Know Your Enemy

Nothing pithy today

Content Warning: Suicide, Self-Immolation

I watched Bottoms with Adrianne and was prepared to write about the dichotomy of pushing the envelope and future proofing your work. Then, the second act of self immolation in protest of the genocide in Gaza happened. The first is a person in critical care in Atlanta from December of last year. At least as far as I can tell as of today.

This one is sure to get more news coverage. Aaron Bushnell made sure of that. He set up an account on Twitch and announced to media outlets that he was engaging in a protest against Israel’s actions.

“​​Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people” - Aaron Bushnell

And yesterday, February 25th 2024, he did just that. As he approached the embassy, he gave his reasons for this “extreme act of protest.”

“I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”

You can see the video here, the actual act is censored.

He repeated “Free Palestine” as he perished. The video has been removed from streaming service Twitch. Not before people saw what happened though. Cops pulling a gun on a man dying on the ground who posed no threat. An active duty Airman who took a principled stand and his own life in protest.

Self-immolation as protest is not new, Rage Against the Machine turned it into an album cover. Arab Spring was kicked off by Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 year old Tunisian man who was so beaten down by corruption he made the ultimate sacrifice. The US has also lost two citizens to self-immolation trying to bring awareness to climate change, David Buckel and Wynn Bruce.

His last Facebook post might give some insight:

Many of us like to ask ourselves, “What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?”

The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.