Surveillance video shows a man setting himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in the US city of Boston.
  • @[email protected]English
    116•2 months ago

    Same poor souls are feeling so hopeless about the genocide that they are burning themself alive. Meanwhile politicians and billionares are laughing and feasting.

    • @[email protected]English
      37•2 months ago

      But we gave Palestine a table to sit at in the UN! /s

      I wonder if the cops threatened this guy with their weapons while he burned to death like they did that other poor soul.

    • @SirDerpyEnglish
      18•2 months ago

      Some poor souls are voting and forgetting. Weep for those who will die prioritizing their comfort over justice.

  • @SirDerpyEnglish
    78•2 months ago

    This is the second third one. Here’s the second:

    On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, died after setting himself on fire outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. Immediately before the act… Bushnell said that he was protesting against “what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers” and declared that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide”

    Source

    • @ObsidianZedEnglish
      44•2 months ago

      OP’s article not only discusses Aaron Bushnell but also points out that this is in fact the third.

      Holding a Palestinian flag, a female protester also self-immolated outside an Israeli consulate building in Atlanta in December, in what US police described as “an extreme act of political protest.”

      • @SirDerpyEnglish
        9•2 months ago

        Edited correction. Thank you.

    • @[email protected]English
      17•2 months ago

      Man, dude burned himself alive and I bet most have already forgot the whole thing. Fucking hell.

    • The Real King GordonEnglish
      9•2 months ago

      The fact there have been two is astounding to me. Im sincerely interested in the psychology behind this. What would lead to this with such a horrific outcome?

      • snooggumsEnglish
        46•2 months ago

        The US being complicit with the genocide of Palestinians led to both…

        • @lepinkainenEnglish
          2•2 months ago

          But suicide by self immolation because of it?

          Why? What drives a person to do that?

          If you’re willing to die for the cause, why not immolate the Israeli consul for example?

          • @PolydoreSmithEnglish
            5•2 months ago

            Because they would be labeled as a terrorist and promptly dismissed. Gandhi wasn’t perfect, but he knew how to get shit done. The US is the most destructive and lethal country in the world, just like Kamala said at the DNC.

            • @lepinkainenEnglish
              1•2 months ago

              Gandhi did non-violent protests.

              He didn’t burn himself alive, nobody would remember him if he did

      • @SirDerpyEnglish
        15•2 months ago

        Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

        When a revolutionary speaks truth and justice to sheep they hate them for it. The sheep want the convenient, short term comfort of bandwagon safety. They’ll readily sacrifice their shallow moral and ethical principles to defend this feeling. They’ll viscously attack all who disturb it.

        Some of us commit our lives to the fight for future lives of dignity. Some communicate with words, some with actions, and many with both. But, words are increasingly meaningless: Our semantic appropriated, reading comprehension taking a nose dive, attention spans less than a minute, human communication itself corrupted in capitalization of technology.

        Aaron Bushnell killed himself to communicate with you. It’s not horrific. It’s what’s necessary.

        And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men … trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love … but they had the strength … the strength … to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly.

      • queermunist she/herEnglish
        -1•2 months ago

        Revolutionaries without a revolution to join. It’s, ultimately, our failure to be get organized.

    • @WhatAmLemmyEnglish
      31•2 months ago

      This kind of protest only works if the political class possess empathy, instead of being the most corrupt and narcissistic puppets the plutocracy can muster.

        • @[email protected]English
          -5•2 months ago

          Problem is the American people being openly in favor of genocide, as long as their team is the one committing the genocide. This includes the “progressives” you find here on lemmy, arguing that it is okay to vote for genocide because the Reps would do more genocide.

          The American people, and many other people in the world (Germany, UK, France…) are complicit.

          • Maeve
            4•2 months ago

            I think it’s meant to shock a few with conscience and borderline consciousness into thinking about it actively, but I could be wrong.

          • @jpreston2005English
            3•2 months ago

            Nobody but republicans are voting for genocide. Everyone with a conscious and brain are voting for the lesser of two evils because that’s the only choice we have. You’re inflammatory BS does nothing but make you seem more fringe, less thoughtful, and therefore easier to ignore.

            • @[email protected]English
              -2•2 months ago

              So who is bypassing congress to deliver bombs to Israel? Is it Trump? I thought Joe Biden is the current president. And Biden kept pushing the fact that he is a staunch Zionist. Also Harris kept talking about supporting Israel, providing a stage for families of Israeli hostages, while denying any Palestinian to speak on stage at the DNC congress.

              However your immediate attack shows exactly the problem. When people have the wrong skin colour or are in the wrong place, American culture is fine with denying them their humanity and human rights. And that is across the political spectrum as you are showing with your comment.

          • CethinEnglish
            1•2 months ago

            Yeah, go ahead and have extra-genocide. I’m sure everyone being harmed appreciates that your maintaining your morals by instead doing nothing.

            In the trolley problem you get a choice to pull the lever or not. Choosing not to is still a choice. In this one you can choose to divert the trolley to kill a fraction of the people, or choose to keep the trolley on course where it’ll kill the people on that other track and a bunch of others. Make your choice. You don’t get out of making a choice by abstaining. That’s still a choice.

      • CethinEnglish
        3•2 months ago

        No, it isn’t for them. It’s to bring attention to the subject and have other people pay attention, and hopefully rise up and demand change. The political class will do what’s convenient. It’s up to everyone else to make the most convenient choice the moral choice.

        Seeing someone choose to die in what must be the most painful way possible indicates there must be some reason they feel so strongly. It then forces anyone paying even a little attention to confront what that reason is (assuming they did their messaging g well). Once they confront it, the hope is that they feel even a fraction of the conviction of these brave people.

        Edit: I want to add, if you feel like taking this extreme action, make sure it’s truly the best option. There are so many ways to make your message heard and I’m doubtful this is the most useful. There are groups who could use your time/knowledge/conviction/money who are trying to creating change.

  • @EtterraEnglish
    7•2 months ago

    Remember when self-emolition was so insane that it hit page 1? Now you barely even hear about it online at all.

    • @lolrightythenEnglish
      17•2 months ago

      I’ll wholeheartedly disagree with that.

      But I still wish it wouldn’t happen

      • @[email protected]English
        0•2 months ago

        It just doesn’t. People who are against it are still against it, people who are in favor of it are still in favor of it

    • queermunist she/herEnglish
      3•2 months ago

      It encourages people who are already opposed to Israel and its genocide to take up more radical actions.