Yeah I just watched the video and I just gotta say massive fuck you to all the people who shit on this dude or just write him off as "a troop." He opens up the video and says he's about to engage in "an extreme act of protest" but "compared to what people in Palestine have been experiencing at the hands of their colonizers, it's not extreme at all" and then lights himself on fucking fire.
If you watch that and don't have even the slightest bit of empathy or think that he is not in any way a comrade, there is something wrong with you
Yeah he shouldn't have joined the military, yeah he shouldn't have killed himself, but jesus fucking christ people that just makes it more tragic.
all the news articles articles aren't admitting that he was protesting the genocide in gaza.
One I read quickly mentioned him then pivoted to talking about environmentalist protesters who have self immolated in the past for over half the article. Others mention no motive at all and are just a couple sentences. One said "it's unclear if this is related to Israel's military action in Gaza".
Goddamn I hate "journalists". Lying hacks who take clear and easy to understand events and twist them into nothingness
Someone self-immolated in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta a few months back too: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/01/protester-palestine-self-immolate-atlanta-israel-consulate
90% of the people in this thread are contrarian
who just want to smugly laugh to themselves about how this does nothing or he deserves it for being a troop. Like idk how anyone can see this and not just feel a sense of sadness that not only did someone die in such an excruciating way but for absolutely nothing and that nothing will change or even remember him, especially since seemingly half the people who'll even remember this in a week's time are saying he's destined for hell because he didn't hijack a Boeing or something and do 9/12.This won't make any headlines. A monk in Tibet? Plastered everywhere. People throwing paint or soup or whatever on art? Everywhere, drives the chuds rage. But they'll hardly mention this.
Only good AmeriKKKan soldier.
But seriously this is based AF. No matter his faith, may Allah reward his compassion and bravery in the afterlife
He may have been a troop, and a single death is nothing compared to what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, and maybe his action didn't achieve anything, but we are still talking about a human life of someone who got where they are partially due to the material reality they grew up in, and of someone who in the end saw the wrongness in it all. I thus am a bit alarmed that some of the comments' first reaction on here is to insult him.
Doing something like that's no small commitment, that's for sure.
That poor bastard. I don't know if he was a comrade or simply someone who broke when confronted by US actions. But this is the least useful way to Martyr yourself, and Martyrdom is the least useful way of resistance.
Regardless, since he is a martyr, may he rest with those of Haymarket.
Goddamn.
I'm not gonna shit on this guy because I think his heart was very obviously in the right place, but I have to agree with others here in that this is a terrible waste of a life, particularly a life belonging to the one US troop willing to die fighting the Palestinian genocide.
Unfortunately, I doubt he was capable of doing much better because of how massively alienated he must've been. He almost certainly lacked anything resembling a coherent set of politics, and he almost certainly lacked like minded comrades to set him on the right path. Considering he was active duty, I have no doubt he could have found a way to frag some officers, but he probably thought violence would be counter productive. There's a reason why Americans grow up learning about a wildly sanitized version of MLK Jr. and absolutely nothing about the Black Panthers.
So in the end, he spent his last moments screaming in agony for nothing, not understanding that the media was going to effortlessly sweep this under the rug just like it did the last few self immolations. This is so fucking sad, and it's why we need to organize to capture and productively redirect people like this as they radicalize. Rest in peace.
I don’t agree with his choice but
The gesture is not lost, but I'm afraid the most likely outcome will be for the Empire to redouble its efforts to eliminate any lingering sense of compassion and humanity left in the troops that are coerced to serve for an education and some semblance of healthcare.
Can't have more acts of empathy with the wretched of the earth popping up. A renewed or remaining conscience is bad for America. Can't have more troops feeling remorse for the innocent dead, it'll directly affect Raytheon's stock prices.
It is a shame his sacrifice will be written off by the people enabling the genocide and outright ignored by the ones committing it. And it's frightening that with his intimate knowledge of America, Israel and the military industrial complex, the most effective method of protesting genocide he could think of was with his remaining life.
Rest in peace, Aaron Bushnell
Unironic
Not criticizing, but anyone of a similar feeling & position might consider
How alone he must have felt, especially as active duty. Christ..
Okay, so there are now only two types of good troops.
As much as I believe that all US troops are inherently evil, recognizing the evil one is helping to perpetrate and being willing to sacrifice ones life in an attempt to right wrongs is at least some sort of redemption.
Dreamed about him last night. Same age as me. What a terrible world.
Brave
Fascist Zionists DGAF. But the guilt that guy has to think this is the way...while you're in if you refuse to "just following orders" they will imprison or dishonorably discharge which is worse than a felony. Life ending. Maybe he left a data dump somewhere. Points to we are way further involved in this than just supplying boom booms.
oh my god its the good troop we found him!
I wish I was this brave goddamn
I just wish I could think of something better than self immolation.
I keep waiting for traditional mainstream media to fail. Any day now, people have been saying for the last decade
no more half measures walter
um okay
Would have been better off unaliving himself by taking a few IOF soliders with him.
Metal gear snake eater boss
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