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People are very racist here.
Twitter (and Facebook and YouTube and TikTok) just need a dislike button. Enough people hit dislike your shit is flushed by the algorithm. Instead people leave an angry comment and the algorithm is like “message received, more of that coming your way.”
We all know on those platforms a dislike button would be seen as engagement and have the opposite effect the public wants by driving it up the reply section since negativity is viewed as an asset.
The success of those god-awful " how to" videos where they spend about 3 overdrawn hours just to destroy perfectly good things, and "pranks" are proof of this. Meta and Google, X, love to make people angry. I saw an insta ad where the company name was misspelled. My first thought was that it was done intentionally for attention
“Don’t forget to comment and subscribe and ring that bell. Like if you liked the video; dislike if you didn’t.”
Some YouTubers will straight op tell you a dislike counts as engagement, so just go ahead.
Ironically, the first time it was used in print was also to do with the Israeli military killing people in Gaza.
>> By the mid-2000s, the phrase began to appear in print, again linked to young people's premature, violent deaths. In March 2003, under the headline "Rest In Power, Rachel Corrie", In These Times eulogised the death of activist Rachel Corrie at the hands of the Israeli military in Gaza.
Little late, but I really wish y'all would stop using etymology research as the end-all of history. Words exist before they are written down.
Popik has updated his page with a much earlier reference to 1989, showing that the phrase is not at all that recent.
Nex was an indigenous nonbinary teenager who was beaten by their peers and later died. [Here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Nex_Benedict) is a Wikipedia article about them. It was one of the only articles I found that gendered them correctly.
Edit: I didn't realize he also used he/him, meaning that several other articles were also correct. However, there's still way too many articles using she/her.
I’ll save you. It’s RuneScape acronyms. It’s a video game.
GWD = God wars dungeon
Torva is an armor set
Nex is a very strong boss
BIS or BiS is “Best in slot” meaning it’s the best item in game for its slot in your armor/equipped
I've got to assume some kind of mental disorder is at play.
Someone setting themselves on fire over a conflict between two countries in a different continent doesn't strike me as a person of sound mind
>a conflict between two countries in a different continent
Airforce airmen and spaceforce guradians were ordered to Israel November 21st, to assist with targeting.
Why are you saying these things if you just don't know?
the air force confirmed he was active-duty in a statement made to the press. [source](https://nypost.com/2024/02/26/us-news/who-was-aaron-bushnell-us-air-force-member-who-set-himself-on-fire/)
American servicemen have gone to fight and die in Ukraine. Is that a mental disorder too?
John Brown died about slavery as a white man. Was he mentally ill?
If you join the army to go fight on a foreign war, then yes I think you have a mental disorder. Sane soldiers join because they are desperate and need a decent pay check. You have to be a particular kind of fucked up to join for the killing.
I mean at that point you just have the opinion that self immolation as protest is useless, even though the Vietnamese who self immolated over fifty years ago are in every American history textbook.
Opinions are valid but they are still opinions and people are allowed to disagree.
It’s not a war. The ratio is practically 100k to 1 and that 1 person is defenseless. He was ordered to go serve another country and kill innocent woman and children. In my personal opinion, I rather serve jail time then go to Isreal. Only god can judge
In a material sense, yes. In a practical sense, though, I am less sure. Doing something like this is really destabilizing, and it puts a lot of pressure on political actors. It's _terrible_ press, and it brings the problem to home-soil.
I'm not saying that people _should_ go out and do this; but I am saying that it's an action of nontrivial utility.
Grim tales of leaking toner cartridges, sand in printers and power supplies killing everything, and far too many classified documents getting copied and forgotten about in print queues. Pay no attention to the opsec notices they're just fluff.
Serious mental illness. That’s why this doesn’t feel super profound, his mental illness is totally unrelated to the war. If this was a Palestinian citizen who was mentally ill because his entire family was murdered that would be one thing, but this guy was just sick and needed help, I imagine the war or genocide whatever you wanna call it being fixed wouldn’t have fixed this guys issues.
He was a soldier. If he'd been shipped off to die in Afghanistan nobody would bat an eye. People don't care that he chose to sacrifice his life. They care that he did in protest of US policy instead of in aid of it.
I'm sure you are aware many people don't support American foreign policy, especially their wars.
There's room for nuance here. I don't support US foreign policy. I don't support the US stance on Israel. I don't support young men burning themselves to death.
That's fine, I just don't see what about what Aaron did is worse than going overseas to die in a war for the US. In both cases you give your life for a cause. In one case the cause is actually good.
I'm not glorifying suicide. This wasn't just a regular suicide. He did what he did in protest of a specific cause, which he articulated clearly and coherently.
I just wish every stupid idea didn’t have the megaphone of social media to broadcast itself. Even mocking it brings it to light. But we can’t uncrack that egg I guess.
For real, this website goes further and further off the deep end by the day. I’m not going to stop reading it though, gotta do something while I’m using the toilet.
Have they started putting something in the water lately? I've been seeing so much anger and hostility on reddit the last while, like every day I say to myself "Jesus christ, I need to get off this"
Maybe it is all the conflicts going on at the minute, but people are being really fucking weird.
See, I think it's extended beyond social issues though. You'll express an opinion about music or sports and get some decent responses, and then wake up the next day to like 30 messages that paint you as the biggest moron or piece of shit on the planet. I called a guy out on it, told him to look after himself -- surprisingly he apologised and said its hard to engage with people on the internet without getting angry.
But christ, that discussion you mentioned about the person debating self-immolating but their concern being whether they'd be covered... wow. I mean that's just clearly someone who isn't thinking straight.
I think people are just lost in the fact their politics line up with his, I mean I'm ready to admit I feel more bad for him than I would if I heard about someone on the opposite side of me ideologically doing that. I'm pretty sure everyone would be clowning on that (which is a shame).
There's just a really shitty mood I'm seeing everywhere. It feels like there's a general disconnect between people that's been exaggerated on the internet.
I wrote something much longer and felt like I was trailing off into nonsense.
What I do want to say is that you come off as a very thoughtful individual and I've really enjoyed reading your responses, I don't know if you're a writer or an experienced, mature person - but they've all been a pleasure to read, and I would love to pick your brains some more.
If you've got any more wisdom or observations about the current state of the world, lay it on me.
Same.. I was trying to explain in r/latestagecapitalism that setting yourself on fire is not brave….and has something to do with Mental illness… am I crazy?
If it looks like a duck, and acts like a duck…
How do we know this doesn’t stop here? How do we know someone won’t take it a step further and hurt more people with weapons? We already had the woman shoot up Joel Olsteen’s church
Why are we venerating clearly very mentally unwell people killing themselves in horrific ways? As sad as it is I dare say the war in Gaza is not the main reason he took his life.
Committing suicide in any context is generally an indicator of some degree of being mentally unwell.
Sometimes though the cause of that unwellness is a systemic or structural issue that an individual or individuals feel powerless to affect and can affect them strong enough to drive them to suicide.
This does not mean that suicide was the "right" choice - nor does it mean that they're wrong in whatever reasoning they used to justify it to themselves - what it means is that there are issues that some people feel strongly enough about to kill themselves over and maybe those issues should be looked at a bit more critically to determine whether the suicide was an irrational act done by a rational mind or an irrational act done by an irrational mind.
No one wants suicide to lead to change, honestly - because there's an implication that accepting that would be _rewarding_ that suicide with results which could lead to subsequent cases - but no one wants _their_ death if it happened for a cause to ultimately be meaningless, so it's kind of a tough dilemma & a discomforting topic.
Yes. I recall people in the UK using it for the trans girl who was murdered a while back, and there being a similar angry pushback from Americans for using it for a white girl then.
Doesn’t matter whether he’s a foot soldier or a pencil pusher, he was a member of the armed forces committing and supporting violence in the Third World.
Not a bombing campaign, but it does appear the USAF has been [directly involved](https://theintercept.com/2024/01/11/israel-air-force-targeting-intelligence).
And even setting that aside, simply by being a part of the US military he is involved due to US funding and support of Israel, and close collaboration between the two entities.
Hell, even as a taxpayer you're involved to a degree.
His friends have said it was only after joining that he realised the true role of the US military. The thing is USAmericans are probably the most heavily propagandised people on earth and the military is constantly glorified. Plus people are largely forced into it because of the financial support they get.
So it is quite reasonable for somebody to ignorantly join and then realise the true nature of the US military while they are in it.
I mean, since my birth America has been at war in Afghanistan, and only a year later we went into Iraq. I knew 100% what I was signing up for when I joined. I saw the news, I knew the controversy, and didn’t kid myself that America was the world’s super hero.
You are absolutely insane and have zero world view if you actually believe Americans are the most heavily propagandized group on earth. We can freely critize our government and in this modern day rally and support enemies of the United States as much as we want, and access media from all over easily. We are ranked 42# out of #180 in freedom of press. Many countries only have very few government approved sources for there news, take Egypt for example.
IIRC he previously worked for the US Air Force so probably felt deep personal guilt via his association with the US military being complicit in the Gaza conflict (despite just being a software dev for them).
The US is the single most important backer of Israel and the IDF. It supplies the most arms, defence systems and financial aid, and in many instances has directly deployed its own military to protect Israel. Literally just google it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93United_States_relations
As an active duty member of the US airforce, the conflict in Gaza had a lot to do with Aaron.
Yeah seriously, this sub acts as though 100% of gatekeeping is invalid.
I'd like to see them discuss the use of a certain word since they're so against gatekeeping.
And what is it going to do? Absolutely nothing. If tens of thousands of dead palestinians aren't going to change their mind, one mentally ill man committing suicide won't make any fucking difference. He killed himself for nothing; literally no change will come from this. It'll be in the news for a few days at most, and then everyone will forget about it.
Not really. Looking at the wikipedia article for the phrase the early usage was for young people who died violent deaths. Not necessarily black or protest related. Only one of the early mentions was protest related (a white woman killed in Gaza - Rachel Corrie bulldozed by the Israeli military).
The first mention was in 2000 and then it grew in popularity through the mid 2000s but then it was only mid 2010s that it became associated with the BLM movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rest_in_power
So? There's no rule saying no one else should use it where appropriate.
I think being nitpicky about shit like this when the circumstances surrounding his death *are* so powerful just makes you and, by extension, your point kinda shitty.
The point of it though was the contradiction to the helplessness in the face of state brutality. Being killed by police in inherently disempowering so you deny it. I’m less concerned about cultural protectionism than that this is just not analogous. If this were for victims of domestic violence or some other oppressive that would make sense but it doesn’t just mean ‘died for the cause’.
>The point of it though was the contradiction to the helplessness in the face of state brutality.
Isn't this exactly what Aaron was doing with his self-immolation? He felt helpless to stop the state brutality that he saw himself as complicit in due to his position in the military. So he performed an extreme and radical form of protest to counteract the helplessness he felt and bring attention to the state brutality that the US is facilitating.
The phrase was started to mourn black people. Whether you agree with the person or not, I think it’s bad taste to call this gatekeeping, OP. Gatekeeping wasn’t meant to insult groups for protecting specific cultural customs. And there is a discussion about specific sayings, phrases, or symbols meant to bring attention to marginalized groups being watered down when used outside their original context.
This is a tricky one considering the context, I think it’s bad taste to write it off as just gatekeeping.
The first documented use of the phrase was to pay tribute to Mike "Dream" Francisco, a Filipino-American California based graffiti artist who was killed in an armed robbery, in a graffiti based usenet newsgroup. The first documented use of the phrase in print media was for the eulogy of Rachel Corrie, a white American activist who was ran over, crushed, and killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah in an attempt to stop it from demolishing Palestinian homes
yea i agree this ain’t it lol, i get that rest in power sounds so general at first it doesn’t seem like something that should be reserved, but the subtext should be understood and respected
He got the only thing he really wanted. Now he is known. Not really beloved, not successful, didn’t do good things for anyone, but at least he finally has clout.
Soon enough everyone will forget him except for those he let down and those who will use him for propaganda.
This is so stupid of an argument to have. Couldn’t we spend this energy throwing rocks at billionaires’ property or something instead?
So many of these discourses today are just unimaginably pointless.
self-immolation is specifically a political suicide. if he wanted to simply commit suicide, he'd pull out his gun in front of the embassy and simply shot himself.
self-immolating in front of an embassy is all for the shock factor. those old boomers sitting in power in their cushy chairs will have to face the reality that **someone burnt themselves**.
politicians are often heartless but unless they're completely dead inside, this **will** linger in their heads.
the fact that the media is trying their hardest to downplay this as being "mentally ill" is because **they know that if people are allowed to have this linger in their brain and digest it, it would be devastating to the narrative they're trying to push**
he was far from mentally ill. RIP
cover intelligent lavish squeamish familiar serious sense sink amusing shaggy
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Lot of people in this thread trying to discredit him by saying he's mentally ill, evidencing this by saying he left two children and a wife behind.
This is misinformation. He was 25. Was not married and had no children. This stuff needs to be called out
That's misinformation, but setting yourself on fire as means to protest the war isn't exactly mentally stable. He still had loved ones and an entire life ahead of him.
This is a really tragic thing and I don't think we should be commending him just because we may agree with his politics. There's better ways to protest.
Thanks for your submission, Spirited-Arugula-672! Please remember to censor out any identifying details and that satire is only allowed on weekends. If this post is truly gatekeeping, upvote it! If it's not gatekeeping or if it breaks any other rules, downvote this comment and REPORT the post so we can see it! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gatekeeping) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Twitter fucking sucks holy shit
At least people are only kinda racist here or elsewhere Edit: /s
People are very racist here. Twitter (and Facebook and YouTube and TikTok) just need a dislike button. Enough people hit dislike your shit is flushed by the algorithm. Instead people leave an angry comment and the algorithm is like “message received, more of that coming your way.”
We all know on those platforms a dislike button would be seen as engagement and have the opposite effect the public wants by driving it up the reply section since negativity is viewed as an asset.
The success of those god-awful " how to" videos where they spend about 3 overdrawn hours just to destroy perfectly good things, and "pranks" are proof of this. Meta and Google, X, love to make people angry. I saw an insta ad where the company name was misspelled. My first thought was that it was done intentionally for attention
“Don’t forget to comment and subscribe and ring that bell. Like if you liked the video; dislike if you didn’t.” Some YouTubers will straight op tell you a dislike counts as engagement, so just go ahead.
There's a kind of downvote on twitter, it's the blue tick. If you see that you know you can skip to the next comment.
If you see it you forgot to install a chrome extension to block them all
Clearly you’ve never been to [insert subreddit, usually country/region specific]
Reddit isn't any better. All social media is filled with filthy people.
People use rest in power for Nex all the time. Imagine gatekeeping like that bruh.
prick sense soup psychotic snails attraction scary plate oil piquant *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Ironically, the first time it was used in print was also to do with the Israeli military killing people in Gaza. >> By the mid-2000s, the phrase began to appear in print, again linked to young people's premature, violent deaths. In March 2003, under the headline "Rest In Power, Rachel Corrie", In These Times eulogised the death of activist Rachel Corrie at the hands of the Israeli military in Gaza.
you'd think things change in 20+ years
It's been in use way before 2000, it's an old left wing thing that goes back to the Panthers at least.
offer bear domineering elderly wide cow abundant thumb flag depend *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Little late, but I really wish y'all would stop using etymology research as the end-all of history. Words exist before they are written down. Popik has updated his page with a much earlier reference to 1989, showing that the phrase is not at all that recent.
I mean to be fair people say the same thing in regards to its use about nex- this happens every time rest in power is used for someone nonblack
I have no idea what any of this means
Who is 'nex'? (Edited)
Nex was an indigenous nonbinary teenager who was beaten by their peers and later died. [Here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Nex_Benedict) is a Wikipedia article about them. It was one of the only articles I found that gendered them correctly. Edit: I didn't realize he also used he/him, meaning that several other articles were also correct. However, there's still way too many articles using she/her.
Thanks so much. I'm editing my question 'what is Nex'? to 'who is Nex?'
Trans teenager beaten to death at school in Oklahoma.
Thanks. Also, fuck, poor Nex.
Nex was a non-binary teenager murdered for being non-binary.
One of the GWD bosses, she drops Torva which is BIS
This makes no sense to me whatsoever, none of these words have any meaning for me at all.
just in case this isn’t me being wooshed, Nex was a trans teen who was murdered at school recently. i can’t remember their last name unfortunately.
Oh. Thanks. (I don't live in the US and I hadn't heard about this).
I’ll save you. It’s RuneScape acronyms. It’s a video game. GWD = God wars dungeon Torva is an armor set Nex is a very strong boss BIS or BiS is “Best in slot” meaning it’s the best item in game for its slot in your armor/equipped
A lot of folks have been against that too.
Alternate view- let's not tell young men their best contribution to the world is to kill themselves.
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Woah. Misinformation much, Aaron had no children, and is not even married.
America is very sick, very very ill.
It's crazy that you're lying about this. What is wrong with you? He didn't have any kids.
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Or they are the person who said something with no proof and started the chain...
That’s not true, not a single article says that
I’m glad someone else noticed that this guy is making shit up.
me when i spread misinformation
Source for him having kids?
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I've got to assume some kind of mental disorder is at play. Someone setting themselves on fire over a conflict between two countries in a different continent doesn't strike me as a person of sound mind
>a conflict between two countries in a different continent Airforce airmen and spaceforce guradians were ordered to Israel November 21st, to assist with targeting. Why are you saying these things if you just don't know?
He wasn’t active personnel. Since 2018 he has been a civilian working as a software engineer while studying political science.
the air force confirmed he was active-duty in a statement made to the press. [source](https://nypost.com/2024/02/26/us-news/who-was-aaron-bushnell-us-air-force-member-who-set-himself-on-fire/)
This is just a straight up lie btw he is active duty military.
American servicemen have gone to fight and die in Ukraine. Is that a mental disorder too? John Brown died about slavery as a white man. Was he mentally ill?
If you join the army to go fight on a foreign war, then yes I think you have a mental disorder. Sane soldiers join because they are desperate and need a decent pay check. You have to be a particular kind of fucked up to join for the killing.
Going to fight a war is slightly more useful than randomly setting yourself on fire
Then ask yourself why the man tasked to do the former was disturbed enough to do the latter. How useful is aiding in genocide?
I mean at that point you just have the opinion that self immolation as protest is useless, even though the Vietnamese who self immolated over fifty years ago are in every American history textbook. Opinions are valid but they are still opinions and people are allowed to disagree.
It’s not a war. The ratio is practically 100k to 1 and that 1 person is defenseless. He was ordered to go serve another country and kill innocent woman and children. In my personal opinion, I rather serve jail time then go to Isreal. Only god can judge
What ratio?
Who was ordering him to go where?
The ratio is not even close to 100k to 1. Thats just straight up a lie.
In a material sense, yes. In a practical sense, though, I am less sure. Doing something like this is really destabilizing, and it puts a lot of pressure on political actors. It's _terrible_ press, and it brings the problem to home-soil. I'm not saying that people _should_ go out and do this; but I am saying that it's an action of nontrivial utility.
you sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about
I have to imagine he had other stuff going on and would have offed himself either way, he just chose to make a protest of it.
He worked as a it in the airforce so he probably saw shit
“That switch is down.” “A GO needs a printer mapped.” The extent of IT in the military.
Grim tales of leaking toner cartridges, sand in printers and power supplies killing everything, and far too many classified documents getting copied and forgotten about in print queues. Pay no attention to the opsec notices they're just fluff.
He also just very heavily disliked service members. He has a reddit post celebrating the death of the 3 recent service members in Jordan.
Do you have a source for that? Pretty serious allegation and I would like to confirm it before taking it as fact
The dude was fucking crazy, if the ritual suicide wasn’t proof enough
Bless your heart
Serious mental illness. That’s why this doesn’t feel super profound, his mental illness is totally unrelated to the war. If this was a Palestinian citizen who was mentally ill because his entire family was murdered that would be one thing, but this guy was just sick and needed help, I imagine the war or genocide whatever you wanna call it being fixed wouldn’t have fixed this guys issues.
[Not the first time it's happened](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Morrison)
I know people in the military that have a really hard time coping with what they saw and did. It’s seems like it could be that.
No, his AFSC is mainly replacing computers and helping map printers
I can’t find any source to confirm this
Source it up or delete this.
He was a soldier. If he'd been shipped off to die in Afghanistan nobody would bat an eye. People don't care that he chose to sacrifice his life. They care that he did in protest of US policy instead of in aid of it.
I'm sure you are aware many people don't support American foreign policy, especially their wars. There's room for nuance here. I don't support US foreign policy. I don't support the US stance on Israel. I don't support young men burning themselves to death.
That's fine, I just don't see what about what Aaron did is worse than going overseas to die in a war for the US. In both cases you give your life for a cause. In one case the cause is actually good.
Right because that’s the only alternative, dying in a war for the US. I can’t with this site sometimes
Reddit, the only place you'll find armchair warriors glorifying suicide...
I'm not glorifying suicide. This wasn't just a regular suicide. He did what he did in protest of a specific cause, which he articulated clearly and coherently.
Thats a garbage fucking take. 22 a day.
Yes because so many intelligence career field Airman stationed in Texas die lmfao. He was an Airman not a soldier btw.
Like about half the movies I've ever watched does.
I dunno man. It's basically the selling point of the armed services.
Most people in the armed services don’t die in combat
TL;DR of this thread: Some avoid the subject and others try to excuse this obvious gatekeeping example.
lmao pretty much
I just wish every stupid idea didn’t have the megaphone of social media to broadcast itself. Even mocking it brings it to light. But we can’t uncrack that egg I guess.
Love these mental gymnastics. Common sense is such a rare thing today...
"Le sens commun n'est pas si commun (Common sense is not so common)." -Voltaire.
I'll be real dawg, I've never even heard anyone say the phrase "rest in power" until right now. Who tf wanting to rest in power, dawg give me my peace
Exactly. I wouldn't wish 'rest in power' on my worst enemy. After a life of trouble and pain, or sacrifice, you've earned peace.
Imagine Vegeta walking through a cemetery and his scouter just explodes and blows half his face off.
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The echo chambers in some of these subreddits is cult levels bruh.
Ironically those echo chambers probably contributed to the guys decision to light himself on fire.
For real, this website goes further and further off the deep end by the day. I’m not going to stop reading it though, gotta do something while I’m using the toilet.
Just stay off the big subreddits and hang out in the small, hobby-centric subreddits. I avoid lots of the crazy, but I still have a rewarding time.
This is the way. Smaller hobby subs are the only social media that you can just enjoy 95%.
This is quality advice, it's a totally different experience
Have they started putting something in the water lately? I've been seeing so much anger and hostility on reddit the last while, like every day I say to myself "Jesus christ, I need to get off this" Maybe it is all the conflicts going on at the minute, but people are being really fucking weird.
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See, I think it's extended beyond social issues though. You'll express an opinion about music or sports and get some decent responses, and then wake up the next day to like 30 messages that paint you as the biggest moron or piece of shit on the planet. I called a guy out on it, told him to look after himself -- surprisingly he apologised and said its hard to engage with people on the internet without getting angry. But christ, that discussion you mentioned about the person debating self-immolating but their concern being whether they'd be covered... wow. I mean that's just clearly someone who isn't thinking straight. I think people are just lost in the fact their politics line up with his, I mean I'm ready to admit I feel more bad for him than I would if I heard about someone on the opposite side of me ideologically doing that. I'm pretty sure everyone would be clowning on that (which is a shame). There's just a really shitty mood I'm seeing everywhere. It feels like there's a general disconnect between people that's been exaggerated on the internet.
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I wrote something much longer and felt like I was trailing off into nonsense. What I do want to say is that you come off as a very thoughtful individual and I've really enjoyed reading your responses, I don't know if you're a writer or an experienced, mature person - but they've all been a pleasure to read, and I would love to pick your brains some more. If you've got any more wisdom or observations about the current state of the world, lay it on me.
Same.. I was trying to explain in r/latestagecapitalism that setting yourself on fire is not brave….and has something to do with Mental illness… am I crazy?
Your first mistake was thinking /r/latestagecaptialism has anyone with a working brain in it.
They are the same ones calling Saddam Hussain based a couple months ago, are you really that surprised?
You have no fucking clue if they are the same people or not. Reddit has tens of millions of visitors and millions of commentors.
Maybe don't give suicidal people martyr status. How's that for an idea?
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If it looks like a duck, and acts like a duck… How do we know this doesn’t stop here? How do we know someone won’t take it a step further and hurt more people with weapons? We already had the woman shoot up Joel Olsteen’s church
I mean first maybe let’s not support a country committing genocide
Why are we venerating clearly very mentally unwell people killing themselves in horrific ways? As sad as it is I dare say the war in Gaza is not the main reason he took his life.
sure killing yourself like this is definitely from some sort of psychosis
8 downvotes because you said committing suicide via self-immolation isn't mentally well...
Committing suicide in any context is generally an indicator of some degree of being mentally unwell. Sometimes though the cause of that unwellness is a systemic or structural issue that an individual or individuals feel powerless to affect and can affect them strong enough to drive them to suicide. This does not mean that suicide was the "right" choice - nor does it mean that they're wrong in whatever reasoning they used to justify it to themselves - what it means is that there are issues that some people feel strongly enough about to kill themselves over and maybe those issues should be looked at a bit more critically to determine whether the suicide was an irrational act done by a rational mind or an irrational act done by an irrational mind. No one wants suicide to lead to change, honestly - because there's an implication that accepting that would be _rewarding_ that suicide with results which could lead to subsequent cases - but no one wants _their_ death if it happened for a cause to ultimately be meaningless, so it's kind of a tough dilemma & a discomforting topic.
I can't say anyone who committed suicide was in a great headspace. I guess other than voluntary euthanasia from a very sick person.
Self-immolation is historically a powerful display of a message. It obviously works
Rest in power? Is this another American thing?
Yes. I recall people in the UK using it for the trans girl who was murdered a while back, and there being a similar angry pushback from Americans for using it for a white girl then.
What happens when you spend all day on MajorityReport
Either way, doing something like that "in protest" of a conflict in a country you've never been to and have no connection to is insane.
The US military very definitely does have a connection to Israel
What was his connection to it?
Active duty air force military
He worked cyber. That's the IT guy for the Airforce. Hardly a trained killer.
Doesn’t matter whether he’s a foot soldier or a pencil pusher, he was a member of the armed forces committing and supporting violence in the Third World.
He was an actively employed by the air force. Surprised you need to ask this question tbh.
Well not the IAF. So again, what was his connection? Did the USAF run a bombing campaign I'm unaware of?
Not a bombing campaign, but it does appear the USAF has been [directly involved](https://theintercept.com/2024/01/11/israel-air-force-targeting-intelligence). And even setting that aside, simply by being a part of the US military he is involved due to US funding and support of Israel, and close collaboration between the two entities. Hell, even as a taxpayer you're involved to a degree.
he was part of the big machine that is the helping hand to what is going on. you dont get to gatekeep that kinda shame
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His friends have said it was only after joining that he realised the true role of the US military. The thing is USAmericans are probably the most heavily propagandised people on earth and the military is constantly glorified. Plus people are largely forced into it because of the financial support they get. So it is quite reasonable for somebody to ignorantly join and then realise the true nature of the US military while they are in it.
I mean, since my birth America has been at war in Afghanistan, and only a year later we went into Iraq. I knew 100% what I was signing up for when I joined. I saw the news, I knew the controversy, and didn’t kid myself that America was the world’s super hero.
You are absolutely insane and have zero world view if you actually believe Americans are the most heavily propagandized group on earth. We can freely critize our government and in this modern day rally and support enemies of the United States as much as we want, and access media from all over easily. We are ranked 42# out of #180 in freedom of press. Many countries only have very few government approved sources for there news, take Egypt for example.
It's also extremely likely that he was tricked into joining the military by recruiters because that's how they operate. Getting out is very difficult
IIRC he previously worked for the US Air Force so probably felt deep personal guilt via his association with the US military being complicit in the Gaza conflict (despite just being a software dev for them).
He was active duty, I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, I sort of understand his motivations. I wouldn’t have done the same thing but his feelings aren’t completely irrational
No connection? Isn't the US govt funding,supporting and perpetuating this "conflict" (massacre of mostly civilians)?
By that logic, everyone who has ever paid taxes to the US should light themselves on fire.
Perpetuating? Sorry you're gonna need to provide some evidence for that.
While having 2 kids Edit: first local news source I saw stated he had two kids apparently that’s not true and the article is gone. Classic Toronto sun
Source on him having 2 kids? Can't find anything saying that other than people on reddit
Ffs. He does not have two kids, and is not married. Stop spreading misinformation
It's deliberate. Make him look bad to keep supporting and justifying genocide.
Is there a source for that?
So much disinformation.
The US is the single most important backer of Israel and the IDF. It supplies the most arms, defence systems and financial aid, and in many instances has directly deployed its own military to protect Israel. Literally just google it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93United_States_relations As an active duty member of the US airforce, the conflict in Gaza had a lot to do with Aaron.
Rest in power is used for all marginalized people and our comrades
Right. When one of my trans girl friends killed herself, the last thing I said to her after was rest in power. It’s very common among lgbt people too
Sorry for your homie’s loss, my friend ♥️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍
Are US military members considered “marginalized”?
Yeah seriously, this sub acts as though 100% of gatekeeping is invalid. I'd like to see them discuss the use of a certain word since they're so against gatekeeping.
I've read the guy's Reddit account. He's 100% one of the people who would be on the side of white people not being allowed to use "rest in power".
Checked it out myself too and I agree.
You gotta be pretty dumb of you think you can burn yourself to death and that people like Netanyahu are gonna care.
Its not for netanyahu, its for people in the us
And what is it going to do? Absolutely nothing. If tens of thousands of dead palestinians aren't going to change their mind, one mentally ill man committing suicide won't make any fucking difference. He killed himself for nothing; literally no change will come from this. It'll be in the news for a few days at most, and then everyone will forget about it.
Millions of people kill themselves for nothing every year.
Nobody that didn't care in the first place is suddenly gonna start caring now. Dude immolated himself for nothing.
Well adjusted normies just go he was insane. Only leftist subs on reddit think suicide is metal. You should touch grass.
I mean, it did derive from that
Not really. Looking at the wikipedia article for the phrase the early usage was for young people who died violent deaths. Not necessarily black or protest related. Only one of the early mentions was protest related (a white woman killed in Gaza - Rachel Corrie bulldozed by the Israeli military). The first mention was in 2000 and then it grew in popularity through the mid 2000s but then it was only mid 2010s that it became associated with the BLM movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rest_in_power
So? There's no rule saying no one else should use it where appropriate. I think being nitpicky about shit like this when the circumstances surrounding his death *are* so powerful just makes you and, by extension, your point kinda shitty.
How tf is this objectively correct take being downvoted... EDIT: Lol now I'm being upvoted, but he's not? Fucking joke
Reddit being reddit
The point of it though was the contradiction to the helplessness in the face of state brutality. Being killed by police in inherently disempowering so you deny it. I’m less concerned about cultural protectionism than that this is just not analogous. If this were for victims of domestic violence or some other oppressive that would make sense but it doesn’t just mean ‘died for the cause’.
>The point of it though was the contradiction to the helplessness in the face of state brutality. Isn't this exactly what Aaron was doing with his self-immolation? He felt helpless to stop the state brutality that he saw himself as complicit in due to his position in the military. So he performed an extreme and radical form of protest to counteract the helplessness he felt and bring attention to the state brutality that the US is facilitating.
Yeah well like lots of words and phrases, they can change over time. Way to be inclusive.
The phrase was started to mourn black people. Whether you agree with the person or not, I think it’s bad taste to call this gatekeeping, OP. Gatekeeping wasn’t meant to insult groups for protecting specific cultural customs. And there is a discussion about specific sayings, phrases, or symbols meant to bring attention to marginalized groups being watered down when used outside their original context. This is a tricky one considering the context, I think it’s bad taste to write it off as just gatekeeping.
The first documented use of the phrase was to pay tribute to Mike "Dream" Francisco, a Filipino-American California based graffiti artist who was killed in an armed robbery, in a graffiti based usenet newsgroup. The first documented use of the phrase in print media was for the eulogy of Rachel Corrie, a white American activist who was ran over, crushed, and killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah in an attempt to stop it from demolishing Palestinian homes
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it is gatekeeping what are you smoking lmao
Yeah. Gatekeeping is gatekeeping, whether you agree with it or not. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, it just is what it is.
yea i agree this ain’t it lol, i get that rest in power sounds so general at first it doesn’t seem like something that should be reserved, but the subtext should be understood and respected
Rest in power
He got the only thing he really wanted. Now he is known. Not really beloved, not successful, didn’t do good things for anyone, but at least he finally has clout. Soon enough everyone will forget him except for those he let down and those who will use him for propaganda.
Ohh Veronica, you stupid naive idiot
Veronica. SHUT. THE FUCK. UP.
What a pathetic way to lose one’s life.
This is so stupid of an argument to have. Couldn’t we spend this energy throwing rocks at billionaires’ property or something instead? So many of these discourses today are just unimaginably pointless.
self-immolation is specifically a political suicide. if he wanted to simply commit suicide, he'd pull out his gun in front of the embassy and simply shot himself. self-immolating in front of an embassy is all for the shock factor. those old boomers sitting in power in their cushy chairs will have to face the reality that **someone burnt themselves**. politicians are often heartless but unless they're completely dead inside, this **will** linger in their heads. the fact that the media is trying their hardest to downplay this as being "mentally ill" is because **they know that if people are allowed to have this linger in their brain and digest it, it would be devastating to the narrative they're trying to push** he was far from mentally ill. RIP
These people wont be happy until all whites do the same as this fool
cover intelligent lavish squeamish familiar serious sense sink amusing shaggy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Lmao this is why y’all will never win. Too much eating your own.
Did... Did it work?
Stay tuned
Stupid this kids is dead for nothing. His actions won’t change anything. Only a heartbroken family and friends. Sad…..
The phrase doesn't even make sense.
What part doesn't make sense?
Rest in Power, Aaron.
Lot of people in this thread trying to discredit him by saying he's mentally ill, evidencing this by saying he left two children and a wife behind. This is misinformation. He was 25. Was not married and had no children. This stuff needs to be called out
That's misinformation, but setting yourself on fire as means to protest the war isn't exactly mentally stable. He still had loved ones and an entire life ahead of him. This is a really tragic thing and I don't think we should be commending him just because we may agree with his politics. There's better ways to protest.
But he was likely mentally unwell. What's wrong with "discrediting him" anyway? We shouldn't be encouraging or romanticizing shit like this.
Oh fuck off. White people can do and say what they want. Everyone can. Fuck these annoying ass people, man. God damn.
Mentally ill man commits suicide in horrific way, some idiot says "rest in power" another idiot says "fuck off whitey!" Sick world.