“I will no longer be complicit in genocide [in Gaza]. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” the man apparently said before setting himself alight and repeatedly shouting “Free Palestine!”
Law enforcement also drew a gun on the burning man during the incident, according to a report by Task and Purpose.
When you’re a hammer…
I read that and was like “of fucking course they did.” Honestly the next paragraph makes it even worse, IMO.
Authorities were heard asking the man – “May I help you, sir?” – at first but as soon as he was engulfed in flames they started yelling at him to get down on the ground. They even drew their guns on the burning man before someone pushed them to get fire extinguishers to extinguish the fire.
Threats of physical violence are the only tool they have in their toolbox. THE ONLY tool.
It’s a bit of a beleaguered point, but it’s very telling that this will assuredly get almost no coverage on big news networks like abc, cbs, fox, etc. and virtually no coverage in the larger papers like the NYT, sure the press agencies like Reuters and the AP will cover it and then redistributors like your source will publish this, but little thought among the media class/commentariet will be given to the man who decided there was so little hope of being able to do anything through legal/electoral means to stop a genocide that he could no longer stand idly by and had to do something to protest the sheer inhumanity of what’s going on. Barely anyone probably still remembers the person who did the same thing and died in 2022 on earth day protesting inaction on climate change/destruction, that story was absolutely buried. I don’t support any kind of self harm, but doing something as drastic as this requires a pretty compelling reason, most people remember Tibetan monks doing the same thing, but the same importance was not extended to that person in 2022 and will almost definitely not be extended to this person now. I may end up being wrong, but I expect this to be out of the news cycle/discourse in days at most.
most people remember Tibetan monks doing the same thing
Out of political selfimmolations there were 7 Tibetan cases, but dozens of others including many Americans. I wonder why “most people” remember particularly those. Would it be that US media wasn’t fair to report not only this one here?
Lmao that’s what i was talking about, the one on this album cover wasn’t even Tibetan, he was Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese buddhist monk, selfimmolating in Saigon in 1963 as protest against US-backed South Vietnam government persecuting buddhists.
So why people like you think he was Tibetan if not for media misleading you? This was literally the most famous of public selfimmolation and the one that started it all for in XX century.
doing something as drastic as this requires a pretty compelling reason
I’ve already had a couple people immediately retort “wow mental health is scary”, then say “nobody will remember his name”.
These people will shamelessly undermine any action then act disappointed that these actions are quickly ignored.
Looks like he was an anarchist comrade.
Excuse me, what?
It is incontrovertibly ON TOPIC to point out the fact that his dying words were FREE PALESTINE followed by a scream of DEATH AGONY because he was ON FIRE. His remarks factually did not conclude in the reported way. This is not a joke. I disagree it is crass or insensitive (Whose sensibilities am I supposed to have offended, precisely? More importantly: why the fuck should I care that their feelings are hurt by my pointing out the message he died to scream to the world?), and regardless it is factual and relevant. Go back and watch again if you don’t believe me, if you have the courage.
“Crass jokes” aren’t prohibited by your badly written rules even if it were a joke.
Your moderator indiscretion is what is crass here, if anything. Shame on you.
The pigs shouting “ON THE GROUND” to a person who is actively burning to death have got to be the finest example of cop brain. Everything’s a threat.
I kind of wish this troop would have done something like sabotage or leaked Intel like Chelsea Manning, but I’m also not gonna deny the bravery involved. Free Palestine. Death to America.
Anyone who still visits reddit, how [deleted] is this story over there?
Edit: I’ve created a torrent for the video if anyone wants to help seed. His sacrifice in bringing attention to the US-sponsored genocide in Palestine must not be forgotten.
Using the word “genocide” bans you in r/politics now
r/washingtondc locked the post
To be fair, that post in particular seems to have been locked because it is a repost. This post is older and has quite a bit of engagement. While a quick search in the popular subs reveals that this story seems to be surpressed there, it is not true for r/TheDeprogram. Even if that sub has some problems, this story is none of them.
The screenshot was posted to r/TheDeprogram, it wasn’t taken there, I’m dumb.
That post is locked because it’s on r/pics. r/TheDeprogram is an ML sub, the screenshot I posted was someone calling out r/pics.
