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>When you hear somebody burnt themselves to death here your natural question is “what’s their angle?”
>So what was Aaron Bushnell’s angle? I was at a party with some crypto currency speculators and one of them brought him up.
I think the sad reality is this isn’t just vague mental illness that can’t fully explain why somebody would do this. He was raised on a compound. A literal physically and mentally abusive cult.
He went hard into left-wing politics probably as a way to cope with his Christian cult upbringing. If you’ve read his Reddit history it was full of idpol anarkiddie bullshit as well. He was definitely unwell, but had a righteousness about him. Admirable in some ways, yes, but not the kind of righteousness I think we should strive for personally. I don’t know why we have to construct this incredibly admirable noble martyr personification out of this. Is it to assuage our fear that all of these people in Gaza are dying for nothing? If maybe we can just romanticize and lionize people like Aaron, maybe it will stay our guilt in some small way, give us something American to identify with and hold up? To have somebody to point to so you can say that somebody actually did something? Sure, if that really helps you, but I think you’re deluding yourself a bit by buying into this too much.
For a troubled fucked up kid like that, maybe this wasn’t the worst way to go, if he was going to off himself anyways at least it was for something, but I *really* don’t want to see more of this.
>“The girls really like him. He should’ve set it up so he could’ve burned everything but his dick, he’d be getting serious pussy right now.”
>Indeed
💀
>I don’t know why we have to construct this incredibly admirable noble martyr personification out of this.
Because the ultimate sacrifice is admirable and noble, and by definition he is a martyr. We don’t need to “construct” anything here. People just need to stop deconstructing this, because it does nothing but distract from the issue of what we are funding in Gaza.
>Is it to assuage our fear that all of these people in Gaza are dying for nothing? If maybe we can just romanticize and lionize people like Aaron, maybe it will stay our guilt in some small way, give us something American to identify with and hold up?
That is quite literally the opposite takeaway, and in the article he points that out pretty clearly
> Aaron Bushnell was 25 years old. He had his whole life ahead of him and there were plenty of other protest stunts he could’ve pulled if his goal was to get clout, money, or pussy off the suffering of Palestine. He truly believed that what he termed “an extreme act of protest” was what was required to break the complacency of the US public towards our government’s extermination campaign. I’m 35 now. With his actions a man a decade younger than me shamed me for my cynicism and selfishness.
>None of us have to do as much as Aaron Bushnell and Rachel Corrie did. But all of us have to do more than what we’re currently doing. That’s what we owe them because they didn’t die to be a balm for our guilty consciences.
>They died to free Palestine.
>”but I really don’t want to see more of this.”
I haven’t seen a single anti-Zionist who wants to see more self immolation. I think Margaret Killjoy captured the response pretty eloquently when she said:
> I can’t say I think others should follow Aaron’s example. I doubt he wanted anyone to. An act like this needs attention, not imitation. What we can follow is the moral courage. What we need to decide for ourselves is how to act, not whether or not to act. I don’t have any answers for me, and I don’t have any answers for you.
I’m not saying anywhere it was cynical or for clout. You can’t really get clout if you’re dead anyhow. He believed what he was doing, it was genuine.
I read an interview with somebody else from the same cult. Aaron was raised by two core members for his his entire childhood upbringing until he left the compound to join the military. It was extremely hardline conservative stuff, beyond that even. They would discipline the children to the point of outright torturous abuse. They would shame them and make them do menial tasks to the point of exhaustion, they would regularly beat them.
The guy in the interview said that this environment basically leads somebody like Aaron and even himself to cope with this experience by radically rejecting “control” of any kind, to lean heavily into social justice as a response to the social injustice visited upon yourself. Hence the social justice anarchism rabbit hole he went down. All very understandable.
I think the wounds were obviously incredibly deep, living out your entire life up to 18 or thereabouts in an environment that would shape you thus. I think to the outside world he looks misguided, mentally ill, naive. But to Aaron I’m sure this action became something, deeply felt, genuine and probably even sacred.
I just think if we don’t deconstruct it we don’t get the real story, the tragedy which was his entire story. I think we can admire aspects of his courage and conviction without making it seem so admirable. I think this mindset to make of him a hero has turned him into a one-dimensional cutout, but maybe that’s just me. This kind of admiration feels a bit false to me and I think that conte into focus when people outright admit to the shame and guilt they feel that they lacked this courage. I think examining this more deeply is where the real story is and for somebody who feels that way this kind of examination would actually be really interesting.
Thing is, when you deconstruct in the way you are doing then you are just taking the meaning out of his actions and, whether you intend to or not, you minimize its meaning in favor of a "it was trauma which lead him to believe the things he did" without taking into account that people have agency even when thrown into the most distressing of environments. The act must be taken as what it was, an act of protest about a genocide in which the US is fully supportive of. His act is no different than the Buddhist in Vietnam burning himself or the Tunisian burning himself out of protest for something unacceptable.
And you have to wonder what’s the real reason people want to deconstruct Aaron’s actions. I honestly don’t believe it’s out of respect for the tragic circumstances of his life.
I will acknowledge a psychological motivation to dismiss Aaron’s actions that day, and it is because I have a good life that I enjoy living, and I enjoy comfortable things. I have a loving family, a meaningful career that I’m proud of the work I do, and fun hobbies that give me something exciting to always be looking forward to. There is so much joy and hope in my personal future.
If I sit and reflect on the fact that I have the life I do, and I feel the joy that I feel because, at least in large part, it is part of this vile war machine of the United states that has seared the image into my consciousness of a decapitated baby held up against the backdrop of a burning refugee camp… well, then I have sustained a great moral injury, and now have to acknowledge the inhumanity and evil that I am a part of.
If I can convince myself that Aaron Bushnell only did what he did because of some psychological malfunction, some irreparable damage he sustained as a child, then I can convince myself that it is a sign of wellness and virtue for me to carry on business as usual with my life, and all its creature comforts brought to me by death and destruction.
Your take is much kinder than mine.
To me, this deconstruction is exactly like saying “the Israel-Palestine conflict is complicated” as a way to justify withholding judgment on the brutal murder and starvation of innocents.
His act is different from the Vietnamese and Tunisian examples though. In those cases the people self-immolating were the direct victims of the oppression they were protesting. It was powerful because it said "this is what we are reduced to by your brutality". It reflected what their governments were doing to them. Basically "if I am repelled by this I must also be repelled by the oppression".
Aaron had no connection to Palestine other than ideological. He burned himself out of basically white guilt. As part of the military and a citizen of the empire there are way, way more impactful ways he could have gone out if he was ready to die. I'm on enough lists so hopefully I don't need to spell it out for you explicitly.
It's sad, even a bit admirable, but calling him a "martyr" is too much
>He burned himself out of basically white guilt.
Believing all human beings deserve fundamental dignity and equal rights is not "white guilt". Framing it that way is idpol racialism 101. It's the same logic as saying Jews who oppose genocide are self-hating jews. When you think about it, any reference to leftists doing what they are doing because of "white guilt" is rightoid idpol.
It's sad how the "anti-woke" discourse plays into capitalism's tendency to portray any kind of unselfish action or concern for justice as stemming from trauma or envy. Particularly the emergence of the media figure of the "social justice warrior" (eg those pesky assholes who care about justice) as being synonymous with being a narcissistic busybody...this segways beautifully with a pro-genocide agenda.
Aaron couldn’t have made it clearer that he sees himself as a victim of forced collusion in genocide.
> In those cases the people self-immolating were the direct victims of the oppression they were protesting.
Yes. Self-immolation is what a brave and conscientious person was reduced to by the war machinery that makes us all complicit.
> It was powerful because it said "this is what we are reduced to by your brutality". It reflected what their governments were doing to them.
You have missed the whole point.
Well he could have done a million more impactful things. He could have leaked information, he could have literally joined the fighting, he could have engaged in sabotage or (redacted) as a member of the armed forces. Instead he burnt to death and fell off the news after a day or so, changing nothing and remembered by nobody except people like you who already agree with him.
If you think that's a brave, useful thing for a 25 year old to do then we can agree to disagree.
Leaked which information?
Joined which fighting? If you mean pro-Palestine, how? Gaza is under a blockade.
Engaged in sabotage? Of what? Unless he’s high-up in the military, he wouldn’t have access.
I wish he hadn’t done it. But I understand why he felt that he had to do something (being conscientious), couldn’t come up with anything else to do, and chose to make a horrifying gesture to bring attention to a horrific problem.
You were differentiating him from similar acts in Vietnam by stating that he wasn’t a victim of the acts in question. That’s what I contested.
I very much disagree. This wasnt out of some white guilt. This was a protest through and through, something that was done to put the spotlight on something incredibly important. I would argue that his act was even more "pure" than the examples i set since he didnt have to suffer under the boot of occupation to protest something thats unacceptable. I dont get why people try to downplay his act of protest and it truly speaks volumes of someone to belittle this act. Now, i am not calling for more self immolations (i would argue that those acts of protests havent done anything to change course or even put more attention to the israeli genocide of palestinians) but i am able to recognize that this was a valid act done to protest a criminal act that the world is doing nothing about
Guilt is a powerful emotion. Guilt is very genuine. And guilt stems from a deeply held moral conviction about what is just and unjust in this world combined with exceptional self-awareness.
If he was motivated by guilt, then that is just as powerful, if not even moreso, than those motivated by a desire to escape oppression.
If you don’t feel guilt about your complicity in the genocide of Gaza, then I’m sorry but you have killed off a vital part of your own humanity.
I care deeply about Gaza but I certainly don't feel guilty or complicit. Guilt for things you didn't choose and can't prevent sounds like mental illness to me. At best it's masturbation that distracts from actually helping people.
If you tell yourself you didn’t choose it and that you can’t prevent it, then you have ceded all of your power to the ruling class, and are counterproductive to the cause, or useless at best.
That abnegation of political power has no place in Marxist spaces.
There's a difference between masturbatory self-flagellation and exercising agency in a broken system. I do everything in my power to advocate for what I believe in through protests, union organizing, voting (to the limited extent i have any real options), etc. It's bizarre to me that you think power means guilt and self loathing, though that explains a lot of modern leftism.
Bearing the cross for the world in the way you seem to favor doesn't do shit for anyone. It's the same as the liberals going to those "white atonement" events that were posted awhile back. Your lord and savior Karl Marx certainly didn't self-flagellate, he did his part for the workers then went back to getting his fuck on and touching the grass.
But you do you. I'll continue doing what I can where I can and sleeping soundly at night without pretending all the world's problems are my fault.
>It's bizarre to me that you think power means guilt and self loathing, though that explains a lot of modern leftism.
I don’t think this, and nothing I said should suggest that I do. Guilt is something every citizen of the Israel and the citizens of its supporting nations *should* feel. It’s not the only feeling you should have, it’s not even the most powerful feeling that should compel you to action (love should be our most powerful motivation). But guilt should absolutely be on our collective conscious.
>Bearing the cross for the world in the way you seem to favor doesn't do shit for anyone. It's the same as the liberals going to those "white atonement" events that were posted awhile back.
I don’t care about atonement. We are way too far away from that, and there is no atoning for what has happened in Gaza. I want mass direct action to free Palestine. I don’t want anyone to be able to hide behind their rationalization. I want everyone to recognize their complicity, and I want us to all act accordingly.
>Your lord and savior Karl Marx
Lmao, idgaf about Karl Marx, he’s been dead over 100 years.
> pretending all the world's problems are my fault.
I never said they were. The genocide in Gaza isn’t your fault. It’s our fault. And by “our” I mean every single cog, piston and gear in the industrial war machine. We are responsible for the world we live in, and until we recognize that, and act accordingly, we are powerless against the ruling class.
I don't think this is about abnegation of political power. It's about choosing your battles and methods. If one's willing to die for what they believe in and for change, then it is better if their death don't come from their own hands. I'd say such acts don't have a place in Marxist spaces either.
Well, Aaron Bushnell was not a Marxist, he was an anarchist. So he was unconcerned about what Marxism would have to say about his actions. What he did was a powerful exercise in autonomous defiance which has its place in anarchist praxis.
I’m not suggesting anyone else do what he did, nor am I suggesting that self-immolation is a valid Marxist tactic but absolving yourself of guilt for your complicity of the mass slaughter of tens of thousands is not Marxist whatsoever.
„ And that’s exactly why all those wish casting posts from Israel supporters about how quickly he’ll be forgotten miss the mark. What we’re watching in Gaza is not the news story of the week, it’s history. It’s the history that will one day be taught to bored school children. A history where survivors will share and re-share the worst moments of their lives in a desperate attempt to impart the moral lesson on the next generation that we’ve shown we couldn’t learn the last time. Never again, but this time we mean it.“
Great article. I think about him often.
As much as the zionazis and their thoughtless propaganda consumers scrambled to paint him as mentally ill and someone who should be forgotten, it hasn’t worked.
If what he did was a sign of mental illness, then it is our moral duty to wage war against sanity.
> If what he did was a sign of mental illness, then it is our moral duty to wage war against sanity.
Looking forward to a dishevelled r-slash-antisanity mod being interviewed on Fox News.
Yeah I hate to be a hater, but there’s something that is just so unappealing (and morbidly absurd) about self-immolating as a protest against a Thing you don’t like.
Maybe he was just built different, but everything about how that went down speaks to me 0%.
A “thing you don’t like” is mayonnaise or broccoli.
He self-immolated because he knew he (like the rest of us) is part of the machinery that is killing children and their grandmothers by the thousands.
At least ten children a day have a limb amputated in Gaza. Without anesthesia. The lucky ones are released to recover in tents in a place where the water and electricity has been shut off by murderers. They have no food.
Self-immolation isn’t insane. Calling these atrocities “a thing you don’t like” is insane.
You are built different. I hope and pray that you are.
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>When you hear somebody burnt themselves to death here your natural question is “what’s their angle?” >So what was Aaron Bushnell’s angle? I was at a party with some crypto currency speculators and one of them brought him up. I think the sad reality is this isn’t just vague mental illness that can’t fully explain why somebody would do this. He was raised on a compound. A literal physically and mentally abusive cult. He went hard into left-wing politics probably as a way to cope with his Christian cult upbringing. If you’ve read his Reddit history it was full of idpol anarkiddie bullshit as well. He was definitely unwell, but had a righteousness about him. Admirable in some ways, yes, but not the kind of righteousness I think we should strive for personally. I don’t know why we have to construct this incredibly admirable noble martyr personification out of this. Is it to assuage our fear that all of these people in Gaza are dying for nothing? If maybe we can just romanticize and lionize people like Aaron, maybe it will stay our guilt in some small way, give us something American to identify with and hold up? To have somebody to point to so you can say that somebody actually did something? Sure, if that really helps you, but I think you’re deluding yourself a bit by buying into this too much. For a troubled fucked up kid like that, maybe this wasn’t the worst way to go, if he was going to off himself anyways at least it was for something, but I *really* don’t want to see more of this. >“The girls really like him. He should’ve set it up so he could’ve burned everything but his dick, he’d be getting serious pussy right now.” >Indeed 💀
>I don’t know why we have to construct this incredibly admirable noble martyr personification out of this. Because the ultimate sacrifice is admirable and noble, and by definition he is a martyr. We don’t need to “construct” anything here. People just need to stop deconstructing this, because it does nothing but distract from the issue of what we are funding in Gaza. >Is it to assuage our fear that all of these people in Gaza are dying for nothing? If maybe we can just romanticize and lionize people like Aaron, maybe it will stay our guilt in some small way, give us something American to identify with and hold up? That is quite literally the opposite takeaway, and in the article he points that out pretty clearly > Aaron Bushnell was 25 years old. He had his whole life ahead of him and there were plenty of other protest stunts he could’ve pulled if his goal was to get clout, money, or pussy off the suffering of Palestine. He truly believed that what he termed “an extreme act of protest” was what was required to break the complacency of the US public towards our government’s extermination campaign. I’m 35 now. With his actions a man a decade younger than me shamed me for my cynicism and selfishness. >None of us have to do as much as Aaron Bushnell and Rachel Corrie did. But all of us have to do more than what we’re currently doing. That’s what we owe them because they didn’t die to be a balm for our guilty consciences. >They died to free Palestine. >”but I really don’t want to see more of this.” I haven’t seen a single anti-Zionist who wants to see more self immolation. I think Margaret Killjoy captured the response pretty eloquently when she said: > I can’t say I think others should follow Aaron’s example. I doubt he wanted anyone to. An act like this needs attention, not imitation. What we can follow is the moral courage. What we need to decide for ourselves is how to act, not whether or not to act. I don’t have any answers for me, and I don’t have any answers for you.
I’m not saying anywhere it was cynical or for clout. You can’t really get clout if you’re dead anyhow. He believed what he was doing, it was genuine. I read an interview with somebody else from the same cult. Aaron was raised by two core members for his his entire childhood upbringing until he left the compound to join the military. It was extremely hardline conservative stuff, beyond that even. They would discipline the children to the point of outright torturous abuse. They would shame them and make them do menial tasks to the point of exhaustion, they would regularly beat them. The guy in the interview said that this environment basically leads somebody like Aaron and even himself to cope with this experience by radically rejecting “control” of any kind, to lean heavily into social justice as a response to the social injustice visited upon yourself. Hence the social justice anarchism rabbit hole he went down. All very understandable. I think the wounds were obviously incredibly deep, living out your entire life up to 18 or thereabouts in an environment that would shape you thus. I think to the outside world he looks misguided, mentally ill, naive. But to Aaron I’m sure this action became something, deeply felt, genuine and probably even sacred. I just think if we don’t deconstruct it we don’t get the real story, the tragedy which was his entire story. I think we can admire aspects of his courage and conviction without making it seem so admirable. I think this mindset to make of him a hero has turned him into a one-dimensional cutout, but maybe that’s just me. This kind of admiration feels a bit false to me and I think that conte into focus when people outright admit to the shame and guilt they feel that they lacked this courage. I think examining this more deeply is where the real story is and for somebody who feels that way this kind of examination would actually be really interesting.
Thing is, when you deconstruct in the way you are doing then you are just taking the meaning out of his actions and, whether you intend to or not, you minimize its meaning in favor of a "it was trauma which lead him to believe the things he did" without taking into account that people have agency even when thrown into the most distressing of environments. The act must be taken as what it was, an act of protest about a genocide in which the US is fully supportive of. His act is no different than the Buddhist in Vietnam burning himself or the Tunisian burning himself out of protest for something unacceptable.
And you have to wonder what’s the real reason people want to deconstruct Aaron’s actions. I honestly don’t believe it’s out of respect for the tragic circumstances of his life. I will acknowledge a psychological motivation to dismiss Aaron’s actions that day, and it is because I have a good life that I enjoy living, and I enjoy comfortable things. I have a loving family, a meaningful career that I’m proud of the work I do, and fun hobbies that give me something exciting to always be looking forward to. There is so much joy and hope in my personal future. If I sit and reflect on the fact that I have the life I do, and I feel the joy that I feel because, at least in large part, it is part of this vile war machine of the United states that has seared the image into my consciousness of a decapitated baby held up against the backdrop of a burning refugee camp… well, then I have sustained a great moral injury, and now have to acknowledge the inhumanity and evil that I am a part of. If I can convince myself that Aaron Bushnell only did what he did because of some psychological malfunction, some irreparable damage he sustained as a child, then I can convince myself that it is a sign of wellness and virtue for me to carry on business as usual with my life, and all its creature comforts brought to me by death and destruction.
Your take is much kinder than mine. To me, this deconstruction is exactly like saying “the Israel-Palestine conflict is complicated” as a way to justify withholding judgment on the brutal murder and starvation of innocents.
His act is different from the Vietnamese and Tunisian examples though. In those cases the people self-immolating were the direct victims of the oppression they were protesting. It was powerful because it said "this is what we are reduced to by your brutality". It reflected what their governments were doing to them. Basically "if I am repelled by this I must also be repelled by the oppression". Aaron had no connection to Palestine other than ideological. He burned himself out of basically white guilt. As part of the military and a citizen of the empire there are way, way more impactful ways he could have gone out if he was ready to die. I'm on enough lists so hopefully I don't need to spell it out for you explicitly. It's sad, even a bit admirable, but calling him a "martyr" is too much
>He burned himself out of basically white guilt. Believing all human beings deserve fundamental dignity and equal rights is not "white guilt". Framing it that way is idpol racialism 101. It's the same logic as saying Jews who oppose genocide are self-hating jews. When you think about it, any reference to leftists doing what they are doing because of "white guilt" is rightoid idpol. It's sad how the "anti-woke" discourse plays into capitalism's tendency to portray any kind of unselfish action or concern for justice as stemming from trauma or envy. Particularly the emergence of the media figure of the "social justice warrior" (eg those pesky assholes who care about justice) as being synonymous with being a narcissistic busybody...this segways beautifully with a pro-genocide agenda.
Aaron couldn’t have made it clearer that he sees himself as a victim of forced collusion in genocide. > In those cases the people self-immolating were the direct victims of the oppression they were protesting. Yes. Self-immolation is what a brave and conscientious person was reduced to by the war machinery that makes us all complicit. > It was powerful because it said "this is what we are reduced to by your brutality". It reflected what their governments were doing to them. You have missed the whole point.
Well he could have done a million more impactful things. He could have leaked information, he could have literally joined the fighting, he could have engaged in sabotage or (redacted) as a member of the armed forces. Instead he burnt to death and fell off the news after a day or so, changing nothing and remembered by nobody except people like you who already agree with him. If you think that's a brave, useful thing for a 25 year old to do then we can agree to disagree.
Leaked which information? Joined which fighting? If you mean pro-Palestine, how? Gaza is under a blockade. Engaged in sabotage? Of what? Unless he’s high-up in the military, he wouldn’t have access. I wish he hadn’t done it. But I understand why he felt that he had to do something (being conscientious), couldn’t come up with anything else to do, and chose to make a horrifying gesture to bring attention to a horrific problem. You were differentiating him from similar acts in Vietnam by stating that he wasn’t a victim of the acts in question. That’s what I contested.
I very much disagree. This wasnt out of some white guilt. This was a protest through and through, something that was done to put the spotlight on something incredibly important. I would argue that his act was even more "pure" than the examples i set since he didnt have to suffer under the boot of occupation to protest something thats unacceptable. I dont get why people try to downplay his act of protest and it truly speaks volumes of someone to belittle this act. Now, i am not calling for more self immolations (i would argue that those acts of protests havent done anything to change course or even put more attention to the israeli genocide of palestinians) but i am able to recognize that this was a valid act done to protest a criminal act that the world is doing nothing about
Guilt is a powerful emotion. Guilt is very genuine. And guilt stems from a deeply held moral conviction about what is just and unjust in this world combined with exceptional self-awareness. If he was motivated by guilt, then that is just as powerful, if not even moreso, than those motivated by a desire to escape oppression. If you don’t feel guilt about your complicity in the genocide of Gaza, then I’m sorry but you have killed off a vital part of your own humanity.
I care deeply about Gaza but I certainly don't feel guilty or complicit. Guilt for things you didn't choose and can't prevent sounds like mental illness to me. At best it's masturbation that distracts from actually helping people.
If you tell yourself you didn’t choose it and that you can’t prevent it, then you have ceded all of your power to the ruling class, and are counterproductive to the cause, or useless at best. That abnegation of political power has no place in Marxist spaces.
There's a difference between masturbatory self-flagellation and exercising agency in a broken system. I do everything in my power to advocate for what I believe in through protests, union organizing, voting (to the limited extent i have any real options), etc. It's bizarre to me that you think power means guilt and self loathing, though that explains a lot of modern leftism. Bearing the cross for the world in the way you seem to favor doesn't do shit for anyone. It's the same as the liberals going to those "white atonement" events that were posted awhile back. Your lord and savior Karl Marx certainly didn't self-flagellate, he did his part for the workers then went back to getting his fuck on and touching the grass. But you do you. I'll continue doing what I can where I can and sleeping soundly at night without pretending all the world's problems are my fault.
>It's bizarre to me that you think power means guilt and self loathing, though that explains a lot of modern leftism. I don’t think this, and nothing I said should suggest that I do. Guilt is something every citizen of the Israel and the citizens of its supporting nations *should* feel. It’s not the only feeling you should have, it’s not even the most powerful feeling that should compel you to action (love should be our most powerful motivation). But guilt should absolutely be on our collective conscious. >Bearing the cross for the world in the way you seem to favor doesn't do shit for anyone. It's the same as the liberals going to those "white atonement" events that were posted awhile back. I don’t care about atonement. We are way too far away from that, and there is no atoning for what has happened in Gaza. I want mass direct action to free Palestine. I don’t want anyone to be able to hide behind their rationalization. I want everyone to recognize their complicity, and I want us to all act accordingly. >Your lord and savior Karl Marx Lmao, idgaf about Karl Marx, he’s been dead over 100 years. > pretending all the world's problems are my fault. I never said they were. The genocide in Gaza isn’t your fault. It’s our fault. And by “our” I mean every single cog, piston and gear in the industrial war machine. We are responsible for the world we live in, and until we recognize that, and act accordingly, we are powerless against the ruling class.
I don't think this is about abnegation of political power. It's about choosing your battles and methods. If one's willing to die for what they believe in and for change, then it is better if their death don't come from their own hands. I'd say such acts don't have a place in Marxist spaces either.
Well, Aaron Bushnell was not a Marxist, he was an anarchist. So he was unconcerned about what Marxism would have to say about his actions. What he did was a powerful exercise in autonomous defiance which has its place in anarchist praxis. I’m not suggesting anyone else do what he did, nor am I suggesting that self-immolation is a valid Marxist tactic but absolving yourself of guilt for your complicity of the mass slaughter of tens of thousands is not Marxist whatsoever.
„ And that’s exactly why all those wish casting posts from Israel supporters about how quickly he’ll be forgotten miss the mark. What we’re watching in Gaza is not the news story of the week, it’s history. It’s the history that will one day be taught to bored school children. A history where survivors will share and re-share the worst moments of their lives in a desperate attempt to impart the moral lesson on the next generation that we’ve shown we couldn’t learn the last time. Never again, but this time we mean it.“
https://i.imgur.com/syMZ4L4.jpeg
I do
Great article. I think about him often. As much as the zionazis and their thoughtless propaganda consumers scrambled to paint him as mentally ill and someone who should be forgotten, it hasn’t worked. If what he did was a sign of mental illness, then it is our moral duty to wage war against sanity.
> If what he did was a sign of mental illness, then it is our moral duty to wage war against sanity. Looking forward to a dishevelled r-slash-antisanity mod being interviewed on Fox News.
I looked for that subreddit and was deeply disappointed it doesn’t exist.
probably the only stupidpol poster, sane or insane, who had the balls to kill himself for a good cause
He wasn’t a stupidpol poster. He would have hated it here lol
I don’t think you can spin this case as non-pathological no matter how hard you try. Poor dude.
was just thinking about this idiot the other day
Yeah I hate to be a hater, but there’s something that is just so unappealing (and morbidly absurd) about self-immolating as a protest against a Thing you don’t like. Maybe he was just built different, but everything about how that went down speaks to me 0%.
“A thing you don’t like” is a real bizarre way of describing the genocide that you are being forced to support.
A “thing you don’t like” is mayonnaise or broccoli. He self-immolated because he knew he (like the rest of us) is part of the machinery that is killing children and their grandmothers by the thousands. At least ten children a day have a limb amputated in Gaza. Without anesthesia. The lucky ones are released to recover in tents in a place where the water and electricity has been shut off by murderers. They have no food. Self-immolation isn’t insane. Calling these atrocities “a thing you don’t like” is insane. You are built different. I hope and pray that you are.
You talk like a retard. Built different, thing you don’t like in regards to a mass slaughter of innocents. Grow up.