Aaron Bushnell death was in vain. His life wasted at his own hands. I pray for his family and friends as they have to live on without him in their lives. Sadly he had potential to do more, but he wasted that potential on a social media app that is run by the Chinese Communist Party.
Like many thing Social Media can be used for good and bad things. The dopamine rush you get from "likes" and "follows" is only a symptomatic response to a deeper psychological pathology.
Mr. Aaron Bushnell's break with reality was a threat. Unknown at the time: was he alone? Were secondary attackers involved? Was the security officer contemplating shooting Bushnell to put him out of his self inflicted pain? So many unknowns going on at the moment.
If the guard wanted to ensure tho that there aren't any accomplices he would've looked around. Dude was solely fixated on that dead burning dude on the floor tho.
You don't look around for other threats by focusing on a dead burning dude on the floor. You look around, scan the environment and don't tunnel vision on a corpse on the floor.
A mercy kill - even if he wanted to do it - wouldn't have been an option anyway.
That's easy for us to say in our cushy armchairs. We need to have some humility and acknowledge we were not there, we are not in the same frame of mind, we are not that person. I have been through some insane high-stress high-adrenaline situations, I know what it's like, I know how incredibly difficult it is to think clearly. I've even done a significant amount of study on how the brain works in situations like that, it is incredibly complex and involves things like sensory exclusion, false memories, hallucinated events, false perception of distance, slowed perception of time, etc. You are not yourself, you do not operate logically, you do not think clearly (ironically these situations are when you need to be at your sharpest). It's ok to say "I don't know".
Idk dude but that answer seems just downright manipulative. "Agree with me or you don't know". BUT: I don't really wanna engage that too much cause it was just meant as a comment on the side and it's not really the point of the video anyway. The point of the video is that this man was led into lighting himself on fire due to social media radicalizing him and in general it is a very real problem that everyone faces to some degree. Echo chambers on Social Media only reinforcing certain beliefs and therefore making people in general more radical. Sure, in most cases people don't light themselves on fire but we do see an overall shift in the debate culture to a WAY more aggressive behavior where the focus is on demonizing others and making accusations that are as outrageous as possible.
Imo social Media needs way more rules that prevent it from creating these echo chambers. Especially now that we get generations of people who grow up with this stuff and this way of spreading information and arguing.
I have no idea where you got that idea but whatever dude. Regardless my point still stands, you weren't there so you can't understand why he was pointing a gun at him, just as you can't understand why they fumbled the fire extinguishers so much, people operate completely differently under emergency situations, and I'm just asking you to recognize that. Yes it makes no sense, but that's what happens and you probably would have done the exact same thing. I agree with you on every other point though.
No we weren't there and no, we will never know for sure what he was thinking but the balance of probabilities, based on experience and so forth, would suggest he was in a state of shock and fell back on his training. As I was once told; when the shit hits the fan we like to think we will rise to the occasion but usually we just fall back to the level of our training. I would say self immolation and how to handle it were not in his training course. Same reason we sometimes freeze when confronted with an unusual situation; we need time to process it and decide what to do. Which is why training often relies on repetitive drills that will kick in under pressure, providing the appropriate drill has been taught, of course.
You know as I said I don't wanna drag this out too much because the point of the whole video is really something else but I'd like to explain to you what I mean with "it seems manipulative" cause I think it could be useful for you in the future.
Basically all of the things you said I pretty much agree on. We weren't in their shoes in that situation, everyone is different, situation very unusual etc. I all agree on this. The one problem where it goes south is this little sentence at the end: It's ok to say "I don't know"
It seems mundane but this statement carries a lot of weight because it shifts the whole tone from simply trying to explain why the guy acted the way he did to trying to explain but also saying that if someone doesn't agree on the explanation, they most likely simply have no clue what they're talking about. And aside from being condescending and also arrogant it also carries a lot of assumption with it (which in turn also contributes to it being arrogant). You don't know what I have experienced and how I handled those situations. But you immediately make a statement that carries a very negative assumption about my knowledge, abilities etc. This will cause you a lot of trouble in future discussions as well because it shifts the tone from a more productive exchange of positions, ideas and arguments into one of condescension. You know what I mean? It seems subtle because overall the tone remains civil, but it still carries a very "downlooking" attittude with it. And you know, as people are, they will not take this positively. Personally I catch myself again and again being overly confrontative in discussions and in retrospect I then think "Wow, was it really necessary to reply this way? This could've probably been way more civil had I replied less angry".
So TL:DR: try to leave out statements that are assumptious, "accusatory" etc. They might seem innocent enough but quite often those seemingly little statements are what sour discussions. I've gotten better at leaving it out but time and time again I do it.
As far as I see it, on the remaining aspects we do agree tho.
Ya, I have no idea what was going through that officer’s head. Was it shock? Then he just went through the motions of his training? Who’s to say how anyone would act the 1st they witnessed something like this unexpectedly and up close.
Are people just crazy oblivious to the situation? OF COURSE he had his weapon out and trained on this guy. The officer was rightfully concerned that the guy may very well have run into a bunch of bystanders — intentionally or not — and burnt or otherwise harmed them too. It was the offcier’s duty to protect others and himself. If the guy was delusional enough to do this who knows what else he was deluded enough to do
Security guard pointing a gun at a possible threat - justified. You're distracted by a peripheral point, instead focus on the protest reason. ie +25k dead brown Muslims at the hands of the IDF w/ American approval.
Mental stability tests require leadership that recognized the value of determining if someone is fit to be of service to the nation. Fit to be issued a weapon and training, to be qualified to use nuclear weapons, to hold national security secrets, to be loyal to their companions, their officers, their nation. We have not seen those values displayed for a long time now.
We'd have to ask how trans individuals are allowed to get into the services. What would they fight for? More LGBT-alphabets to get in? Operations that remove them from serving for extended periods of their enlistments? Special treatment and benefits that others cannot claim?
How does this qualify for service in defense of the nation? The former qualification tests relied on a common set of values and a sense of morality that does not seem present in today's society and therefore the military.
The next question would be will they defend us, ignore attacks or surrender?
When there is a new president in The White House such as Trump or JFK, Jr. Tick-Tok, which clearly is a Chinese psy-op will, and should be, outlawed. It speaks volumes that it already illegal to use in many federal and state owned devices. Plus, Tic-Tok is illegal to use in China which speaks volumes
So this kid burning himself to death leads you to… Wishing for a Treasonous Insurrectionist and Life Long Pathological Lying Con Man to be President??? Or Conspiracy Theory Spreading Anti-Vaxer whose family has disowned him?
That is a reach. But more people wanting to “Hang Mike Pence!” for Not going along with the Treasonous Lie will definitely be more likely👍
Not trying to battle you or anything but freedom doesn’t come with all positives. First amendment to post and view TikTok? Now I have authoritarian control over what I feel they are not allowed to do, like have access to a mindless marketing app like TikTok.
Americans have two levels of freedom parental and adult. There are those that would say a president, governor, mayor have no right to tell an American they cannot see or talk about what is not restricted by a federal security clearance.
TikTok is an information-gathering Trojan Horse app disguised as entertainment videos. Being ignorant of that fact, a good portion of the US is willingly turning over all their personal information to the CCP, who clearly wants us gone. It's not an attempt to kill your fun. We just don't think it's smart to give all your personal information to a government actively pursuing viruses that only attack certain races. TikTok is already banned for anyone in the government save for those stupid enough to put out question and answer posts during the Super Bowl.
His mantra words are typical words used by college professors intent on inserting one sided ideology. Brainwashing is now standard practice at USA and Canadian universities. Students are not taught to think they are indoctrinated. BTW who filmed and uploaded the suicide, or was it fed live to public space?
A healthy person would make an effort to learn about an issue. The mentally not well will latch onto an identity or ideology in a fanatical way. On the “Gaza” issue you can analyze almost any talking point and discover distortion of non subjective information immediately. I was taught to separate subjective from objective information and to ensure my subjective feelings were informed by the facts. Goebbels was a master at twisting information to appeal to instincts. He identified perceived humiliation as the best path to fanatical / suicidal motivation. Also appealing to primitive instincts such as reproduction (they rape the women and kill the children), resources (they take our water and land). My old professor called Goebbels “the father of Madison Avenue “ (modern advertising). You sell beer, cigarettes, cars, not on facts but on identity and emotion. For example Bud Light. It’s not how it tastes it’s how it links you to a group / tribe. I hate to say it but almost every person I meet younger than 50 has poor analytical thinking skills and just parrots what their media choice tells them to. The Gaza thing is very stark. Almost none of the claims made withstand any research so the proponents fall back on rage. 😤
Might be time for social media to add a lag and promise to block suicides, terrorist attacks, murders, etc. If seeking attention is a motive, take away the motive.
As Ryan would say, it's a dilemma for social media companies, and more so for Twitch which is the home of "live streaming". Their entire business model is built on people live streaming, and typically interacting with viewers in real time. In February, they've already hosted almost 68-million HOURS of live streams (2.6-million hours per day or an average of 108,540 concurrent streams).
Even if some sort of human moderation was adopted, how long would a stream need to be watched before the moderator could "sign off" on the video and let it continue or end the stream? Using machine learning (sorry, old word for AI), I'm sure that some sort of automated streaming could identify and stop streams when something "bad" is about to happen, but I'm sure that we're a long way away from that level of automated decision-making (e.g., determining real flames from CGI in which no-one was actually injured in a video being live streamed)...
Most live streams are innocuous at best, and some are useful (historic events, rocket launches, solar eclipses, etc.). As with just about anything, a few ruin things for the rest of us...
I feel sorry for his family who now must carry the weight of his decisions the rest of their lives.
Unfortunately, the live steaming genie is out of Pandora's box and will be with us forever.
Oh please, I highly doubt there will a rush of people setting themselves on fire for any reason. There aren't enough drugs in the world to offset the discomfort of such an act.
Maybe but when it comes to America, nothing out of there surprises me, sadly. I love vacationing there, have served alongside some of the best people in the world from there but live in the US? Not unless I was armed to the teeth and had a very tidy private income.
This kid was a foolish tool. As you said Ryan, other foolish tools will take this as an example to make themselves famous. Tough way to go. Also, the cop or security person continuing to point his pistol at any time past when the first fire extinguisher was being used, was a stupid and unnecessary act on his part. The police sergeant wandering back and forth should have told him to holster up. I was a police supervisor and I have in the past ordered officers to holster up when gun pointing was no longer appropriate. Plus whoever was yelling for the human torch to get on the ground was wasting his breath. Just wait a minute, he'll be on the ground. Someone was in a panic state methinks.
Speaking of normalization of extreme acts, 28,000+ Palestinians have been murdered with the help of the US. The bigger issue is not his death but what he died for.
What did he die for, Pro-Hamas propaganda? 28K Palestine deaths (1 - is that figure true, 2 - how many were fighters Vs civilians) is terrible for the innocent people caught between Hamas and the response they provoked from Israel who are still trying to rescue there citizens who are hostages.
Unless you're going to suggest the election was rigged, the Palestinian people freely elected Hamas to rule them. Were they expecting a safe ride to the other side of the river on the crocodile's back? That was unfortunate.
But I'm guessing Hamas was elected with the backing of all those grannies dancing in the streets and handing out sweets on 9/11.
I'll just add that pre the 7th massacre, life expectancy in Gaza was (according to the Palestinians themselves) 75.6 years. Not incredible but much better than say...Georgia. Both the nation and the state. Also birth rates were sky high( Women under sharia law, ya know). That was a good hearted guy burning himself for NOTHING.
This is a deeply disturbing subject, both the video itself and the suggestion that social media could generate copycat efforts by others, especially young people. I found this a terribly difficult video to watch. Hearing this guy screaming “Free Palestine” while he was dying was awful and it underlined how terrible it is to burn alive. On the other hand, it is a very compelling video, and will probably become viral, and the guy would not have live streamed it if he didn’t have that in mind. The allure of “going viral” in a social media sense is very attractive, especially to younger people who make social media a big part of their lives. Tragically there is no shortage of teenaged suicide in our country as it is, and this guy’s effort packages suicide with (to some) a righteous and feel-good message and the attractive allure of personal and noble sacrifice.
According to a lengthy biographical story in The Washington Post Aaron Bushnell was raised in an intensely controlling Christian community called the “Community of Jesus” as a child (a community he later left) and was a cyberdefense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas. He liked Karaoke and was evidently increasingly unhappy with being in the military.
But there is no indication of mental illness or any intense political identification with the Palestinian issue, other than a recognition or belief that there was terrible suffering going on that the US was complicit in.
That he live streamed it and that he was a cyberdefense operative, however, meant he was fully aware of the power of social media and I hate the idea that this one act of self violence might lead to more of the same.
Human torch was a jackass. I hope it catches on. Copycats get after it. If more of the crazies would do this instead of mass shootings, we would all be better off. Kind of seems like a problem that solves itself.
How 'american' is the security officer aiming his gun at the corpse? And the remark "I don't need guns, I need fire extinguishers' sums it up. If your only tool (or training) is a hammer, every problem is a nail. I understand there is a cognitive gap happening there between what the guard sees and what he knows how to handle; he falls back on his default. The same cognitive gap is present in the protestor; how he remained standing and not screaming tells me he was miles away, mentally; which you surely have to be to do something like this. Your thoughts, people?
I really hope you are wrong about this one Ryan :\ if we have copycats of this happening with the younger generation or even some of the older ones that have been sucked in to the "TikTok/other social media is the only place I trust my news". We are going to be in BIG BIG BIG trouble if that happens as a country, more so than we already seem to be. So thats the only reason I am hoping you are wrong. Thanks for putting the information together for us though, always appreciated
This is one of saddest tableaux I've ever seen. The waste of suicide, the futility of the sacrifice, and the delusion of its influence on events or history is overwhelming. Sick is a good descriptor.
Aaron Bushnell death was in vain. His life wasted at his own hands. I pray for his family and friends as they have to live on without him in their lives. Sadly he had potential to do more, but he wasted that potential on a social media app that is run by the Chinese Communist Party.
Like many thing Social Media can be used for good and bad things. The dopamine rush you get from "likes" and "follows" is only a symptomatic response to a deeper psychological pathology.
People are being trained like Pavlov's dog.
Did that one dude seriously point his gun at a dude who just burnt to death in front of his eyes???
Like...regardless of what your opinion on all this is, pointing a gun at someone who literally just burnt to death is just so insanely braindead.
Mr. Aaron Bushnell's break with reality was a threat. Unknown at the time: was he alone? Were secondary attackers involved? Was the security officer contemplating shooting Bushnell to put him out of his self inflicted pain? So many unknowns going on at the moment.
If the guard wanted to ensure tho that there aren't any accomplices he would've looked around. Dude was solely fixated on that dead burning dude on the floor tho.
You don't look around for other threats by focusing on a dead burning dude on the floor. You look around, scan the environment and don't tunnel vision on a corpse on the floor.
A mercy kill - even if he wanted to do it - wouldn't have been an option anyway.
That's easy for us to say in our cushy armchairs. We need to have some humility and acknowledge we were not there, we are not in the same frame of mind, we are not that person. I have been through some insane high-stress high-adrenaline situations, I know what it's like, I know how incredibly difficult it is to think clearly. I've even done a significant amount of study on how the brain works in situations like that, it is incredibly complex and involves things like sensory exclusion, false memories, hallucinated events, false perception of distance, slowed perception of time, etc. You are not yourself, you do not operate logically, you do not think clearly (ironically these situations are when you need to be at your sharpest). It's ok to say "I don't know".
Idk dude but that answer seems just downright manipulative. "Agree with me or you don't know". BUT: I don't really wanna engage that too much cause it was just meant as a comment on the side and it's not really the point of the video anyway. The point of the video is that this man was led into lighting himself on fire due to social media radicalizing him and in general it is a very real problem that everyone faces to some degree. Echo chambers on Social Media only reinforcing certain beliefs and therefore making people in general more radical. Sure, in most cases people don't light themselves on fire but we do see an overall shift in the debate culture to a WAY more aggressive behavior where the focus is on demonizing others and making accusations that are as outrageous as possible.
Imo social Media needs way more rules that prevent it from creating these echo chambers. Especially now that we get generations of people who grow up with this stuff and this way of spreading information and arguing.
I have no idea where you got that idea but whatever dude. Regardless my point still stands, you weren't there so you can't understand why he was pointing a gun at him, just as you can't understand why they fumbled the fire extinguishers so much, people operate completely differently under emergency situations, and I'm just asking you to recognize that. Yes it makes no sense, but that's what happens and you probably would have done the exact same thing. I agree with you on every other point though.
No we weren't there and no, we will never know for sure what he was thinking but the balance of probabilities, based on experience and so forth, would suggest he was in a state of shock and fell back on his training. As I was once told; when the shit hits the fan we like to think we will rise to the occasion but usually we just fall back to the level of our training. I would say self immolation and how to handle it were not in his training course. Same reason we sometimes freeze when confronted with an unusual situation; we need time to process it and decide what to do. Which is why training often relies on repetitive drills that will kick in under pressure, providing the appropriate drill has been taught, of course.
You know as I said I don't wanna drag this out too much because the point of the whole video is really something else but I'd like to explain to you what I mean with "it seems manipulative" cause I think it could be useful for you in the future.
Basically all of the things you said I pretty much agree on. We weren't in their shoes in that situation, everyone is different, situation very unusual etc. I all agree on this. The one problem where it goes south is this little sentence at the end: It's ok to say "I don't know"
It seems mundane but this statement carries a lot of weight because it shifts the whole tone from simply trying to explain why the guy acted the way he did to trying to explain but also saying that if someone doesn't agree on the explanation, they most likely simply have no clue what they're talking about. And aside from being condescending and also arrogant it also carries a lot of assumption with it (which in turn also contributes to it being arrogant). You don't know what I have experienced and how I handled those situations. But you immediately make a statement that carries a very negative assumption about my knowledge, abilities etc. This will cause you a lot of trouble in future discussions as well because it shifts the tone from a more productive exchange of positions, ideas and arguments into one of condescension. You know what I mean? It seems subtle because overall the tone remains civil, but it still carries a very "downlooking" attittude with it. And you know, as people are, they will not take this positively. Personally I catch myself again and again being overly confrontative in discussions and in retrospect I then think "Wow, was it really necessary to reply this way? This could've probably been way more civil had I replied less angry".
So TL:DR: try to leave out statements that are assumptious, "accusatory" etc. They might seem innocent enough but quite often those seemingly little statements are what sour discussions. I've gotten better at leaving it out but time and time again I do it.
As far as I see it, on the remaining aspects we do agree tho.
Ya, I have no idea what was going through that officer’s head. Was it shock? Then he just went through the motions of his training? Who’s to say how anyone would act the 1st they witnessed something like this unexpectedly and up close.
Maybe deciding if it’s better to just end it for the guy? He didn’t die on the spot. He died the next morning in the hospital.
Yeah I’m with you. He didn’t know how to react so defaulted to an automatic response.
Are people just crazy oblivious to the situation? OF COURSE he had his weapon out and trained on this guy. The officer was rightfully concerned that the guy may very well have run into a bunch of bystanders — intentionally or not — and burnt or otherwise harmed them too. It was the offcier’s duty to protect others and himself. If the guy was delusional enough to do this who knows what else he was deluded enough to do
Security guard pointing a gun at a possible threat - justified. You're distracted by a peripheral point, instead focus on the protest reason. ie +25k dead brown Muslims at the hands of the IDF w/ American approval.
How did this guy get by the mental stability tests of the USAF?
Mental stability tests require leadership that recognized the value of determining if someone is fit to be of service to the nation. Fit to be issued a weapon and training, to be qualified to use nuclear weapons, to hold national security secrets, to be loyal to their companions, their officers, their nation. We have not seen those values displayed for a long time now.
We'd have to ask how trans individuals are allowed to get into the services. What would they fight for? More LGBT-alphabets to get in? Operations that remove them from serving for extended periods of their enlistments? Special treatment and benefits that others cannot claim?
How does this qualify for service in defense of the nation? The former qualification tests relied on a common set of values and a sense of morality that does not seem present in today's society and therefore the military.
The next question would be will they defend us, ignore attacks or surrender?
What can we use to qualify such people?
Mine was a rhetorical question for all the reasons you spell out so well.
Thank you so much for the common sense you are bringing to the table Ryan in a world that is increasingly losing its marbles.
When there is a new president in The White House such as Trump or JFK, Jr. Tick-Tok, which clearly is a Chinese psy-op will, and should be, outlawed. It speaks volumes that it already illegal to use in many federal and state owned devices. Plus, Tic-Tok is illegal to use in China which speaks volumes
So this kid burning himself to death leads you to… Wishing for a Treasonous Insurrectionist and Life Long Pathological Lying Con Man to be President??? Or Conspiracy Theory Spreading Anti-Vaxer whose family has disowned him?
That is a reach. But more people wanting to “Hang Mike Pence!” for Not going along with the Treasonous Lie will definitely be more likely👍
I absolutely love this; https://youtu.be/WwgzcXnOHyI?si=A3EpUwz6WI7Y50uS
Outrage😎 Lol.
Spoken like a 4th Generation Volunteer Veteran who loves Our Country and Democracy.
Stand Proud 😉
Exactly
Not trying to battle you or anything but freedom doesn’t come with all positives. First amendment to post and view TikTok? Now I have authoritarian control over what I feel they are not allowed to do, like have access to a mindless marketing app like TikTok.
Americans have two levels of freedom parental and adult. There are those that would say a president, governor, mayor have no right to tell an American they cannot see or talk about what is not restricted by a federal security clearance.
TikTok is an information-gathering Trojan Horse app disguised as entertainment videos. Being ignorant of that fact, a good portion of the US is willingly turning over all their personal information to the CCP, who clearly wants us gone. It's not an attempt to kill your fun. We just don't think it's smart to give all your personal information to a government actively pursuing viruses that only attack certain races. TikTok is already banned for anyone in the government save for those stupid enough to put out question and answer posts during the Super Bowl.
I totally agree.
I meant that I have control over my own children. Typo. On my phone
Have you read their terms of service?
His mantra words are typical words used by college professors intent on inserting one sided ideology. Brainwashing is now standard practice at USA and Canadian universities. Students are not taught to think they are indoctrinated. BTW who filmed and uploaded the suicide, or was it fed live to public space?
This is exactly it. It would seem he died spreading the very propaganda used to indoctrinate him. It's a terrible waste.
A healthy person would make an effort to learn about an issue. The mentally not well will latch onto an identity or ideology in a fanatical way. On the “Gaza” issue you can analyze almost any talking point and discover distortion of non subjective information immediately. I was taught to separate subjective from objective information and to ensure my subjective feelings were informed by the facts. Goebbels was a master at twisting information to appeal to instincts. He identified perceived humiliation as the best path to fanatical / suicidal motivation. Also appealing to primitive instincts such as reproduction (they rape the women and kill the children), resources (they take our water and land). My old professor called Goebbels “the father of Madison Avenue “ (modern advertising). You sell beer, cigarettes, cars, not on facts but on identity and emotion. For example Bud Light. It’s not how it tastes it’s how it links you to a group / tribe. I hate to say it but almost every person I meet younger than 50 has poor analytical thinking skills and just parrots what their media choice tells them to. The Gaza thing is very stark. Almost none of the claims made withstand any research so the proponents fall back on rage. 😤
Live feed
Might be time for social media to add a lag and promise to block suicides, terrorist attacks, murders, etc. If seeking attention is a motive, take away the motive.
As Ryan would say, it's a dilemma for social media companies, and more so for Twitch which is the home of "live streaming". Their entire business model is built on people live streaming, and typically interacting with viewers in real time. In February, they've already hosted almost 68-million HOURS of live streams (2.6-million hours per day or an average of 108,540 concurrent streams).
Even if some sort of human moderation was adopted, how long would a stream need to be watched before the moderator could "sign off" on the video and let it continue or end the stream? Using machine learning (sorry, old word for AI), I'm sure that some sort of automated streaming could identify and stop streams when something "bad" is about to happen, but I'm sure that we're a long way away from that level of automated decision-making (e.g., determining real flames from CGI in which no-one was actually injured in a video being live streamed)...
Most live streams are innocuous at best, and some are useful (historic events, rocket launches, solar eclipses, etc.). As with just about anything, a few ruin things for the rest of us...
I feel sorry for his family who now must carry the weight of his decisions the rest of their lives.
Unfortunately, the live steaming genie is out of Pandora's box and will be with us forever.
Oh please, I highly doubt there will a rush of people setting themselves on fire for any reason. There aren't enough drugs in the world to offset the discomfort of such an act.
Maybe but when it comes to America, nothing out of there surprises me, sadly. I love vacationing there, have served alongside some of the best people in the world from there but live in the US? Not unless I was armed to the teeth and had a very tidy private income.
This kid was a foolish tool. As you said Ryan, other foolish tools will take this as an example to make themselves famous. Tough way to go. Also, the cop or security person continuing to point his pistol at any time past when the first fire extinguisher was being used, was a stupid and unnecessary act on his part. The police sergeant wandering back and forth should have told him to holster up. I was a police supervisor and I have in the past ordered officers to holster up when gun pointing was no longer appropriate. Plus whoever was yelling for the human torch to get on the ground was wasting his breath. Just wait a minute, he'll be on the ground. Someone was in a panic state methinks.
Speaking of normalization of extreme acts, 28,000+ Palestinians have been murdered with the help of the US. The bigger issue is not his death but what he died for.
What did he die for, Pro-Hamas propaganda? 28K Palestine deaths (1 - is that figure true, 2 - how many were fighters Vs civilians) is terrible for the innocent people caught between Hamas and the response they provoked from Israel who are still trying to rescue there citizens who are hostages.
Unless you're going to suggest the election was rigged, the Palestinian people freely elected Hamas to rule them. Were they expecting a safe ride to the other side of the river on the crocodile's back? That was unfortunate.
But I'm guessing Hamas was elected with the backing of all those grannies dancing in the streets and handing out sweets on 9/11.
Fucm.
I'll just add that pre the 7th massacre, life expectancy in Gaza was (according to the Palestinians themselves) 75.6 years. Not incredible but much better than say...Georgia. Both the nation and the state. Also birth rates were sky high( Women under sharia law, ya know). That was a good hearted guy burning himself for NOTHING.
People magazine's hottest person of the year: Aaron Bushnell
What a dumb fuck. 🤦
This is a deeply disturbing subject, both the video itself and the suggestion that social media could generate copycat efforts by others, especially young people. I found this a terribly difficult video to watch. Hearing this guy screaming “Free Palestine” while he was dying was awful and it underlined how terrible it is to burn alive. On the other hand, it is a very compelling video, and will probably become viral, and the guy would not have live streamed it if he didn’t have that in mind. The allure of “going viral” in a social media sense is very attractive, especially to younger people who make social media a big part of their lives. Tragically there is no shortage of teenaged suicide in our country as it is, and this guy’s effort packages suicide with (to some) a righteous and feel-good message and the attractive allure of personal and noble sacrifice.
According to a lengthy biographical story in The Washington Post Aaron Bushnell was raised in an intensely controlling Christian community called the “Community of Jesus” as a child (a community he later left) and was a cyberdefense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas. He liked Karaoke and was evidently increasingly unhappy with being in the military.
But there is no indication of mental illness or any intense political identification with the Palestinian issue, other than a recognition or belief that there was terrible suffering going on that the US was complicit in.
That he live streamed it and that he was a cyberdefense operative, however, meant he was fully aware of the power of social media and I hate the idea that this one act of self violence might lead to more of the same.
Human torch was a jackass. I hope it catches on. Copycats get after it. If more of the crazies would do this instead of mass shootings, we would all be better off. Kind of seems like a problem that solves itself.
How 'american' is the security officer aiming his gun at the corpse? And the remark "I don't need guns, I need fire extinguishers' sums it up. If your only tool (or training) is a hammer, every problem is a nail. I understand there is a cognitive gap happening there between what the guard sees and what he knows how to handle; he falls back on his default. The same cognitive gap is present in the protestor; how he remained standing and not screaming tells me he was miles away, mentally; which you surely have to be to do something like this. Your thoughts, people?
Your statement that “if your only tool is a hammer all problems are nails” sums up American police training.
Ryan, good explanation, well stated!
I really hope you are wrong about this one Ryan :\ if we have copycats of this happening with the younger generation or even some of the older ones that have been sucked in to the "TikTok/other social media is the only place I trust my news". We are going to be in BIG BIG BIG trouble if that happens as a country, more so than we already seem to be. So thats the only reason I am hoping you are wrong. Thanks for putting the information together for us though, always appreciated
This is one of saddest tableaux I've ever seen. The waste of suicide, the futility of the sacrifice, and the delusion of its influence on events or history is overwhelming. Sick is a good descriptor.