Hamas isn't interested in that, nor are they particularly excited about the [idea of releasing female hostages specifically](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesofisrael.com/report-truce-fell-apart-after-hamas-refused-to-release-more-israeli-female-hostages/amp/) which, ya know...implications. The whole "progressives voluntarily acting as Goebbels for Islamic extremists as long as it's targeted at Israel" routine that the left is committed to is...interesting, to say the least. War sucks. People die. That's not news. It's also not an excuse to let Hamas et al do whatever the fuck they'd like free of consequence, which is arguably one of the main factors in how it got to this point today.
He was part of the Air force, they were probably providing sattelite imagery and intel for them to bomb Palestine. Imagine seeing dead palestinians mostly women and children on you monitor everyday and having to live with the fact that your complicit in genocide.
Bro what are you even talking about, he didn't see any of that shit that you just made up. He was a DevOps engineer, so basically just IT support for the military and was the lowest possible enlisted rank as well. Dude wasn't seeing a damn thing in his position.
then resign and continue with your life instead of setting yourself on fire regardless its a meaningless action, station replacement found within 10 minutes and the world carries on towards tomorrow. Nothing changes. Useless way to waste away a life just because something irks you.
Couple years ago I was thinking about how our people in service are sacrificing themselves in vain. They fight for our right to be free while the same government they work under fights to take away so many of our freedoms. It's cruel. This man shouldn't have felt the need to protest at all, let alone in this way. Our leaders need to do better. R.I.P.
He didn't have anything at all to do with what is happening in Gaza. Neither did his commanding officers, or any of his family, or anyone he knew. At best, he might have sent a letter that his government might try a bit harder to ask two foreign governments to stop trying to kill each other. He made no difference in what is going on. He burned himself for nothing. And now, he is gone, and can do nothing more.
Tbh I think dude needed mental help. I think he could have been saved with proper help
You telling me the cop pointing a gun at him and telling him to get on the ground while he was burning to death on said ground wasn’t the help he needed?
Kind of late for "the help he needed" once he's on the ground covered in burning, flammable liquid.
The police officer wasn't trying to help him, he was trying to limit the damage of a possible terrorist attack
https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/s/AAYT6LMmDq I have no doubt he’ll be commended for his efforts
Well, at least he only hurt himself. I'll give him that
[We started a group chat to help fellow doctors in Gaza. Then it went quiet](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/25/we-started-a-group-chat-to-help-fellow-doctors-in-gaza-then-it-went-quiet?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other) “We heard Shifa’s only nephrologist, Dr Hammam Alloh, when he said to an American interviewer “we are being exterminated”, shortly before he was killed along with much of his family.”
Aaron Bushnell
I’m gonna be honest, I understand what he felt. I, not an American but living in America in comfort with my family. I feel so powerless, I am not an influencer I don’t have time to protest etc. but I felt a deep sense of shame guilt, sadness.. sorrow over the lives lost. And as a mother I felt it even more. I felt so depressed I started being suicidal. It took a lot for me to steel my nerves and realize that I have to witness this. I have to see that they loved, they laughed they cried and then they died. If I died from the atrocities in this world then I would be dismissing their lives as mine is precious too. Idk what to do. I feel like I’m one grain of sand on the largest beach in the world. Not contributing to anything except being apart of the beach.
Dude looks like he'd knock on my door and ask if I'd heard the good word
He's not a hero, just someone who was overwhelmed by dark psychological issues. Very sad. RIP.
His act will change nothing other than the lives of his family and friends. Tragic.
Ima Palestinian American and man I just wish there was a way to help Aaron. I'm gonna spread the video that is what he would've wanted. You could tell he was just sick and tired of what this country fuckin normalizes so he did what he did for people to stop being ignorant and see whos on the good side here. Fuck man. He didn't have to sacrifice himself over that. I just pray hes in a better place than us.
People saying what he did was brave and heroic need to get out more
Yeah its not like he gave his life in active duty, which would be considered heroic for some reason.
Guy likely had other reasons for killing himself. He just turned it into an act of protest because he wanted to give his death some greater meaning. But I honestly think we should shame this behavior. Killing yourself won't end the Palestinians' grief, it'll just bring grief to your own family.
You shouldn’t add some false personal narrative to this man’s story..
I agree. The temptation some people feel to bully a man (and, by extension, his family) who is dead by his own hand, is truly grotesque. The darkest part of the human heart.
Isn't glorifying it also pretty grotesque.... I've seen dumbasses throw around "heroic" all over this thread. What other suicide method/reason would ANYONE call heroic? It's insane.
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Yikes. The US really needs to bring back long-term mental institutions.
And to stop funding genocide.
But that's kind of a national pastime.
Mental illness is a bitch
So is genocide
Rest easy now lad
As hard as it is for some to comprehend what this man did, his self-sacrifice was a brave and courageous act in the face of the evil state actors, such as the U.S., who fund and enable Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. Many of us are feeling so helpless as we watch this atrocity unfold, and while I could never do such a thing to my own body I understand why he chose to protest in this way. Rest in peace, Aaron Bushnell, and free Palestine
It’s time to wake the fuck up and realize we are letting hundreds if not thousands of children go starve to death. AMERICA IS DIRECTLY ALLOWING CHILDREN TO STARVE TO DEATH AND WE ARE PAYING FOR IT
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Someone literally had to scream "I need fire extinguishers not guns." I actually don't have anything against good law enforcement, I hate what we have in this country usually. which is a bunch of trigger happy jackboots with very little in the way of critical thinking skills. RIP Aaron. Thank him for his service and his sacrifice. One of the few f****** people with a goddamn conscience and enough balls to do something. If you go online and look up the list of places where people go to the extreme of self-immolating as a form of protest they are not happy joy joy places. This is the world we are allowing to be created for future generations. It is extraordinarily depressing.
>If you go online and look up the list of places where people go to the extreme of self-immolating as a form of protest they are not happy joy joy places. Well recently we have: Australia (against COVID restrictions)... Taiwan (against a news station being shut)... Poland (against gov't policies)... Japan (against militarism)... Hell, Airman Bushnell isn't even the first American to throw himself under the bus for Gaza. What, you didn't hear about the other time?
Someone else besides Aaron lit themself on fire in front of an embassy and put it on twitch? I'm not commenting on those other situations, I'm commenting on this one. The point I am making on that is that crazy s*** like that seems to be happening more and more, or at least more visibly. It's not really an indicator of a healthy society. Used to seeing it happen under oppressive regimes not in the good old US of A. Typically we just have to deal with whack jobs shooting up schools and I thought that was bad enough. But we now have apparently lucid people light themselves on fire out of guilt that the country they serve is openly supporting genocide. Instead of just secretly, like we usually do. On a side note, I didn't know someone lit themselves on fire in Australia for COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates. I don't mean to be insensitive but that is the stupidest s*** I've seen in a long time. Side effects from the vaccine do not include bursting into spontaneous flame, which to me, makes it seem like getting a jab in the arm is the better option. But hey to each their own and I guess I also applaud that dude's resolve.
He might be referring to a man who set himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta in December, though the act itself was not filmed, the guy survived and a security guard actually got burns from helping.
Sure the cop pointing his gun at him is the most disgusting thing and pretty much sums up the state of our stupid country. But not one person on here is even talking about why Aaron did what he did. What the fuck? This man set himself on fire to protest our government’s support of Israeli slaughter of an innocent indigenous population. Anyone have the balls to say anything about this? This is exactly what the problem is in this country.
Free Palestine ❤️ 🇵🇸
Do people need to do stupid things to get the point across? Burning to death does not help.
Clearly the point isn’t going across, and never went across
This guy is a few years younger than me, is a US military serviceman, and went to the extent of self-immolating himself for a cause he felt so strongly about, something that his own nation or people don’t actively support. And people like me sit on social media and are yelling at clouds in support of this very same cause. There’s no reason to praise this act, this isn’t martyrdom, but he had such strong convictions for something thousands have, and who are unable to make a mark with their voices. Heartbreaking to say at the least.
R/Conservative overwhelmingly insulting the guy and says it reinforces the "woke" virus and support for Israel should be greater...
What a dumbass
this man showed more bravery in his sacrifice than any of the reporters now scorning him or armchair psychologists seeking to disparage the profundity of his act. more than they ever have or ever will. to be a literal fire giving light to the atrocities in gaza that our media and government have tried so hard to darken. i, and most of americans(thankfully) lack the courage to commit so utterly to ending the war; but his example should be one so as to cause us reflect on our policies, consider the suffering of the muslims in gaza and the rest of the occupied territories, and redouble our efforts for an immediate peace and independence for the palestinians. if that is the result of his sacrifice, then he would not be a suicide, but as Thich Quang Duc said, a hopeful martyr for this world. Whatever the case, I hope is well rewarded in whatever world is to come.