This guy had a degree in computer science. He was an active member of the military who had served for three years. He knew how to code in Python and Perl. He had a bright future ahead of him. Yet he was so unhappy about the situation between Israel and Palestine that he decided to fly out to Washington DC, light himself on fire, and livestream it on Twitch, without a second thought or the briefest moment of hesitation.
His name was Aaron Bushnell. He used gasoline as an accelerant. The flames consumed him completely. It only took seconds before he lost the ability to scream because his vocal chords had melted away. Even as these horrific things happened to him, he didn't panic. He didn't flail or try to save himself. He just stood there silently and calmly as the flames surrounded him. Imagine the will it takes to stand during that. Even that famous monk who meditated in flames during Vietnam was sitting down. It wasn't until the instant of death that Aaron's body finally collapsed beneath him in one swift moment, by which point he'd practically turned to cinder. I've never seen anything like it.
Most astonishingly, there was also an American woman who self-immolated several months ago on Dec 1st 2023 in Atlanta. She wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag, poured gasoline over herself, and lit herself on fire in front of some Israeli building. The police chief reported that her body had been engulfed in flames. She too probably died within moments. But she didn't livestream herself doing it on Twitch, so it was relatively easy for the system to throw her down the memory hole. We don't know who she was. You could go half mad if you try to find information about her online. For example, if you search Twitter for "woman atlanta self-immolation" there's as of this moment 21 tweets total. That's for all time on the whole platform.
We always talk about censorship like it's something that only happens in China. But here's your great firewall America, here's your Tiananmen Square. The problem has always been there, but now it's becoming too painfully apparent to ignore.
3 comments
[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 16.0 ms ] threadhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30688013
Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest (tchrd.org) 569 points by ilamont on March 15, 2022 276 comments
His name was Aaron Bushnell. He used gasoline as an accelerant. The flames consumed him completely. It only took seconds before he lost the ability to scream because his vocal chords had melted away. Even as these horrific things happened to him, he didn't panic. He didn't flail or try to save himself. He just stood there silently and calmly as the flames surrounded him. Imagine the will it takes to stand during that. Even that famous monk who meditated in flames during Vietnam was sitting down. It wasn't until the instant of death that Aaron's body finally collapsed beneath him in one swift moment, by which point he'd practically turned to cinder. I've never seen anything like it.
Most astonishingly, there was also an American woman who self-immolated several months ago on Dec 1st 2023 in Atlanta. She wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag, poured gasoline over herself, and lit herself on fire in front of some Israeli building. The police chief reported that her body had been engulfed in flames. She too probably died within moments. But she didn't livestream herself doing it on Twitch, so it was relatively easy for the system to throw her down the memory hole. We don't know who she was. You could go half mad if you try to find information about her online. For example, if you search Twitter for "woman atlanta self-immolation" there's as of this moment 21 tweets total. That's for all time on the whole platform.
We always talk about censorship like it's something that only happens in China. But here's your great firewall America, here's your Tiananmen Square. The problem has always been there, but now it's becoming too painfully apparent to ignore.